10 Fascinating WWE SummerSlam 2001 Facts

10. WWE Was Having A Major Fight With DirecTV Regarding Revenue

During the telecast, Jim Ross noted that SummerSlam 2001 was the last WWE pay-per-view that would be available on American broadcast service DirecTV. Given the widespread customer base that DirecTV had, this meant that a lot of WWE fans were potentially going to be shut out of future pay-per-views. The issue stemmed from contract negotiations between WWE and DirecTV in the summer of 2001, with the big hang-up being how to split revenue.

WWE hates having to deal with middlemen (hence the latter-day, "Why spend $55 like a dumbass when you can watch on WWE Network for $9.99!" spiel), and certainly wanted a bigger cut than what DirecTV was offering. The weekend of SummerSlam, some DirecTV subscribers received a recorded phone call from Steve Austin, imploring them to order SummerSlam, a tactic designed to show the provider just how strong WWE's fanbase was.

DirecTV did end up airing Unforgiven in September, but the issues started up again the following month, when WWE announced that No Mercy would not be available on the service. Eventually, things did work themselves out, and WWE pay-per-views are available on DirecTV to this day.