The 1988 SummerSlam was the inaugural SummerSlam professional wrestling pay-per-view (PPV) event produced by the World Wrestling Federation (WWF, now WWE). It took place on August 29, 1988, at Madison Square Garden in New York City, New York. The pay-per-view was created to help the company compete against rival promotion Jim Crockett Promotions. It was one of the first four annual pay-per-view events produced by the WWF, along with WrestleMania, the Royal Rumble, and Survivor Series, which were eventually dubbed the "big four".

The event consisted of 10 professional wrestling matches. The preliminary matches included a title defense by Intercontinental Champion The Honky Tonk Man against a surprise challenger, revealed to be The Ultimate Warrior. The Ultimate Warrior won the match in just 31 seconds to end Honky Tonk's 14-month title reign, at the time the longest Intercontinental Championship reign in history. The main event was a match pitting The Mega Powers (Hulk Hogan and Randy Savage) against their long-time rivals, The Mega Bucks (Ted DiBiase and André the Giant). Hogan and Savage won the match after Miss Elizabeth, Savage's manager, distracted André and DiBiase, by removing her skirt to reveal her panties.