With CM Punk making his WWE return on Monday night, defeating Sami Zayn to become the new WWE Champion in the process, there’s now a little more information on this return and when it was mapped out.
Per False Finish, it was decided over a month ago that Punk would win the WWE Championship and head into SummerSlam as the defending champion, where he’s expected to put that gold on the line against Cody Rhodes. This report also notes that it was originally set to be Punk vs. Rhodes at WrestleMania 43 in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, but WWE is now looking to make SummerSlam 2026 “better” than WrestleMania 42 was earlier this year.
If WWE does take the expected path of Cody Rhodes challenging for CM Punk’s WWE Championship at SummerSlam, that’s certainly one way to add some extra oomph to the company’s patented Biggest Party of the Summer. While the two exchanged some mildly heated words on the Raw after WrestleMania 42, not to mention had a great back-and-forth as the final two of the 2024 men’s Royal Rumble, they’ve yet to lock horns in a singles match since returning to WWE for their respective second runs.
To go back to the last time Rhodes and Punk wrestled prior to that Royal Rumble face-off – Cody winning that Rumble match – it was a 2013 live event where CM Punk teamed with Chris Jericho to face Cody Rhodes and Damien Sandow. For a singles match, you have to go all the way back to a 2008 episode of Raw, where the Second City Saint picked up a win over the future American Nightmare.
As for SummerSlam, while that CM Punk and Cody Rhodes match has yet to be made official, already announced for the two-day event over the weekend of August 1st and 2nd are Roman Reigns defending the World Heavyweight Championship against Seth Rollins, IYO SKY attempting to dethrone Liv Morgan as the Women’s World Champion, Penta putting his Intercontinental Championship up against the winner of an upcoming gauntlet match, and Oba Femi and Brock Lesnar going to war in Hell in a Cell.
