CM Punk beat Cody Rhodes on Night 1 of SummerSlam 2026 on Saturday to retain the WWE Championship thanks in part to Randy Orton, who made his first appearance on WWE programming since WrestleMania 42 in April and hit Rhodes with an RKO.
Shortly thereafter, Punk hit Rhodes with a GTS for the win.
On the July 6 episode of Raw, Punk made a surprise return to WWE programming in his hometown of Chicago and successfully challenged Sami Zayn for the WWE Championship.
Zayn was originally supposed to defend the title against Rhodes after winning it from him at Night of Champions, but an injury rendered The American Nightmare unable to compete that night.
Rhodes was taken out backstage by Gunther at the start of the show, and SmackDown general manager Nick Aldis stepped in to enlist Punk as Cody’s replacement.
On the following episode of SmackDown, Punk was interrupted by Rhodes, and Aldis quickly made the decision to book them against each other in a title match at SummerSlam.
The bout was a longtime coming, as Punk and Rhodes had an interaction on the Raw after WrestleMania 42 back in April, which seemed to foreshadow an eventual program between them.
Punk remained off WWE TV for nearly three months after that, but upon re-emerging, he quickly became a world champion once again, and that instantly put him in Rhodes’ crosshairs.
Before their title match, they were temporarily tasked with co-existing, as they joined forces in a tag team match against Gunther and Zayn at Saturday Night’s Main Event on July 18.
Punk and Rhodes were able to remain on the same page long enough to beat Gunther and Zayn, and keep them out of the SummerSlam title match.
Things got heated between Punk and Rhodes in the weeks that followed, though, and they brawled with each other on the go-home episode of SmackDown before SummerSlam.
At SummerSlam, they aimed to settle the score, and Punk prevailed to keep his WWE Championship reign going about one month after winning it.
