CM Punk and Cody Rhodes made their WWE Championship match at SummerSlam 2026 official during “WWE SmackDown.”
Punk won the title from Sami Zayn on Monday, just nine days after he beat Rhodes and Gunther at Night of Champions to become champion, taking Rhodes’ place in his “WWE Raw” rematch after he was attacked by Gunther to rule him out.
On “SmackDown,” he came out to celebrate his title win, going on to list a number of stars including Royce Keys, Trick Williams, and Damian Priest as potential challengers for his championship. Before he could conclude the list, Rhodes interrupted and mooted the idea of theirs being a dream championship match built to over the years.
Punk then agreed, though he saw their match happening in the main event of WrestleMania, and said they couldn’t keep running from it. Rhodes then made the official challenge, with Punk accepting while General Manager Nick Aldis watched on, going on to make the match official for SummerSlam.
Their WWE Championship match will be the first contested between them for the title and at a major event, with their only two singles contests taking place on “Raw” in 2008. Punk won their maiden contest and Rhodes scored a count-out win in their second and most recent.
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