Big Change To CM Punk Vs. Cody Rhodes WWE Championship Match At SummerSlam 2026

WWE

There could be a major change to the WWE Championship match between CM Punk and Cody Rhodes at SummerSlam 2026.

Punk and Rhodes made their match official for SummerSlam last week on SmackDown, just a few days after Punk won the title from Sami Zayn, ending Zayn’s nine day title reign in the process.

Both Zayn and GUNTHER haven’t been happy that they’ve been left out of the equation at SummerSlam after their involvement in the title picture over the past number of weeks.

GUNTHER ended up attacking WWE SmackDown General Manager Nick Aldis out of frustration, after Aldis had made a tag team match for Saturday Night’s Main Event on July 18 – Punk and Rhodes teaming up against Zayn and GUNTHER.

However, on tonight’s SmackDown 24 hours out from SNME, a big stipulation was added to that tag match.

Adam Pearce, now in the spot of Acting General Manager for SmackDown in Aldis’ absence, announced that if GUNTHER and Zayn win the tag match, they’ll be added to the SummerSlam WWE Title match to make it a four-way.

Instead of Punk vs Rhodes, it would be Punk vs Rhodes vs GUNTHER vs Zayn.

It’s been widely known that a big singles match between Punk and Rhodes has been a goal of WWE’s for some time, and was the original plan for WrestleMania 42 this past April, along with Roman Reigns vs Seth Rollins.

The Reigns vs Rollins match is now taking place at SummerSlam, so it looked as though WWE had just shifted its main event plans a few months back.

Storyline-wise, it would certainly make plenty of sense to see GUNTHER and Zayn added to the match at SummerSlam, but it could take away from the headline of a Punk vs Rhodes main event.

There have been many signs pointing to GUNTHER vs Aldis taking place at SummerSlam, which would mean GUNTHER and Zayn losing at SNME, and leaves the question of whether Zayn would have a spot on the SummerSlam card or be left out completely.

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• wwe
• cm punk
• SummerSlam
• Cody Rhodes
• Sami Zayn
• GUNTHER

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