Cody Rhodes Vs. GUNTHER Vs. Sami Zayn WWE Championship Match Set For Night Of Champions 2026

WWE

Cody Rhodes will defend the Undisputed WWE Championship against both GUNTHER and Sami Zayn at Night of Champions 2026.

At WWE Clash In Italy earlier this month, GUNTHER had a shot at Rhodes’ title, but the match ended controversially as the referee counted Rhodes’ pin on GUNTHER while GUNTHER’s foot was under the rope, meaning the count should have been broken.

Last week, GUNTHER was granted a rematch against Rhodes and was allowed to add his own stipulation – he chose a special guest referee match with Zayn as the official.

That match took place tonight, and also featured some referee-based controversy as GUNTHER powerbombed Zayn after a disagreement, taking him out for a few minutes.

A new referee had come to the ring and as it seemed that GUNTHER was about to win, Zayn pulled the new referee out of the ring and took back over himself.

Zayn then shoved GUNTHER into a pinfall by Rhodes, which Zayn fast-counted to three.

GUNTHER was of course livid about Zayn costing him the match, but so was Rhodes, who would rather have defended the WWE Title fairly rather than with Zayn’s help.

After the commercial break, the three of them and SmackDown General Manager Nick Aldis were having a big argument in Gorilla before Rhodes stormed back out to the ring and demanded the match be restarted with a fair referee.

The restarted match only went for about a minute before Zayn ran out and attacked GUNTHER so it ended in a disqualification, before he then laid Rhodes out with the WWE Title belt as well.

Later in the show, Rhodes demanded Aldis make a three-way match for Night of Champions on June 27 to settle things, which Aldis made official.

Will Sami Zayn Ever Become WWE World Champion?

Sami Zayn has once again found himself embroiled in the world title picture, this time with Cody Rhodes and GUNTHER over the Undisputed WWE Championship.

The fact Zayn has never won a world title is continually brought up, and in previous eras of WWE, that would almost guarantee him being planned to win it.

However, Triple H’s philosophy is a bit different, as he has demonstrated time and time again that he doesn’t mind teasing things even if he isn’t going to deliver them – a Vince McMahon rule that HHH has done away with.

Especially now that Zayn is a poster boy for WWE in Saudi Arabia, a big title win for him certainly can’t be ruled out, and WrestleMania 43 next year might even be the perfect setting for it.

Night of Champions is in Saudi Arabia too, so perhaps he could even win it this time around against Rhodes and GUNTHER.

However, there is certainly no absolute guarantee that it’ll happen, and even if it does, Zayn will likely be presented as the ‘secondary’ champion behind whoever has the other world title at the time.

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• wwe
• Cody Rhodes
• night of champions
• Sami Zayn
• GUNTHER

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