CM Punk and Cody Rhodes have spent the past couple months telling us all about how they’ve been such great friends for so many years but they’re going to put that aside for the sake of greatness. They both agreed — being WWE champion is more important than being friends with each other.
So they got together at tonight’s (Sat., Aug. 1, 2026) SummerSlam premium live event at U.S. Bank Stadium in Minneapolis, Minnesota, the title on the line. This just one night after they finally had a big pull apart brawl on Friday Night SmackDown. There was chatter among the rumor mongers that something could be afoot, or at least hints of something.
Sure enough, Randy Orton made his big return to WWE television, hitting the scene after a referee bump late in the match and hitting an RKO OUTTA NOWHERE to leave Rhodes laid out in the middle of the ring.
Before that, they put together a classic Triple H epic style match, with lots of selling and plenty of should be finishes. Punk sold a bad knee for much of the encounter but he had enough in him to hit the GTS when it mattered. It’s worth pointing out that Punk had rolled out of the ring, and was never actually witness to Orton running in and putting Rhodes down for him.
They made mention of as much on commentary too. We’ll see what happens with that from here. For now, though, Punk remains the WWE champion, friendship be damned.
Get complete SummerSlam results and coverage of every match on the night on card by clicking here.
