Cody Rhodes took one step closer to regaining the crown he lost at WrestleMania 40 by gaining another crown as the 2025 King of the Ring, defeating Randy Orton in the opener of Night of Champions. 

It was a bout fought aggressively between the friends, with both using their finishers to no avail and Orton torn about delivering the Punt Kick to put Rhodes away. He did eventually go for the move, but the moment of hesitation ensured that Rhodes could have the move scouted, and Orton would eventually resort to contorting the rule book in his pursuit of victory. He went for a chair, had that ripped from him by the referee before removing the top turnbuckle pad off, only to then be driven into the exposed steel by Rhodes so he could win the match and the King of the Ring. Falling on his own sword, as the proverb would tell. 

In defeat, and despite Rhodes extending his respect to Orton as a mentor and a friend in his post-match speech, Orton stared back at the scene with a look of rage and regret – a regret that he had put friendship over the World title shot. For a moment, he looked as though he would return to the ring, but eventually took his leave as Rhodes declared he would be facing either John Cena or CM Punk for the WWE Championship at SummerSlam. That surely indicates that Rhodes will be getting his WrestleMania rematch against Cena – who won in the main event – at the August event, but leaves questions over what can happen between now and then. Orton will surely have something to say, or do, about the loss and once again having to play second fiddle to the “American Nightmare,” and it will be interesting to see how he handles seeing him in the spot he will feel belongs to him.

Written by Max Everett

Saturday, John Cena defended his title against CM Punk in the main event of WWE’s first Saudi Arabia-based event of the year, and by the time the night ended in Riyadh, five superstars other than Cena and Punk had arrived to take the show by storm. While some may say the main event was overbooked nonsense, the amount of people involved makes this main event ending a goldmine for speculation and prospective booking. After Night of Champions’ chaotic main event, the question isn’t where we go from here — it is where can’t we go from here.

While Cena’s previous title defenses may have been givens — there was no way WWE was going to take the gold off of Cena’s retirement tour in its earliest stages — Cena is heading into his first premium live event where his title retention is up in the air. Cody Rhodes took home the King of the Ring title and its associated SummerSlam title shot privilege to open Night of Champions, and while Rhodes wasn’t present for the main event’s whirlwind of Superstar appearances, his presence will become undeniable as the days count down towards SummerSlam’s early August dates. Cena is not due for another appearance until the July 18 episode of “WWE SmackDown,” which is the “SmackDown” after the upcoming July 12 edition of Saturday Night’s Main Event, so there are not many opportunities to run Cena and Rhodes’ story before SummerSlam.

Now that he is out of title contention until after SummerSlam at the very least, Punk may just be on a collision course to feud with Rollins once again. Whether this rivalry will borrow inspiration from their previous feud is possible, it is more likely that, with “The Vision” by his side in Breakker and Reed, Punk and Rollins’ feud will be a numbers game. Perhaps with Paul Heyman now firmly on Rollins’ side, the original “Paul Heyman guy” will attempt to sew discord within The Vision’s top brass. Of course, all of this has to also account for Rollins’ possession of the Money in the Bank briefcase, which may be cashed in for either Cena’s WWE Championship or GUNTHER’s WWE World Heavyweight Championship at any time.

As for Penta and Zayn, they are most likely there to even the score between The Vision and Punk. Penta and Zayn’s interference in the Night of Champions main event could be setting up for a possible multi-person tag match at Saturday Night’s Main Event or SummerSlam — they could possibly be building towards a WarGames team, but that November event feels too in the future to begin planning for now. While Penta is a relatively stable teammate, Zayn’s altercations with Karrion Kross impact the stability of Punk’s ragtag team, as Kross inspired Zayn to show more frustration and aggression during their own Night of Champions match.

Six men are preparing for war on “WWE Raw” as Cena continues to chug along his retirement tour. There has never been a time to tune in WWE like right now.

Written by Angeline Phu