Report: CM Punk Vs. Cody Rhodes Still Planned For WWE SummerSlam 2026

CM Punk is now a three-time WWE Champion following the July 6 edition of Monday Night Raw from his hometown of Chicago, Illinois.

The originally announced match for Raw was Sami Zayn defending the WWE Championship against Cody Rhodes, but a heated backstage confrontation between champion and challenger ended with Gunther attacking Cody, during which he powerbombed him through a table and kicked Rhodes' head into a car door.

This resulted in Cody being declared unfit to compete and CM Punk was revealed to be Rhodes' replacement for the match as the 47-year-old made his first WWE appearance since the Raw after WrestleMania 42. After 20 minutes, Punk went on to win the match following his own version of Zayn's helluva kick, followed by a GTS. Punk then celebrated with the Undisputed WWE Championship as Raw went off the air.

Following Raw, WRKD Wrestling reported that CM Punk vs. Cody Rhodes is planned for SummerSlam, with the pay-per-view set to take place on Saturday, August 1 and Sunday, August 2 at US Bank Stadium in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Recent reports had noted that Rhodes vs. Punk had long been planned as one of the main events of SummerSlam, but it was unknown if that was still the plan after Sami Zayn won the WWE Title at Night of Champions.

CM Punk vs. Cody Rhodes has long been teased in WWE, and the match was all but set up on the Raw after WrestleMania 42. Punk was pulled from WWE programming after that show, however, after WWE's short-term plans for the main event scenes on Raw and SmackDown changed, while it was also noted that Punk and WWE had minor issues dating back to Punk's World Heavyweight Title loss at WrestleMania 42.