CM Punk beat Cody Rhodes on Night 1 of SummerSlam 2026 on Saturday to retain the Undisputed WWE Championship thanks in part to Randy Orton, who made his first appearance on WWE programming since WrestleMania 42 in April and hit Rhodes with an RKO. A few moments later, Orton rushed the ring and hit Rhodes, who was already exhausted from long and grueling match against Punk, with an RKO. Punk took care of the rest from there and hit Rhodes with a GTS. On the following episode of SmackDown, Punk was interrupted by Rhodes, and Aldis quickly made the decision to book them against each other in a title match at SummerSlam. Punk and Rhodes were able to remain on the same page long enough to beat Gunther and Zayn, and keep them out of the SummerSlam title match.