WWE has already announced a loaded card for this weekend’s Saturday Night’s Main Event, but one question was still hanging over the show: which match would headline the night? Michael Cole has now answered it.
Speaking on The Sal Licata Show, Cole confirmed that the final match of the evening will see WWE Champion CM Punk and Cody Rhodes reluctantly join forces to take on Gunther and former WWE Champion Sami Zayn.
“The main event on Saturday will be a tag team match with CM Punk, the WWE Champion, teaming with Cody Rhodes—the guy he meets at SummerSlam for the title—against Gunther and Sami Zayn.”
On paper, it’s an unusual partnership. Punk and Rhodes know they’ll be standing across from each other at SummerSlam with the WWE Championship on the line, yet before they get there, they have to survive one night as teammates. Standing opposite them are two men who believe they never should’ve been pushed out of the title picture in the first place.
Cole explained that Sami still hasn’t gotten over losing the WWE Championship just nine days into his reign, while Gunther remains convinced he was robbed of another opportunity to challenge for the gold.
“You’ve got CM Punk, who is the WWE Champion… Punk won the championship from Sami Zayn. Now Punk is going to team up with Cody Rhodes, who he faces at SummerSlam in a couple of weeks. On the other side you’ve got Sami Zayn, who’s obviously upset over the fact that CM Punk took his championship from him and believes he should have a rematch.”
Gunther, meanwhile, isn’t exactly entering Saturday night’s match in a forgiving mood. Cole pointed out that The Ring General still believes he was on the wrong end of the Triple Threat that determined Punk’s next challenger. His frustration boiled over last week when he attacked WWE’s General Manager after learning he’d been placed into this tag match instead of receiving another crack at the championship.
“And then there’s Gunther, the Ring General, who I’ve said on this show before, pound-for-pound, is the greatest professional wrestler on the planet today. Gunther believes he got screwed in the triple-threat match between Cody, Sami and himself. He believes he hasn’t gotten a fair opportunity to rematch. Now our General Manager has put him into this tag team match. He was so upset over that he attacked the General Manager last week and put him in a sleeper hold. So this is a really intriguing match come Saturday night.”
The rest of Saturday Night’s Main Event is stacked as well. Paige and Brie Bella will defend the WWE Women’s Tag Team Championships against Fatal Influence, Bayley will face Lyra Valkyria in a grudge match, and Danhausen will battle JD McDonagh in a No Disqualification Match.
With four of WWE’s biggest names colliding just weeks before SummerSlam, the outcome could shift the momentum heading into one of the company’s biggest events of the year. Punk and Rhodes have to figure out how to coexist, while Gunther and Sami have one last chance to prove they still belong at the front of the WWE Championship line.
Who leaves Saturday Night’s Main Event with the biggest momentum heading into SummerSlam—CM Punk, Cody Rhodes, Gunther or Sami Zayn? Let us know your predictions in the comments below.
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