WWE Night Of Champions 2026 Preview
We’re back overseas and as has become the norm of the summer, we have the finals of the Of The Ring tournaments. The good thing is WWE has set up the men’s final as something that could lead us in a multitude of ways and that is a nice situation to have. Other than that we have the usual shenanigans around here and hopefully the card isn’t as spaced out as others. Let’s get to it.
Women’s US Title: Tiffany Stratton(c) vs. Jade Cargill
We’ll start off with a match that might be the least important on the card but also might be the most difficult to guess. Stratton and Cargill are being built up into two of the biggest stars of the current/next generation and it makes sense to see the two of them having this kind of a match. At the same time, their previous efforts against each other have been less than stellar so it should be interesting to see how well it works out.
As for a winner, I think I’ll take Stratton winning here. While Cargill making the win makes the most sense, I’m not sure what she has to do if she wins. Stratton already has issues with Charlotte and Alexa Bliss and the latter could be a good opponent for her. I’m curious about how this goes and it’s been built up better than some of their recent matches, though they don’t have a huge bar to clear.
US Title: Trick Williams(c) vs. Ricky Saints
Now here we have something that is a bit more important, but also a bit easier to guess. At the end of the day, Williams has hit the ground running like few you’ve seen in a long time. He and Lil Yachty are a great team together and I’m hoping they’re together in this way for a good while to come. I’m thinking you get where this is going and that’s not a bad thing here.
Of course I’m taking Williams to retain the title, as there is pretty much no reason to think that Saints is going to win the title here. If nothing else, Saints is going to be a nice victory for Williams and I could go for seeing them have a good match on the way to Williams retaining. Williams is likely to be a big deal sooner or later and a win over Saints is a good step forward.
Bron Breakker vs. Seth Rollins
It says a lot when a cage match feels kind of unimportant but I can barely remember anything about this match coming in. It feels like this feud should have wrapped up months ago and they’re just doing this match to give both of them something to do. If nothing else, Rollins’ quest to take out the Vision has been replaced by a bunch of people trying to take out the Bloodline. That doesn’t leave much here and I’m not exactly interested in seeing the match.
I’ll take Rollins to win here, even though Breakker needs the win more. Rollins can win and in theory get rid out of this WAY too long feud with the Vision. Odds are there will be a good deal of interference but I’m not sure how much it’s going to help. This is a really lacking feud and I don’t really see this match, with Rollins winning, making it that much better.
Smackdown World Title: Cody Rhodes(c) vs. Sami Zayn vs. Gunther
Now this has my attention as I have gone from “it’s another Rhodes title defense” to having no idea who is leaving with the title. Rhodes felt like the undisputed obvious winner here but for once, adding a third star makes it a lot better. Zayn is someone who feels like he absolutely has to win the title at some point and it would be great to see it happen here. Or anywhere as I really want to see it happen one way or another.
That being said, I’ll play it safe and go with Rhodes retaining. Rhodes already has a bunch of options available for Summerslam, with Jey Uso, Oba Femi and potentially Gunther or Zayn waiting on him. That’s more than enough to see him leaving with the title, even if Zayn winning would be a feel good moment in Saudi Arabia. That also leaves Gunther as a legitimate threat to steal the title and I could see it happening as well. I’ll take Rhodes though, as WWE likes him on top at the biggest shows, such as Summerslam.
Queen Of The Ring Finals: Liv Morgan vs. Iyo Sky
I have lost any and all concept of how this tournament is supposed to go, as it’s two Raw stars fighting for a shot at, I’m assuming, the Smackdown Women’s Title. That is of course assuming the Smackdown Women’s Champion is healthy enough to wrestle at Summerslam. Or does Morgan get to take Summerslam off if she wins the whole thing here? Maybe clarify this stuff a bit better?
All that being said, I’m thinking that they clear out a lot of the issues by having Sky win. This means she can either have another chance against Morgan at Summerslam (I hope not) or face her former partner/friend/longtime rival Rhea Ripley for the title instead. That match has felt like the big endgame for everything since Ripley won the title, even if she has done absolutely nothing with it since. Sky wins here, if nothing else for the sake of clearing up the confusion.
King Of The Ring Finals: Oba Femi vs. Jey Uso
We’ll wrap it up with a match that really could go either way. There are multiple options here, with Femi smashing through Uso, Uso escaping with a win, or Roman Reigns getting involved to help his cousin win and avoid facing Femi in the process. The impressive thing is any of them feel like a legitimate option and I’m probably forgetting a few others. You don’t get that very often and this could be rather good.
The question here is basically does WWE go with the Bloodline or pull the trigger on Femi and put him in the big spot. I’m thinking they’ll go with the former, possibly thanks to a certain Brock Lesnar shaped roadblock. I wouldn’t go in that direction, but I think WWE is going to go that way, with the Bloodline getting even more of the focus on the shows, even if it stopped being that interesting a good while ago. Uso wins here, even if Femi feels like the better choice.
Overall Thoughts
This is the first of four shows on a Wrestlemania size weekend and as is usual with the Saudi shows, it’s taking place in the early afternoon on the east coast. Yes it’s kind of annoying, but it’s also getting the biggest show of the weekend out of the way first. That could set the bar either high or low and we get to see where things go from there. This show has some potential though, especially if it winds up mainly being a wrestling based show, which tends to be where WWE does its best work.
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