CM Punk and Cody Rhodes brawl on SmackDown ahead of SummerSlam

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“Is it great to be alive on a Friday night in Green Bay?“ “Green Bay, what do you wanna talk about?” CM Punk and Cody Rhodes can’t help themselves, and they rushed right into working the gimmick on this week’s episode of Friday Night SmackDown as the final segment of WWE television before SummerSlam this weekend in Minneapolis, Minnesota. They sent us off by telling us more of the same story they have been. They are friends. They have been for some time. They are also great wrestlers, who want to test each other against the great wrestlers of their time. That means fighting each other. They’ll do that at SummerSlam. But also maybe they could do it here too? Both admitted a willingness to wave goodbye to the friendship in the name of glory. The title means more than all that. They’ve taken a while to get here but we’ve finally hit the breaking point, and instead of actually waiting for the match to throw hands, they just said to hell with it and let the fists fly. So much for friends… 😲@CodyRhodes and @CMPunk are BEATING THE HELL out of each other! pic.twitter.com/lnNh36wF6w — WWE (@WWE) August 1, 2026 We never saw either man truly get the better of the other before WWE personnel showed up to pull them apart. They failed at doing so multiple times, just enough to really get across how eager these two are to settle this. Are you as ready as they are?