CM Punk offers Cody Rhodes anytime rematch after house show victory

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Coming out of SummerSlam, CM Punk told the world he had nothing to do Randy Orton’s attack on Cody Rhodes during Night One’s main event. The attack ultimately allowed Punk to retain the Undisputed WWE title, but perhaps at the cost of his friendship with Rhodes. That seemed fractured leading into Minnesota last weekend, and seeing as their beef escalated over things like accidental elbows, it seemed unlikely Cody would believe Punk wasn’t in cahoots with Orton. But that was before Punk offered him an anytime, anywhere rematch. He did so after their tag team victory over Gunther and Ricky Starks last night (Aug. 7) in Fairfax, Virginia. “Now, Cody, over the past couple of weeks, the road to SummerSlam has been a lot of ‘He said, she said’, accidents, on-purposes, a lot of talk about friendship. To me, you’re not the champ until you beat the champ. You’re somebody who has been the face of this company for over four years. You’ve done everything. You’ve said yes to everything, these people love you, and I love you. The way that SummerSlam went down, the way I won, it’s dirty. I don’t like it. “Now, I know that there’s a ton of guys in the back that want a shot at the champion. There are number one contenders, there are superstars who deserve a shot based on the currency they have with the audience, but you my friend, you get a rematch any time you want.” HEALED #CODYPUNKFOREVER #WWEFairfax pic.twitter.com/KFc8TKgZax — victoria (@victoriaaze_) August 7, 2026 It was a house show. Those aren’t always canon, and WWE isn’t promoting it. We should know soon enough given the rematch offer, though. And if so, after an intriguing start that had many of us hoping one of the two would become a traditional heel… both men can remain baby, at least to the portion of the audience that cheers them. Rhodes is set for Orton, we imagine. The cheer/jeer line there is clear. Punk is getting Kevin Owens, and… that should be interesting. In the comments below, give us your thoughts on how Cody Rhodes and CM Punk’s SummerSlam feud wrapped up, what’s next for both, and pro wrestling continuing to integrate more not-face-or-heel-type characters. Or share a longer take in The Feed!

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Cody Rhodes lost his WWE championship match against CM Punk at SummerSlam this past weekend thanks to Randy Orton making his returning, running into the match, and hitting his old friend with an RKO. It was no surprise, then, that Rhodes showed up to Philadelphia for Friday Night SmackDown this week full of piss and vinegar and looking for The Viper so he could square up and figure things out. Why wait?! @CodyRhodes wants a fight with @RandyOrton right now! 👊 pic.twitter.com/7hhw809nXN — WWE (@WWE) August 8, 2026 Before Orton could get involved again, though, Rhodes ended up confronted by the current WWE Champion, and he had a question for him — “did you know?” Punk claimed he didn’t know Orton was there, didn’t know he hit the drive by RKO, and he’s actually pissed about it too! So why don’t they team up and beat the hell out of Randy together?!? Rhodes did not accept the invitation. Instead, he welcomed Punk to deal with his own business and went back to find Orton himself. Before he could get out, Punk did say they have unfinished business once more, and they can get back to it whenever Rhodes wants. What was clear, though, is they both have other business to tend to now. Punk is off to settle up an old score (shots fired already!) while Rhodes has his own personal matters to attend to. Here we go. Get complete SmackDown results and coverage of this week’s entire episode by clicking here.