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Real Reason Why Cody Rhodes Lost The Undisputed WWE Title At Night Of Champions

By Kaushik Das • Published Jun 29, 2026 08:41 EDT
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Cody Rhodes - Image Source: WWE.com

Cody Rhodes suffered a setback at WWE Night of Champions.

The American Nightmare put his title on the line against Gunther and Sami Zayn in a triple threat match at the recently concluded premium live event. All three men came close to winning the gold at different stages of the bout.

In the closing moments, Cody Rhodes dropped Gunther and Sami Zayn with a double Cross Rhodes. He tried to hit another Cross Rhodes on Zayn, but the latter countered with a roll-up for the three-count.

This marks Sami Zayn’s first run as a world champion in WWE. According to WrestleVotes, “a lot of people” backstage have wanted Zayn to win the world title for a long time. It could be the reason why the Stamford-based promotion decided to end Cody Rhodes’ reign at Night of Champions.

Sami Zayn wins the title. Good for him. It’s something a lot of people backstage have wanted to see happen for a long time.

Big claim about Sami Zayn’s WWE future

During a recent edition of the Wrestling Observer Radio, Dave Meltzer stated that WWE likely doesn’t have any long-term plans for Sami Zayn despite his world championship glory.

The wrestling veteran compared Zayn’s situation to that of Darby Allin, who had a brief run with the AEW World Title earlier this year.

The main event was a good match, real good. And, you know, the championship change was a surprise. I mean, it just depends on, you know, I mean, I don’t think that he’s the guy in their plans. It is very similar to Darby Allin in the sense that it’s something that at some point they were going to do. The Darby Allin thing turned out to be a pretty big success the way it was done, and this could be too. You know, I mean, it depends on what the story is.

I don’t see a long reign, but I would hope it’s longer than SummerSlam. You know, I mean, long enough to where it’s not like one of those things where it’s like, well, we finally gave it to him, but we didn’t mean it, you know.

It will be interesting to see what the future holds for Sami Zayn in WWE. Could Cody Rhodes demand a rematch soon? Only time will tell.

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