TJRWrestling WWE Night of Champions 2025 Preview
It’s WWE Night of Champions featuring John Cena facing CM Punk, plus the King and Queen of the Ring Finals, and more.
The Night of Champions name is back after not using it last year. The Saudi show in May last year was called King and Queen of the Ring. This year, they have incorporated the King and Queen of the Ring tournaments inside the Night of Champions PLE. It’s the only WWE show in Saudi Arabia this year. There’s an early start time at 1 p.m. ET for me, so I’ll be writing about this live on Saturday afternoon.
They have six matches on this show, but only two of them are championship matches on a show called Night of Champions. All six matches are singles matches also, so if you like tag team wrestling, then this isn’t the show for you. If it were me, I’d put a tag team match on there too. I like that the Rhea Ripley-Raquel Rodriguez match is a Street Fight because at least that will feel different from everything else.
I have enjoyed the King and Queen of the Ring tournament matches so far. I’m looking forward to the conclusion of those tournaments, and also the John Cena-CM Punk main event that is rekindling an old rivalry. Let’s get into it.
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Sami Zayn vs. Karrion Kross
I’m happy for Karrion Kross getting a PLE match since he rarely gets to wrestle on television, which I don’t agree with. There have been reports that Karrion’s contract is up soon, and I have no idea if he wants to stay, but I hope he stays and gets consistent screen time. The reality is you can’t push everybody. I get that. I just think character-wise, Kross is interesting as a heel who plays mind games with other wrestlers. We have seen it with him and Zayn, where Kross has told Zayn that being a good guy isn’t going to work for Zayn, but Zayn tries to fight back against that.
We know the fans are going to love Zayn since he has had huge ovations in Saudi Arabia in the past because he can speak to the fans, and they love him for it. This feels like a story where they could get two or three matches out of it, so I’m going to go with Zayn winning here, but I see Kross winning when they have another match down the road.
Winner: Sami Zayn
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Street Fight: Rhea Ripley vs. Raquel Rodriguez
This should be a very good match between two women who had some excellent matches in NXT that I remember well from a few years ago. I thought it was one of the better NXT women rivalries during that period. At that time, it was Ripley putting over Raquel because Ripley was going to the main roster while Raquel was getting the big push in NXT. I think the chemistry will still be there, and they will come up with some creative spots to put on an entertaining match.
It may seem like a mistake to pick against Rhea Ripley in a PLE match, but we know the story is that Liv Morgan is legitimately out with a shoulder injury. That makes me think Roxanne Perez could show up when Raquel needs her the most and help Raquel get the win. That will set up Perez to become Raquel’s new Women’s Tag Team Championship partner. With that said, maybe they save it for another time because I have another match with a cheap finish, so I don’t think WWE wants to be too repetitive. I think it’s the right thing to have Ripley win here.
Winner: Rhea Ripley
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United States Championship: Jacob Fatu vs. Solo Sikoa
The alliance between Fatu and Sikoa (whose real last name is Fatu) has ended after nearly a year of working together. Fatu no longer loves cousin Sikoa and instead, he hates him. Solo hasn’t won that many matches in the last few months to earn a title match, but the story is there for them. I know that Fatu has only held the title for two months since WrestleMania. However, I’m going with Solo winning because of the debuting Hikuleo making a difference to help Solo get the win and the title. They could have Hikuleo debut at another time and not cost Fatu the title, but I think having Hikuleo debut to have Solo win the title makes sense. If it doesn’t happen here, then I can see it happening at a show within the next month, or perhaps SummerSlam.
Winner AND NEW United States Champion: Solo Sikoa
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Queen of the Ring Finals: Jade Cargill vs. Asuka
When this tournament started, I felt like Jade Cargill made the most sense as the winner. That prediction made even more sense to me when Naomi won the Women’s Money in the Bank briefcase. What I think will happen is that Jade will win this tournament, she’ll beat Tiffany Stratton for the WWE Women’s Title and Naomi will cash in Money in the Bank at SummerSlam on Jade to leave with the WWE Women’s Title. That will mean a return to the Naomi-Jade feud that was hot earlier this year.
I like Asuka a lot and I’m happy she is back, but I think WWE has high hopes for Jade and they want to anoint her with the Queen of the Ring crown. Hopefully it’s a good match, although I am concerned a bit about a clash of styles, so we’ll see how it goes.
Winner: Jade Cargill
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King of the Ring Finals: Cody Rhodes vs. Randy Orton
I think this should be an outstanding match that has been highly anticipated since Cody came back to WWE three years ago. There’s a lot of history there with Orton mentoring Cody about 15 years ago as part of the Legacy group and we know they are still good friends. This matchup is between a former WWE Champion Rhodes and a former 14-time WWE World Champion Orton with the King of the Ring title on the line. I know some fans don’t like having two former top guys in the King of the Ring finals because they think it should be more for an ascending star who has never been WWE Champion before, but I certainly don’t mind this. I’m a fan of Cody and Randy, and I think they’ll deliver a terrific match.
My pick is Cody to win because I think WWE wants to match him up against John Cena at SummerSlam. It’s possible that others could be in the match, like CM Punk and/or Seth Rollins, but I think Cody being against Cena at SummerSlam makes a lot of sense. That’s nothing against Orton, who certainly deserves another shot at Cena, but I think Cody winning is more likely. This should be one of the best matches on this show.
Winner: Cody Rhodes
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Undisputed WWE Championship: John Cena vs. CM Punk
The main event is a big match between the WWE Champion John Cena and perhaps his greatest rival, CM Punk. If you read my reviews regularly, then you know I took issue with the build to this match because Punk hasn’t won any of his last five televised matches, so he’s getting a title shot just based on his history with Cena. I don’t like that. I think it’s lazy booking that Triple H and his creative team should know better. This is a Vince McMahon-style lazy booking move. You need to give people wins and positive momentum before title matches. If you knew that this match would beat Night of Champions, then Punk should have won at Backlash or Money in the Bank, or a big match at Raw. Instead, Punk comes into this match with no momentum, but we are supposed to believe he’s a threat based on his history with Cena. Let’s see some creative team effort to have somebody win matches to earn a title shot. Once again, it’s not that hard to book. Just do it the right way.
I expect it to be a pretty good match with a ref bump or two and Cena cheating to win just like Cena did against Rhodes, Orton, and R-Truth. It is all part of the story involving Cena wanting to “ruin wrestling” by doing things that the fans hate, including cheating to win matches. It wouldn’t shock me if it was a controversial finish that led to Punk getting another title shot, perhaps at SummerSlam in a three-way with Rhodes. They obviously have a lot of ways that they can go with these Cena matches. I think the end result is another controversial Cena win. I doubt this is as good as their five-star Money in the Bank 2011 or Raw 2013 matches because Cena has slowed down, but it should be entertaining.
Winner: John Cena
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BONUS TOPICS FOR WWE NIGHT OF CHAMPIONS!
The Match I’m Looking Forward To The Most
Cody Rhodes vs. Randy Orton.
The Match I Care About The Least
Jacob Fatu vs. Solo Sikoa. My reasoning is that I don’t find Solo that interesting, but I like Jacob a lot.
Longest Match
I think Cody Rhodes-Randy Orton will be the longest at around 20 minutes.
Shortest Match
Sami Zayn-Karrion Kross getting around 11 minutes.
Excitement Level on a Scale of 1-10 (1 being low, 10 being high)
I’m at 7.5 out of 10 for this show. I think the card is stronger than what Money in the Bank and Backlash were “on paper” so kudos to WWE for actually building stories going into this show. With that said, there is repetitiveness with every match being a singles match. At least the Ripley-Rodriguez match will be a Street Fight, which does allow for some creativity.
I’ll be back with a review of WWE Night of Champions on TJRWrestling.net on Saturday, so check that out live or after the show. You can also tweet me on X/Twitter at @johnreport as well.
If you want to send an email, send it to me at [email protected]. Thanks for reading.