WWE Night of Champions 2026: Preview and Predictions

This weekend’s WWE Night of Champions is loaded with coronations and championships with five of the six matches on the card featuring a title on the line or future title shots for the winners of the king and queen of the ring. The only other match on the card to not feature some sort of championship stakes is the longstanding blood feud between Bron Breakker and Seth Rollins, and they will be showcased in a steel cage match.

So, without any further adieu, let’s jump into things. The old predictions tally is sitting pretty at 36.5/50 , or a record 36.5-13. I’ve had a bit of a good run here, but this one is a little weird to predict so we’ll see how this shapes up.

King of the Ring Finals – Oba Femi vs. Jey Uso

Is there anyone out there who doesn’t believe Brock Lesnar is interfering here? Oba Femi is a juggernaut who should not be losing to Jey Uso cleanly. The only way Femi wins here is if he’s planned to go on and crush the WWE champion at SummerSlam, and then right after the match Brock appears to challenge for the title either right then and there, or the next night. That just seems far too convoluted for what we’re dealing with. I’m not sure how excited we should be for a potential Cody vs. Jey Uso match, but that might be what the angle is. Uso winning is the more compelling result between them because of the formalities involved in the aftermath of Femi winning. And if we don’t go with Rhodes retaining at the end of the night, you have a built-in story between Uso and both Gunther and Sami Zayn. And so with that… Winner: Jey Uso via Lesnar interference. And if I’m wrong, I will forfeit my half point from the Royal Rumble.

Queen of the Ring Finals – Liv Morgan (c) vs. Iyo Sky

Much like the men’s side, I don’t think this result should be too much in doubt. Is there a scenario where Liv Morgan wins? Sure. If Rhea Ripley is too hurt to wrestle at SummerSlam, about the only way to make Morgan’s current incarnation more obnoxious would be to temporarily crown her as a double world champion. Conversely, you could still have Ripley arrive and squash her all the same, but I don’t see a lot of long term value in even entertaining the possibility. Alternatively, Sky would be a great opponent for Morgan at this point to liven up what’s been an underwhelming run since WrestleMania. Throughout their time together in WWE they have wrestled against each other 26 times. Of those 8 have been singles matches, and all but one was for the same world championship Morgan currently holds. Aside from a DQ win over Sky earlier this year, between TV and live event tours Morgan successfully defended the championship against Sky every time, notably at a Saturday Night’s Main Event in December 2024. I think Sky is long overdue for a win and takes the Queen of the Ring title, and then challenges Morgan for a rematch at SummerSlam for the women’s world championship. Winner: Iyo Sky

WWE U.S. Championship: Trick Williams (c) vs. Ricky Saints

I’d really like Saints to pick up the win here, but unless Carmelo Hayes interferes I don’t really like the idea of Williams dropping the U.S. championship. Williams is still more over than Saints right now and I think it would be foolish to make a swap. There are certainly ways to do this, and maybe involve Hayes in some sort of rematch at SummerSlam in a triple threat scenario, but I think it’s too soon to strap up Saints when you still have room to grow and space to explore with Williams in the role. I’m not sure about Hayes, but I’m still in the camp that believes Saints has some good upside, I just don’t think now is the time. Winner: Trick Williams

Steel Cage Match – Seth Rollins vs Bron Breakker

Of all the matches on the card Rollins and Breakker have the longest ongoing, uninterrupted (aside from injuries) story of any one pairing at Night of Champions. Now, back when I was a youngin, steel cages were used to blow off feuds. That has not 100% been the case for quite some time, so no matter the result, I doubt these two are done. If we look back at their matches since Breakker reemerged at WrestleMania, they have wrestled 7 times. Their most notable match since March was their bout at Backlash which Breakker won. They also wrestled on the June 1st Raw, which Rollins won. Then during WWE’s recent European tour they wrestled in a series of street fights on the live event portion of the trip, all of which were won by Rollins. That isn’t to say that’s a full barometer of what’s going to happen, but it’s something to consider and it’s not like they can do steel cages every night of the tour. Two things: that Rollins continually won should at least give a moment of pause for any thought of Breakker winning. Secondly, however, once you remove the live events and just look at what most people have seen, for all intents and purposes they’re 1-1, with Rollins winning more recently. I’m leaning more toward Breakker because of that since it is a cage match, which also invites the possibility of outside interference from the Vision. The Street Profits could also get involved, but I think at the end of the night Breakker gets his hand raised. Winner: Bron Breakker (because I’ve NEVER been wrong about a Breakker prediction EVER…pick Rollins if you’re putting money on this for some reason.)

WWE Women’s U.S. Title – Tiffany Stratton (c) vs. Jade Cargill

Ehhhh….I’m not sure about the booking of this right now. Cargill has been floating since her rematch with Rhea Ripley at Clash in Italy last month, and with that feud in the rearview for now, it seems she’s turned her attention to Stratton’s U.S. title. Stratton only won the championship about a month ago, so I’m not sure about the potentiality of Cargill taking the title when Stratton hasn’t really done anything with it yet. Stratton has been teaming with Charlotte Flair in tag matches against Cargill’s cronies, which is how we got here; during their last tag Cargill stood over Stratton and made it known she wants the title. So here’s where we are. Personally, and I’ve made this clear, aside from her having her best matches with Rhea Ripley this year since her last matches in AEW with Kris Statlander, Cargill hasn’t shown a ton of improvement. Again, I think this is probably her best year so far, including most of her AEW run. I would like to think they wouldn’t strap her up just for the sake of a return on the investment into her, and to do that at Stratton’s expense who is a fresh U.S. championship titleholder and former WWE champion doesn’t make a lot of sense.

These two do have history for that latter title. Including live events, they wrestled 10 matches with the title on the line, with Stratton winning all but Cargill’s 5-minute squash of a title clincher late last year. I should also point out that most of Stratton’s defences were in triple threats where Cargill wouldn’t have necessarily taken the pinfall. In their singles matches specifically they have wrestled 4 times, with Stratton winning twice, Cargill winning once, and one match going to a double count out. You could go either way in your logic, you could say Cargill should win to even the score, or you could say Stratton wins to get revenge for her title loss. For me, I think Stratton wins if only because her title reign is still very fresh and a loss hurts her more. We could still see Cargill take it from her at some point, but I think because Charlotte has been a thorn in her side for a while now that Charlotte interferes on Stratton’s behalf to maybe set something up with them later. Winner: Tiffany Stratton 

WWE World Championship – Cody Rhodes vs. Gunther vs. Sami Zayn

Right out of the gate, considering the PLE is being held in Saudi Arabia we have to at least consider that Zayn wins his first world title. And honestly the more I think about it, it’s not completely asinine. I think if we take Jey Uso winning as an outright eventuality, and then we take the build of Zayn’s character over the last several months to this point, winning when he has the regional “hometown advantage” is a fair consideration. When the champion, who’s been pushing him, and one of his chief rivals are both in the match, the result makes sense. On the surface while he might be the third wheel in a match with “QB1” and the “career killer,” I think him winning is fairly logical where you feel Rhodes should win, and if there was a title change Gunther makes the most sense at first, but I don’t think all of these things lining up is accidental. I think if there’s a change, I will not be shocked if Rhodes leaves SummerSlam later this summer as a 4 time champion. But right now, although Rhodes is the smart pick, I’m going to apply logic to what’s in front of us and probably throw a pick away. I think Zayn wins here. I think he probably pins one or the other after someone hits their finisher, and I think those circumstances create conditions for a rematch at SummerSlam in August. And then I think you’re adding Jey Uso to that mix for a fatal 4-way for the WWE title. Or, I’m very, very wrong. Winner: Sami Zayn. Probably Cody, but I think if you’re ever going to let Sami win it should be now.

Thoughts? Am I the only crazy person here?