WWE Night of Champions 2025 odds and analysis
The ever-controversial Saudi Arabia shows that WWE put on are back with another edition of Night of Champions. They’re massive spectacles, but sadly, they rarely feel connected.
This includes when it has hosted its B-tier pay-per-view shows (or paid live events now) in Saudi Arabia, with the company swiftly moving on or not really referencing events after the fact. Next year, WWE will be bringing one of its big four tentpole shows to the region, with Royal Rumble Riyadh carrying a lot more weight than anything previous. However, the show does feel as if it’s just a stop-gap before it tries to ramp up into Summerslam.
Despite having multiple champions across its three main brands, WWE has only booked two championship matches alongside two non-title belt matches and the two finals to the King and Queen of the Ring tournament. Cody Rhodes and Liv Morgan aren’t even defending the Crown Jewel championships at the event, with only Morgan’s injury explaining the absence. Presumably, WWE is keeping these locked into those Crown Jewel shows.
Let’s dig into the matches and odds for Saturday’s show:
WWE Night of Champions matches and odds King of the Ring tournament final- Randy Orton – 1/6
- Cody Rhodes – 7/2
- Asuka – 11/8
- Jade Cargill – 4/9
- John Cena – 1/10
- CM Punk – 11/2
- Jacob Fatu – 1/5
- Solo Sikoa – 3/1
- Rhea Ripley – 1/4
- Raquel Rodriguez – 5/2
- Sami Zayn – 1/6
- Karrion Kross – 3/1
Despite the lack of champions on the show, it’ll be interesting to see how WWE handles the King and Queen of the Ring going forward. Since its revival in 2021, only Xavier Woods has truly leant into the gimmick (very briefly), and we’ve not seen a full and proper usage of the moniker since Baron Corbin in 2019.
Rather than the title and gimmick being bestowed on the wrestler, now it becomes a title shot at the main belt on each brand, Raw and SmackDown. Last year’s winner, Gunther, went on to win the Heavyweight belt, which he recently regained and will be defending against a retiring Goldberg in July.
This year’s match seems to be gearing Cody Rhodes for a rematch against John Cena at Summerslam. Rhodes has been feuding with Cena since Elimination Chamber, where Cena became a bad guy (heel), and has since been on a quest to not only retire as the only (male) 17-time champion, but to ruin wrestling by leaving with the belt itself.
This seems like the most likely win here, as Orton is slowly transitioned to that older, reliable hand for major matches.
For the Queen of the Ring, this definitely feels like the moment that they pull the trigger on Jade Cargill. While Asuka is a fan favorite, Cargill is clearly the next “big project” behind the scenes. Whether she’d actually go on to win at Summerslam is another question, but it’d ultimately all tie into the feud between her and Naomi, who won Money in the Bank.
You can see it all play out. Cargill wins here, wins the belt over Iyo Sky at Summerslam, and then is cashed in on by Naomi, furthering the feud and storyline.
Undisputed WWE Champ title match
The Cena heel run has been dreary, but we’ll see what CM Punk can do with a clearly very protected Cena. These two have legendary matches in the past and finally seeing them back in the ring together is going to be a vibe.
However, there’s no version of this in which Cena drops the belt to CM Punk here. While it’d be newsworthy, it just seems less than likely. Most of Cena’s major matches have involved some kind of tomfoolery, earning Cena the win, and don’t expect much else here.
Cena is in an odd position, similar to The Rock when he returned in the early 2010s for WrestleMania 29. Hollywood requires that they don’t get injured, because if they do, it can set back filming by weeks or months, depending on how badly they’re hurt.
It’ll be a fun match, but don’t count on that CM Punk title run just yet.
WWE US title matchJacob Fatu and Solo Sikoa have had this great love/hate relationship on screen in recent weeks. Sikoa especially has really come out of his shell since ditching the sneering veneer and becoming a cocky, but easily irritated enforcer kind of guy. Fatu has also been delivering decent matches on TV and almost always puts on an entertaining show with his rough-and-tumble attitude.
This doesn’t feel like the place to have the belt dropped to Sikoa here, and Fatu still has plenty of room in this run to show off a little more. He recently ditched The Bloodline group and became a good guy (face or babyface), which is relatively new territory for him on WWE TV.
Street FightA big, bombastic, violent spectacle in Saudi Arabia between Rhea Ripley and Raquel Rodriguez is clearly going to be a Ripley win. She’s so popular at the moment, even with her recent losses, has just been this golden child under the Triple H regime.
Rodriguez could potentially win out if there’s some shenanigans in the ring. She’s part of The Judgement Day, a faction whose entire storyline has been about them potentially imploding at any moment. With no Dominik Mysterio or Liv Morgan, backstage reports have indicated that new member Roxanne Perez is slated to fill in for Morgan.
What could happen is a repeat of Raw from June 23, where Perez helped put Ripley through a table and sided with the apprehensive Rodriguez. Various shenanigans ensue, and the new tag team is solidified.
Singles matchThen we come to Karrion Kross versus Sami Zayn, which should be a good match, despite the complete lack of championships in the Night of Championships. Kross has been reported as improving in the ring dramatically since his return, and Zayn knows how to pull it out of the bag regardless of who else is in the squared circle with him.
The money all seems to be on Zayn, but there’s still a chance that Kross will get that push the fans have wanted for him. He’s been pestering Zayn and others backstage for months now, trying to influence them in some capacity. We could see the first steps of actually doing something with that, rather than vague sections of the show dedicated to Kross being a creep.
WWE Night of Champions airs on Netflix worldwide and Peacock in the US, Saturday 28 of June at 1 PM ET/10 AM PT.
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