CM Punk & Cody Rhodes Engage In Heated Backstage Segment After Saturday Night’s Main Event Goes off the Air

CM Punk and Cody Rhodes may have won their tag team match against Gunther and Sami Zayn at Saturday Night’s Main Event, but things didn’t end well between the two, as they got involved in a heated backstage altercation after the show went off the air.

As noted previously, SmackDown General Manager Nick Aldis attacked Gunther during the closing stages of the high-stakes tag team match, paving the way for Punk to hit the GTS and drag Cody’s body over Gunther for the pinfall.

After the match, Cody handed over the Undisputed WWE Title to Punk and raised the champion’s hand. However, as Punk was about to walk away from Cody, he accidentally hit the latter’s eye with the strap of his belt.

See you at #SummerSlam, @CMPunk and @CodyRhodes… 👀#SNME pic.twitter.com/8x988vcsUM

— WWE (@WWE) July 19, 2026

WWE later shared exclusive backstage footage of Jackie Redmond interviewing CM Punk. However, a visibly irate Cody intervened and confronted Punk. Things quickly escalated as Cody threw F-bombs and demanded that the camera team stop filming. Eventually, Bobby Roode and United States Champion Trick Williams had to intervene between the two.

Check out the segment below:

Things got heated when we tried to get a comment from CM Punk tonight after #SNME. pic.twitter.com/JkTMYx3J9L

— WWE (@WWE) July 19, 2026

Cody and Punk are set to go one-on-one for the Undisputed WWE Championship at SummerSlam next month.