wrestling / TV Reports
Pantoja’s WWE Night of Champions 2025 Review
Loading...WWE Night of Champions
June 28th, 2025 | Kingdom Arena in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia
I’m certainly not a fan of WWE continuing to do shows in Saudi Arabia, especially given what’s going on in the world right now. That said, I couldn’t NOT review the final John Cena/CM Punk encounter so here we are.
Also, weird to call your show Night of Champions when it only has two title matches.
King of the Ring Finals: Cody Rhodes vs. Randy Orton
Damn, Legacy explodes. The crowd was way into this. Orton and Rhodes went through a slow start, clearly building to something bigger. The first twist came when Orton delivered a superplex and seemed to tweak his lower back, giving Rhodes an opening. Interestingly, Cody was getting some boos as he went after Orton’s back. I know the fans like Orton but what’s Cody supposed to do? Ignore it? Whatever Cody threw at him, Orton kept surviving, causing Cody to question himself a bit. Then, in a classic Orton move, he hit the RKO from out of nowhere as Cody was busy talking to the referee. It only garnered a near fall but that was a cool spot. Orton teased the Punt but couldn’t pull the trigger and it cost him. Triple H LOVES the “oh man, I’m too conflicted to pull the trigger” gimmick, doesn’t he? We got a second RKO kick out and again, I’m not a fan of overdoing the finisher false finishes. Orton went to use a chair but had it taken away by the official, only to use it to setup a turnbuckle pad removal. However, Cody sent him into the corner and then hit Cross Rhodes to win in 19:48. Too many finisher kickouts and some pacing issues held it back but this was very good otherwise. [***½]
Post-match, Cody got the crown and was interviewed. He put over Orton, who looked a bit upset at losing two straight KOTR Finals, before saying that he was getting his title back at SummerSlam.
Street Fight: Raquel Rodriguez vs. Rhea Ripley
I’ve never been a Raquel fan but she does have good chemistry with Rhea. Part of why this works is that Raquel is bigger than Rhea, so it gives us a different style of match for Rhea, who usually dominates or overpowers her opponents. Indeed, Raquel opened this by tossing Rhea around with relative ease and anything Rhea attempted didn’t have the effect she wanted. Rhea even got tied up in the ropes like Andre the Giant for a bit. Rhea gained some momentum, only to take a powerbomb through the announce table hood, which was placed over the timekeeper’s area. I must say, that’s not something I’ve seen before so kudos there. Rhea turned the tide by wailing on Raquel with a studded belt. That led to a run-in by Roxanne Perez, who got taken out but it was enough to put Raquel back in control. Of course, Rhea fought through it and won with the Riptide off the top while standing on a table in 14:04. Another good outing in this rivalry. Against anyone else, I don’t care for Raquel but Rhea makes it work. They came up with some creative spots here that should be appreciated. [***½]
Karrion Kross vs. Sami Zayn
So all those Karrion Kross fans who seem to think he’s some gift to wrestling finally get their match. Let’s see if he actually delivers. Early on, Karrion took a back bump, putting that fun ass rumor to rest. A lot of this match was very basic, which his par for the course with Kross matches. It was this way in NXT and everywhere else I’ve seen him. Sami did his best to bring something more out of Kross and had the highlights with things like his moonsault off the guardrail. Kross slowed things down and the match dragged from there. He worked a lengthy sleeper hold that Sami survived and then he wanted Sami to admit he’s a liar. That left an opening for Sami to hit the Helluva Kick and win in 13:32. So all that Kross hype online for him to have a match that was largely…fine. As expected. [**¼]
WWE United States Championship: Jacob Fatu [c] vs. Solo Sikoa
Jacob Fatu feels like a star as soon as he walks to the ring. Solo shoved him before the bell, getting a jump start. The idea of this match was basically that Jacob could kind of beat Solo’s ass, so Solo had to find little openings and outsmart his aggressive opponent. Solo has worked better in this role. He’s not a top guy and trying to play the tough dude/fake Tribal Chief wasn’t working but as a midcard heel who is kind of goofy, it’s working. Whenever Jacob got something going, Solo was in big trouble but would find ways to stop his momentum. Solo did hit a sweet German suplex but Jacob immediately got up and his one of his own that didn’t look quite as good. JC Mateo and the returning Tanga Loa showed up to help Solo but Jacob kicked out of their best shot. Jacob had it won after taking them out until Hikuleo made his debut and pulled him out of the ring. He chokeslammed him through the announce table and sent him inside so Solo could win the title with the Samoan Spike after 12:08. A solid title match here. People lied to me for years that the Guerrillas of Destiny were good and they tried the same with Hikuleo near the end of his New Japan run. Not excited about the three of them at all but Solo and Jacob did well here. [***]
Queen of the Ring Finals: Asuka vs. Jade Cargill
I think they can challenge for any title but I think the options are Jade/Tiffany and Asuka/IYO for SummerSlam. Obviously, one of those sounds much better than the other. This was the opposite of the opener in that the crowd didn’t care. To make matters a bit worse, these two didn’t have the best chemistry. Asuka was doing her usual thing but Jade’s selling was rather spotty and some of the offense just didn’t click. The idea of the finish was good as Jade caught a charging Asuka into Jaded for the three count but the pin was a bit messy and it almost looked like Asuka might’ve kicked out. This went 8:34 and was kind of just there. Jade/Tiffany doesn’t sound interesting though I’m sure Naomi will play a part. [**]
Undisputed WWE Championship: John Cena [c] vs. CM Punk
As top guys, I’ve loved their matches. MITB 2011 (*****), SummerSlam 2011 (****), Night of Champions 2012 (****¼), and Raw in 2013 (****¾). It’s 2025 though and I’ve seen this current Cena run, so I’m not expecting anything near that. Still, it’s cool to see this happening again. Even more than the opener, the crowd was molten hot for this as Cena and Punk went through their feeling out process. Cena overpowered Punk to take control and the challenger fought back with his classic moves like the corner knee strike/bulldog combo. As this progressed, they got to the stuff that usually happens in big WWE matches, including finisher kickouts. Again, I’m not a fan of doing it just to pop a “this is awesome” chant or something like that. Like, why are we doing kickouts of three Attitude Adjustments? Stressed that he couldn’t keep Punk down (there are better ways to do it than to spam finishers), Cena teased using the title like he did at Mania but stopped when the crowd chanted “no.” Cena then kicked out of a GTS. After a ref bump, Punk called for a new official but got Seth Rollins and his buddies, complete with the MITB briefcase. They beat up Punk and Rollins called for a new official. Charles Robinson ran out only to get run over by Cena. While Cena and Seth argued, Penta showed up to join the fight and battled Bron Breakker on the aisle until Sami Zayn also did a run-in. The shenanigans led to Punk and Cena having a staredown and even hugging only for Cena to try and attack. Punk stopped him but then Seth came in and hit Punk with the briefcase. Cena sent Seth outside and covered Punk to steal this in 26:17. I didn’t mind the overbooking. I grew up in the Attitude Era and when done right, it can be a ton of fun. My issue here was the stuff like the overdone finisher kickouts and stuff like that. [***¼]
