Hello guys, gals, and enbies! Welcome to 411’s Night of Champions preview! I’m Hel, and today WWE is in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia for the second Night of Champions and third King & Queen of the Ring finals to be held in Saudi Arabia after last years Night of Champions in Jeddah and 2021’s Crown Jewel in Riyadh. We have the finals of the King & Queen of the Ring, Rhea Ripley vs Raquel Rodriguez in a Street Fight, Karrion Kross vs Sami Zayn, Jacob Fatu vs Solo Sikoa for the United States Championship match, and CM Punk vs John Cena for the Undisputed WWE Championship! We were supposed to get AJ Styles vs Dominik Mysterio for the Intercontinental Championship, but due to an injury to Dom (whether real or storyline) that match was dropped and replaced by either the street fight.

Outside of wrestling I am currently on track to finish 50 books this year, this has been the first year I’ve been able to stay focused on reading in a long time, and I am so happy to be back in the groove. For anyone interested I mainly read genre fiction (horror, fantasy, and sci-fi) as well as pro wrestler and musician autobiographies. so if you have or want any recommendations let me know!

This feud has been a slow burn, Kross has been pushing Zayn to stop trying to pretend he is a good man and unleash his true self or he will never win a World Championship. Zayn has continued to rebuff Kross, adamant in his abilities to win a World Championship the right and honorable way. I’ve really enjoyed this feud, the two of them have never had a match, up until now, and that’s okay. The story is one of the underdog trying his best to do things the right way while the devil is trying to corrupt him, push him down the dark path, the easy path if you will. This is wrestling at it’s absolute classic self, the story of good vs evil, will the good guy prove himself right or will he fall to the temptation? This same story has been a part of Zayn’s WWE career a few times now, going back to his first NXT Championship win against Neville where he was conflicted about using a chair and decided against it. But this is an older Zayn, one who has now traveled down that dark road and come out the other side, and one who may finally be at his breaking point.

Kross has pushed Zayn to his breaking point, that attack on Raw is exactly what he wanted to see, so now the question is does Zayn let the anger and frustration take over? Or can he overcome it? And what would each path cost him? I can see this going a few ways, Zayn could snap and take out his frustrations on Kross ending up with a DQ loss, he could cheat to win, or he can refuse to cheat and it will end up costing him the match and push him further towards snapping. Zayn is going to help make this match at least decent, but it’s the story being told that most intrigues me here, my gut says Kross wins by DQ, Zayn is going to unleash all his frustration on Kross and while Zayn isn’t going to go full heel, he is going to be the plucky underdog going forward.

Winner: Karrion Kross by DQ

The second late addition to Night of Champions, you have to think there was another plan in place prior to Liv Morgan got hurt and whatever happened with the Styles vs Mysterio match. Regardless of the how and why this match was added, I do think it’s going to be a fun brawl. Ripley is one of the most over and talented wrestlers in the WWE and I feel like Rodriguez is a bit underrated in regards to her in-ring work. To quote Jim Ross, this one is going to be a slobberknocker. Ripley and Rodriguez have a lot of history, they started in NXT at the same time and were once friends and tag partners, but since Rodriguez’s return in 2024, she has been a constant thorn in Ripley’s side in her feud with Morgan.

Like I said, I expect this to be a bit of a slobberknocker, Ripley has been in a less dominate position lately, still winning a lot of matches but not the ones that matter, she got into the Money in the Bank match but didn’t win and she lost her qualifying match for Queen of the Ring, she really doesn’t need the win here and it being a street gives her an out for a loss. Because there is also the wild card that is Roxanne Perez who came out to help Rodriguez on Raw, I think she will do the same here, as she tries get on Rodriguez’s good side while Morgan is out.

Winner: Raquel Rodriguez

In just over a year, Jacob Fatu has become one of the more over wrestlers in WWE. From the moment he debuted he has shown that he has the fabled IT factor, those of us who saw some of his work in MLW already knew what he could do, but his work, through the last year, has put the world on notice that we have a future World Champion on our hands. And at only 33 years old, he has a lot gas left in the tank. Solo Sikoa was supposed to be the next leader of The Bloodline, but he has been surpassed by Fatu in every way. This has allowed a great slow burn feud to develop between these two though, with the fans waiting for the moment that Fatu had had enough. With JC Mateo debuting, as another heater for Sikoa, the small cracks have been growing until finally Fatu overheard Sikoa calling him dumb and Fatu finally had enough and cost Sikoa his shot at the Money in the Bank.

We could possibly see the return of G.O.D. or the long awaited debut of Hikuleo here, but the question is, to paraphrase Bobby Heenan, “Whose side are they on?” We could see Hikuleo join up with Sikoa and Mateo only for G.O.D. to even the odds, but we also had a tease of Jimmy Uso being willing to help Fatu if needed. There is a few possibilities for how this goes, but I think Fatu wins it here and we get some sort of multi-man tag match for Summerslam.

Winner and still United States Champion: Jacob Fatu

This could go either way. On one side we have Asuka, the veteran performer returning after being off for over a year. On the other we have Jade Cargill, a force of nature who, while not having the experience, has the hunger to be at the top. I would love to see Asuka vs Iyo Sky and think it would be a way better match up then Cargill vs Tiffany Stratton. I don’t think that is the direction we are headed though, the safe bet here is that Cargill wins, beats Stratton and then Naomi cashes in. It gives Cargill accolades in being Queen of the Ring and a Women’s Champion (even if it’s only for a few minutes) and it furthers the feud between Cargill and Naomi and a, hopefully, soon returning Bianca Belair. Asuka will help make Cargill look good and we can still get Asuka vs Sky, even if she is only Empress of Tomorrow and not Queen of the Ring.

Winner and the 2025 Queen of the Ring: Jade Cargill

This was not the finals I was expecting to see, my thought was Zayn being in the finals and maybe even winning this year. But this is the finals we have and there is A LOT of history between these two, going back all the way to 2008 with Legacy and an amazing feud during 2013 that involved Triple H, Dusty Rhodes, and Goldust. I’ve always liked the chemistry between the Orton and Rhodes and with Rhodes having matured as a performer, since 2013, I think we are in for a good match here.

Orton getting another shot at Summerslam could be interesting, but I’ve been saying for awhile now, that the story only makes sense if Rhodes beats Cena to win the title back. So, we are going to get a Rhodes win here and whether it stays just Rhodes vs Cena or if Punk gets added somehow Rhodes is winning here. The possible twist is if he somehow loses at Summerslam, if that happens then we may see Cena dodging Rhodes up until his last appearance where Rhodes finally gets one last chance to save wrestling.

Winner and the 2025 King of the Ring: Cody Rhodes

There is a lot of history between these two, they have faced each other 14 times in one on one matches, with their first match on the 11/23/2009 Raw and their last match being on the 2/25/2013 Raw. Of course their most famous match is from the 2011 Money in the Bank where CM Punk beat Cena and “quit the company” as champion. I remember really looking forward to the WWE version of The Summer of Punk but Punk was back in a matter of weeks and would beat Cena again at that years Summerslam. An interesting fact is that Cena and Punk are tied in their series 6-6-2, which adds a fun little wrinkle to the story, and also surprised me a bit because I though for sure Cena would have won more.

The story is flipped from their feud in 2011, where Cena is threatening to walk out with the Championship and Punk is trying to save it. It’s like Punk said though, he was saving the company, for the fans, from the corporate overloads, and now he is trying to save wrestling from Cena, again for the fans. I am hoping Punk can help Cena turn back the clock a bit, I know Punk can carry him to a decent or even a good match, but if Cena puts his working sneakers on, this can be one of the better matches he will have in his final run. But like I said in the Money in the Bank preview, this story ends with Cody Rhodes beating Cena, it’s the only thing that makes sense. Anything else diminishes Rhodes and all that he has set out to do since returning to the WWE. So, while I’d love for Punk to get another run here, Cena is going to win and start the road to Summerslam and Cody Rhodes.

Winner and still Undisputed World Champion: John Cena