After a video recap from Raw, Nick Aldis welcomed us to SmackDown. He talked about what happened with Gunther at Night of Champions and his subsequent suspension before welcoming CM Punk to the ring to celebrate being the new WWE champion.
Punk said he missed the crowd before saying anyone is welcome to try to take the title from him because he is a fighting champion. He also said he would give Sami Zayn a rematch if he wanted one.
He named some people like Gunther, Finn Balor, Royce Keys, Damian Priest and Trick Williams before he was interrupted by Cody Rhodes, who was obviously upset about what happened on Monday when he was attacked and unable to have his scheduled title match against Zayn.
They had a respectful exchange for the most part, and it led to Rhodes laying out a challenge for SummerSlam, which Punk immediately accepted. Aldis made it official on the spot.
Punk’s solo part of this segment was relatively tame. He did the same thing every babyface who wins a belt does and said he would be a fighting champion. He didn’t say anything controversial or unpredictable.
Rhodes being his first challenger isn’t surprising, and their exchange was a little on the uneventful side, so it’s going to be interesting to see how WWE fills time with this feud between now and SummerSlam.
Punk and Rhodes are both good on the mic, but this segment didn’t do either of them any favors. It wasn’t bad, but nobody is going to be talking about it tomorrow.
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