Triple H made waves on Thursday when he accused some WWE fans of taking the industry and his creative too seriously.
A little rich, I’d say. A little rich coming from the guy that likely hasn’t slept a wink in the last two days. Why? He’s got to book this year’s WWE Night of Champions PLE. Yeah, he’s taking that pretty seriously.
WWE Night of Champions 2026 is another event in the blood money section of the company calendar. The event takes place from inside the Kingdom Arena in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia — the location of WrestleMania 43 next year. The show may be main-evented by Cody Rhodes defending his Undisputed WWE Championship against Gunther and Sami Zayn in a Triple Threat Match, but the real main event is Oba Femi vs. Jey Uso in the King of the Ring tournament finals.
Oba Femi or Jey Uso?
We know the winner of that match is going to earn a shot at a world championship at this year’s SummerSlam. Therein lies the sleepless nights for Triple H. Oba Femi snagging the crown and Jey Uso winning the tournament offer up two competing immediate futures of WWE programming. Triple H has to pick one. The easy way or the hard way.
The easy way is to crown Jey Uso as King of the Ring. Uso with the crown on his head keeps alive all of the top storylines that are currently going in WWE. The Bloodline stays focused with Jey chasing down the other head of the table, Jacob Fatu and Jey continue to have disdain for the other, with Jey now having a significant trump card on Fatu, Oba Femi stays inside the feud with Brock Lesnar, and Cody Rhodes keeps doing his thing on SmackDown. Jey Uso as the King of the Ring is the status quo. It’s safe.
Oba Femi offers a different future. The hard way. He’s the exciting choice. He’s the fresh star. He’s an attraction that’s on an unbelievable roll of momentum. An Oba Femi victory puts WWE squarely in the Oba Femi business. If he wins, it’s his show and his time. Is WWE ready for that?
They are. Or, let me rephrase. They will be. The momentum that Oba Femi has generated for himself doesn’t grow on trees. The reaction that he gets from the audience isn’t regular. In pro wrestling, you strike when the iron is hot. Femi might not ever again be as over as he is right now. You go with him and Triple H will do so by crowning him in this match.
It’s not the time for Bron Breakker
If that match wasn’t hard enough to work through, Triple H also has to decide whether to put Seth Rollins or Bron Breakker over in the blowoff match to their feud, which will take place inside of a steel cage.
This feud, The Vision, and injuries have snake bit the first real push for Bron Breakker on the main roster. Upon joining Raw, he was heralded as a future WrestleMania main event star and since then has been surpassed by newly called up talent like Femi and Trick Williams. Breakker is ice cold coming into this cage match with Rollins and for that reason, he’s got to do the job.
If the Rollins and Breakker story was a movie, Rollins would get the W over Breakker and then the movie would end five minutes later. The good guy prevails and that’s it. That’s the way to go here.
Six months ago, there is no way I’d have predicted that Breakker would lose this feud to Rollins, but shit happens. There is more creative value for the company in a Rollins win than a Breakker win at this point. End the story nicely, pull Breakker out of anything near The Vision, and continue on. If Breakker is as strong of an act as everyone thinks he is, he’ll rebuild and be just fine.
Queen of the Ring
This year’s event will also feature the Queen of the Ring finals between Liv Morgan and Iyo Sky. It’s a match that WWE will use to give Sky a victory and another career notch on the belt, while at the same time injecting Morgan’s Judgment Day faction with a heavy dose of drama — look out for Roxanne Perez.
WWE Night of Champions 2026 airs live on ESPN Unlimited and Netflix internationally on Saturday afternoon. The full card and full prediction show from The Takedown on SI is below.
WWE Night of Champions 2026 Full Match Card
Cody Rhodes vs. Gunther vs. Sami Zayn - Undisputed WWE Championship Triple Threat Match
Oba Femi vs. Jey Uso - WWE King of the Ring tournament finals
Liv Morgan vs. Iyo Sky - WWE Queen of the Ring tournament finals
Seth Rollins vs. Bron Breakker - Steel Cage Match
Trick Williams vs. Ricky Saints - WWE Men’s United States Championship
Tiffany Stratton vs. Jade Cargill - WWE Women’s United States Championship
WWE Night of Champions 2026 Preview
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