Cargill Wins, Punk New Champ

HIGHLIGHTS

• Jade Cargill captures WWE Women’s Championship from Tiffany Stratton while Cody Rhodes and Dominik Mysterio retain their titles at Saturday Night’s Main Event
• CM Punk defeats Jey Uso to become new World Heavyweight Champion in clean match with no interference or surprises
• John Cena announces Last Time is Now Tournament featuring established stars, NXT talent, returning performers, and non-WWE wrestlers to determine his final opponent

The biggest Saturday Night’s Main Event since the iconic series returned came with some huge results.

While there were only four matches on the card in Salt Lake City, it was a heavy-hitting lineup. We saw two championships captured and two defended.

Here is a look at the results.

• (c) Cody Rhodes def. Drew McIntyre to retain the WWE Championship
• Jade Cargill def. (c) Tiffany Stratton to win the Women’s WWE Championship
• (c) Dominik Mysterio def. Penta and Rusev to retain the Intercontinental Championship
• CM Punk vs. Jey Uso for the vacant World Heavyweight Championship

Those are the flat results, but here’s the 5 biggest takeaways from the action.

Cody Rhodes’ Heel Vibes Were Flowing

Rhodes successfully defended his WWE Championship in the opening match. He pinned Drew McIntyre after landing a DDT on the championship belt, following it up with a Cross Rhodes.

The stipulations for the match–which were established on Friday Night Smackdown–had Rhodes’ title in jeopardy if he lost via disqualification or count out. A referee bump allowed Rhodes to land the DDT on the title belt without DQ, which suggest a dirtying of the champion’s squeaky clean persona.

Rhodes has been wearing all-black suits to signal a turn to the dark side, but it could all be a ruse to get people like me talking about the wrong things. Yes, this is why we love this stuff so much.

The match was strong. Nothing less should have been expected considering the talent levels of both men. There was excellent storytelling and solid callbacks to their feud.

McIntyre Continues to Suffer Without Coronation

It would have been nice to see McIntyre go over. It seems like he has suffered for a while, putting everyone over and doing overall excellent work. It’s a shame there has been no cherry on top for the Scottish Warrior.

As it is, the more compelling takeaway here is Rhodes’ direction. While he’s awesome and the adrenaline is in his soul, whoa… We get it, but it feels like a refresh is in order. McIntyre’s title reign has to be coming at some point, right?

Jade Cargill Squashes Tiffany Stratton

Jade’s in-ring work still needs polishing, but there is no questioning the strength of her character. She dwarfs Tiffany Stratton in that department and the action in their match felt like one woman’s persona pounding the smoke out of another, less-developed and less-confident storyteller.

Cargill’s nasty forehead scar is still healing, but she has the chance to do some excellent work as a dominant heel champion. Sending Cargill on a run of clean wins over solid performers would be the best course of action until Bianca Belair is healthy enough to return.

I’d say a beatdown of Nia Jax with a clean win feels like the next course of action.

Dominik Mysterio Continues His Amazing Run

We’ve seen Dom pull out wins in a variety of ways. On Saturday, he interrupted Rusev’s Accolade on Penta to save his title. He brought the ring bell hammer into the ring, but Penta wound up with it. Penta tried to hit Dom with the hammer, but the latter moved and the former wound up nailing Rusev.

Dom tossed Penta out of the ring, hit the frog splash on Rusev to retain. The character, execution and timing has been excellent for Dom and he continues to elevate his character.

CM Punk vs. Jey Uso Was a Great Match…That’s All

There wasn’t much suspense here. We all knew Punk would go over, but him and Jey Uso did a great job putting on a great show along the way. There was no outside interference, just a really good match between two excellent professional wrestlers.

Last Time is Now Tournament Details Revealed

I felt really smart after this announcement. Moments before the official announcement on Saturday Night’s Main Event, I posted on X, ‘The WWE should hold a tournament of NXT stars to determine who will face John Cena in his final match.’

Well, that’s not exactly what happened, but it was close. There will be a tournament, but it won’t be entirely NXT performers. According to Cena, there will established guys, possibly NXT stars, returning performers and even people who don’t work for WWE.

That’s a great idea, if I say so myself and it will provide an excellent platform for surprise returns, arrivals, etc. I can’t wait to see which guys make up the field.