WWE Night Of Champions 2026: Draws & Duds

This weekend, WWE returns to Riyadh, Saudi Arabia for Night of Champion 2026. The show features three championship matches to go along with the finals of the King and Queen of the Ring tournaments, plus a steel cage grudge match thrown in as a bonus! That's six total matches on a one-night WWE PLE, which we don't usually get, so thanks for that, Paul Levesque.

But which of these matches have the WINC crew excited to watch the show, and which ones leave us cold instead? Thats what this column aims to find out. Is Oba Femi vs. Jey Uso a compelling tournament final? What about IYO SKY vs. Liv Morgan? Does either United States Championship match move us, and how do we feel about the one match on the show without title implications? Here are WINC's biggest draws and biggest duds for WWE Night of Champions 2026!

Modern wrestling companies have this nasty habit where they'll make a plan for a storyline, and then one or two of the people involved get injured, and instead of moving on when the moment passes, they try to trap the moment in amber, hoping everyone will just sit on their hands, waiting around to get back to the next beat of the story. Every time they do it, I check out, especially in a situation like Seth Rollins's feud with The Vision, where numerous members of the feud keep getting hurt, leading to the kind of stop-start momentum that can give motion sickness to even the most iron-stomached viewer. What's worse is the company letting Bron Breakker spoil on the shelf, waiting around for Rollins to be healthy enough to lose to him. 

I just can't find the motivation to care about this lackadaisical story. The Steel Cage stipulation doesn't help, either. It's a stipulation that has become routine. Someone from The Vision is going to try to help Breakker, probably with some boltcutters, and will either be run off by a babyface or taken out by Rollins in a moment of triumph. This is a "been there, done that" match. There's just nothing about this match that would draw me to the show.

Written by Ross Berman

Ricky Saints defeated Carmelo Hayes, thanks to a little help from an exposed turnbuckle, to become number one contender to Trick Williams' United States Championship on the June 19 edition of "WWE SmackDown," and the pair will go one-on-one at Night of Champions. Both may be heels with their borderline similar, flashy characters, but with Williams leaning more babyface with crowds, as well as being more over-the-top, their dynamic is going to be a really fun one, making this a match to see in Saudi Arabia.

The pair faced each other twice in "WWE NXT" — their second bout, a Last Man Standing match in November, earned just over four stars from Dave Meltzer, and the pair proved they can work well together on the developmental brand. Williams, especially, has only gotten better in the ring over the last seven months since that match, so the in-ring action is going to be good.

It doesn't seem wildly likely that the title match will end in interference, at least, with the babyface Hayes probably not getting involved. The same probably can't be said for rapper Lil Yachty if he's ringside for Williams. However, Williams could very well use other nefarious means, like Saints exposing the turnbuckle in the contendership match, to score the win over "The Absolute," who would then demand a rematch, despite what he did to Hayes. There are quite a few ways, even without the physical involvement of Hayes, that this could turn into a triple threat match for the upcoming big Saturday Night's Main Event at Madison Square Garden, or even better, during one of the two nights of SummerSlam.

There are big draws and big duds on this Night of Champions card, and by the end of the match, there's little doubt that Williams and Saints will have impressed the Riyadh crowd, as well as those watching from home, especially those who never got to see them work in "NXT." It's certainly not the last time fans will see them square off in the coming months, and the likely triple threat match pitting Hayes, Saints, and Williams against one another is bound to over-deliver, no matter where it happens. This Night of Champions match will help WWE get there, with Williams and Saints setting the stage, and neither bout will disappoint.

Written by Daisy Ruth

Night of Champions will mark the crowning of a third Queen of the Ring, ensuring a new holder of the crown between either IYO SKY or reigning Women's World Champion Liv Morgan. The winner of the tournament will be getting a title shot at SummerSlam in August, with Morgan having made it clear she intends to challenge Rhea Ripley for her Women's Championship.

SKY, on the other hand, has yet to really outline and highlight a route should she emerge the winner, which in this scripted format, doesn't bode well for her chances in the final. Either way, the likelihood is SKY would be challenging Morgan for her title should she score the win.

That is all there really is to know about the final. What might have easily been a Women's World title defense between Morgan and SKY is instead a bout for an accolade – iconic or not – that gives one the opportunity to challenge for a title. Morgan has yet to make a defense of the title she already possesses, although that might be okay ... It has only been two months and 13 shows – excluding "WWE SmackDown" to be fair.

This will be the first time that SKY and Morgan go head-to-head on what could be argued as a significant event, having met at Saturday Night's Main Event in December 2024. Morgan won on that night after less than 10 minutes, retaining the Women's World title ironically enough. She also won when they met during "WWE Raw" a couple of months later, getting the nod via disqualification to qualify for Elimination Chamber. But there hasn't been any form of additional story to their bout outside of one wanting to win Queen of the Ring and the other wanting to win Queen of the Ring so she can, in her words, have it all.

Looking to the future, as said, if Morgan wins then she will be feuding with Rhea Ripley. Again. Which is as appealing as a chili colonoscopy, personally. If SKY wins, she will probably be extending her feud with Morgan for the title. A first defense four months after winning the title. And about as a fun as the aforementioned procedure in a heatwave.

So, with all of that in mind, one hardly gets excited at the idea of this match. It's just a means to an exruciating end.

Written by Max Everett

Oba Femi is in this match. So it's a draw.

Now that's out of the way, let's litigate it just a little bit further. This weekend's King of the Ring final will determine who leaves to challenge either WWE Champion Cody Rhodes or World Heavyweight Champion Roman Reigns at SummerSlam. Reigns sent Jey Uso to win the King of the Ring, reaffirm his "main event" status, and challenge Cody Rhodes. Because the Bloodline is back, in case that wasn't clear.

That leaves Jey, a man that for all of his talents cannot realistically stand toe-to-toe with Femi, backed by Jimmy Uso and new conscript Jacob Fatu. That somewhat evens the odds going into the final, perhaps even swinging them a little in the favor of Jey — especially when one considers that "The Ruler" has been hexed with the shadow of Brock Lesnar, and poked that particular hornets' nest again recently. Couple that with this match being in Saudi Arabia, and there is more than a nonzero chance that Lesnar rears his bulbous blue-read head to drop a few F5s.

There's a lot going into this final, for better or worse, and at the very least a spectacle of some form has been promised. It's a King of the Ring final with all of the history that comes with that; a first-time clash between two of the upper echelon workers on the roster with a promise of significance to come with either result. At the very least, it's one of the more compelling matches on the card, and will be worth watching just to find out what happens.

Besides, Oba Femi is in this match.

Written by Max Everett