John Cena Beats CM Punk to Retain WWE Title at Night of Champions 2025

John Cena defeated CM Punk at Night of Champions on Saturday to retain the WWE Championship.

The match devolved into pure chaos when Mr. Money in the Bank Seth Rollins arrived on the scene with Bron Breakker and Bronson Reed in an attempt to cash in his Money in the Bank contract.

Penta and Sami Zayn showed up to cancel out Breakker and Reed, though, leading to an exciting crescendo that saw Rollins hit Punk with the Money in the Bank briefcase and Cena toss Rollins out of the ring before pinning Punk.

Although Rollins tried to cash in, he never officially handed the contract to a referee, so his status as Mr. Money in the Bank remains intact.

Night of Champions marked the first singles match between Cena and Punk in more than 12 years, and the renewal of one of WWE's top rivalries of the past two decades.

Cena's road to becoming a record-breaking, 17-time world champion started with a win over Punk, as he took advantage of Rollins hitting Punk with a Stomp at Elimination Chamber back in March, locking Punk in the STF to win the men's Elimination Chamber match.

Several minutes later, Cena shockingly turned heel by attacking Cody Rhodes, and he went on to beat Rhodes for the WWE Championship at WrestleMania 41.

Since WrestleMania, Cena has wins over Randy Orton and R-Truth to his credit, but earlier this month at Money in the Bank, he and Logan Paul lost a tag team match to Rhodes and Jey Uso thanks to interference from the returning Truth.

Undeterred, a cocky and confident Cena claimed that he needed competition after beating all of the challengers who the WWE Universe threw their support behind.

That prompted the arrival of Punk, who expressed his desire and need to be an opponent on Cena's retirement tour given the lengthy history between them, which includes classic matches at Money in the Bank 2011 and on the Feb. 25, 2013, episode of Raw.

Cena accepted Punk's challenge, but on the condition that the match take place in Saudi Arabia at Night of Champions, which Punk accepted.

In a subsequent promo, Cena suggested that he made the match for Night of Champions in an effort to expose Punk as a hypocrite of sorts. That was likely in reference to Punk speaking negatively about WWE's working relationship with Saudi Arabia prior to his return to the company in late 2023.

Punk's stance on wrestling in Saudi Arabia seemed to soften since then, as just last month during an Instagram Live session (h/t Fightful Select), Punk responded to a question about why he "hates" going to Saudi Arabia by saying, "I've never been to Saudi, I don't hate coming to Saudi."

Cena and Punk did battle Saturday in what could prove to be the final match between them, and the stakes couldn't have been much higher.

With Cena managing to retain the title, he took another step toward his goal of retiring as WWE champion and making himself the last "real" champion in WWE history.

He is almost certainly heading toward a rematch with Rhodes at SummerSlam as well after Cody won the King of the Ring tournament at Night of Champions.

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