Best and Worst Booking Decisions of WWE Night of Champions 2026 Results

WWE was back in Saudi Arabia this weekend for the annual Night of Champions PLE.

This year's event saw a new King and Queen of the ring crowned in addition to a few title matches and a huge showdown inside a steel cage.

Here's a look at the card from this year's show:

• Bron Breakker vs. Seth Rollins (Steel Cage)
• Tiffany Stratton vs. Jade Cargill (Women's United States Championship)
• Trick Williams vs. Ricky Saints (Men's United States Championship)
• Oba Femi vs. Jey Uso (King of the Ring Finals)
• Iyo Sky vs. Liv Morgan (Queen of the Ring Finals)
• Cody Rhodes vs. Sami Zayn vs. Gunther (Undisputed WWE Championship)

Let's take a look at the best and worst booking decisions from Saturday night.

Best: The Ruler Becomes The King

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The PLE kicked off with the King of the Ring finals between Uso and Femi. Both men have been very successful in WWE, so this wasn't as easy to predict as it may seem on paper.

What was predictable was Femi being the more dominant of the two. The Ruler physically outmatched Jey in almost every way except speed, and even Jey didn't have him beat by very much in that category.

The Righthand Man definitely put up a valiant effort, but he didn't have enough in the tank to overcome Femi's dominance.

This was an easy slam dunk of a booking decision. Femi is one of the hottest young stars on the roster and WWE clearly sees his value, so it has been booking him as strong as possible.

Winning the KOTR tournament is a great placeholder for him until WWE decides to put a belt around his waist. The match was just the right length, too. It started the show the right way.

Best: From Genius to Queen of the Sky

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WWE wanted to make sure the KOTR and QOTR finals were both part of the free hour on ESPN, so Morgan vs. Sky immediately followed Femi vs. Uso.

Booking them in the finals was surprising because Morgan already holds one of the women's world titles, but she hasn't had a real feud since winning the belt, so it felt like this was WWE's way of keeping her busy until her next story.

Prior to the match, Morgan was cursed by Danhausen for demanding that he give back the money Judgment Day gave him, but she didn't seem bothered and slapped him before heading to the ring.

Both women gave good performances and made this into a competitive back-and-forth fight, but when the ref counted to three, it was Morgan who had her shoulders on the mat.

This was absolutely the right decision. Making one of the world champions the No. 1 contender for the other title makes no sense right now, and Sky's popularity made her an easy pick to win.

The Genius of the Sky looked elated when she was presented with the crown, and the crowd seemed just as happy. She immediately challenged Morgan for her title at SummerSlam in her victory promo. There is no doubt that this was the best call management could have made.

Worst: Bron Breakker Loses Inside The Cage

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The only other non-title match on the card saw Rollins step inside a Steel Cage to take on his former ally, Breakker.

Before he even got inside, Rollins made sure the ring was full of weapons by grabbing some kendo sticks, chairs and tables from under the ring. Breakker did the same thing, so they had no shortage of items they could use to inflict damage.

Both men used all of the weapons and the walls of the cage to their advantage. They went from 0-60 right away and made this into a hard-fought and slightly bloody battle. We didn't see many traditional wrestling moves, but that is to be expected in this kind of match.

Both men held a victory over the other heading into this show, so this was the rubber match. It might not end Rollins' feud with The Vision, but winning would certainly give the winner a lot of momentum.

Both men took each other's best shots and kicked out, but Breakker was unable to survive a super Stomp. While the match was entertaining, it felt like a prime opportunity for WWE to make a new top star with Breakker.

Rollins winning is good for him, and Breakker can easily recover from the loss, but had he won here, he would have gained so much more in the long run than The Visionary will. This wasn't a huge booking tragedy, but it was definitely a missed opportunity.

Worst: More Commercials

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When we watch a weekly episode of WWE television, we understand that there will be commercial breaks. It's always been that way and likely always will be in the future.

However, pay-per-view events, now known as Premium Live Events in WWE, were a respite from that. It was a few hours of commercial-free action, and we paid a premium price for it in return.

Now, watching a PLE almost feels like watching any other WWE program. The stage is bigger, and there might not be mid-match breaks, but having commercials between every single match, with the breaks sometimes lasting longer than they would on a weekly TV show, still feels like too much.

It's bad enough that we now have sponsor logos plastered all over the ring, barricades and turnbuckles these days, so adding more ads on top of that feels excessive. Us complaining about it is unlikely to change anything, but it's still worth mentioning.

Best: Trick Williams Retains

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Williams put his United States Championship on the line against Saints in the fourth match of the night. As usual, Lil Yachty was by the champ's side.

Saints had a lot of success in NXT, but this was his first big opportunity on the main roster, so he brought a lot of energy to the ring.

He and Williams displayed decent chemistry and had a solid match. It's hard to follow a bout like the Cage match that came before it, but on any other night, this would have felt like a bigger deal.

Trick Willy feels like a priority for WWE. His booking has been strong, and he has been heavily featured on SmackDown in recent months, so even though Saints would have benefited greatly from the win, it was just as important for Williams to keep his push strong.

Thankfully, WWE made the right move. Saints made a great challenger, but the champion's reign still feels too fresh for it to end now. After he got the win, Lil Yachty thwarted a post-match attack and hit his own version of The People's Elbow to end the segment.

Best: It's Still Tiffy Time

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We went from one U.S. title to another when Stratton took on Cargill. The last time these two fought in a singles match was in November when Cargill took the WWE Women's Championship from Tiffy, so she was hoping for a repeat performance.

This was a little better than their previous bout from a technical perspective, but it was still clunky in some places. It's hard to tell what the disconnect is, but both women are great athletes and displayed that well.

Michin and B-Fab showing up to interfere wasn't surprising, and neither was Chelsea Green and Charlotte Flair showing up to help Tiffy.

The Queen ended up hitting Jade with the title belt while the ref was dealing with Green, which allowed the champion to hit her signature moonsault to get the win and retain her championship.

Even if the match was on the forgettable side, Stratton's win was the right decision. Having Cargill beat her for another title would have made her look weak, especially this early in her reign.

Best: Sami Zayn Finally Wins the Big One

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The main event of Night of Champions was a triple threat match for the Undisputed WWE Championship. Rhodes put the title on the line against two men who have been constant thorns in his side recently, Zayn and Gunther.

This was The Ring General's third chance to face The American Nightmare for the title this year, but Zayn was hoping to use the support of the Saudi crowd to catapult him to a victory.

One thing these three men have in common is being great wrestlers. You could book any of them as a world champion and the crowd would buy it. It's almost a blessing and a curse to have three viable winners in one match because no matter how it ends, some fans are going to be disappointed.

Whether this would be a good match was never in question. We all know these three are top-level performers, so the outcome was the most important part.

The safe and predictable outcome was booking Rhodes to win, but if WWE wanted to shock the world, it had the perfect opportunity with Zayn. He felt like the least likely winner heading into this, but we all knew the crowd would be in his corner.

Thankfully, WWE decided to do the unexpected thing and Zayn ended up getting the victory to earn his first WWE Championship. After several false finishes, he managed to defeat Rhodes with a pinning combination.

While the storyline leading up to this left a bit to be desired, there is no denying how much Zayn deserves this moment. He has been one of the most consistent performers in WWE for years, and this felt like the payoff to all of that hard work.