Jey Uso and CM Punk are looking for their second world title win of 2025. (Credit: Michael Marques/WWE via Getty Images)
WWE via Getty Images
WWE Saturday Night’s Main Event will host the 41st edition of the special event on Nov. 1 on Peacock, and it’s a marquee show with potentially huge storyline ramifications that will extend through Survivor Series and into WrestleMania season.
A whopping four championship matches will take place in Salt Lake City, including Jey Uso vs. CM Punk for the vacant World Heavyweight Championship and Cody Rhodes vs. Drew McIntyre for the Undisputed WWE Championship. Saturday’s event is the last major stop before Survivor Series on Nov. 29, and it could very well end with three or four brand new champions.
WWE’s two most recent PLEs, Crown Jewel and WrestlePalooza, were about as paint-by-numbers as it gets, and they also featured some questionable booking calls. For example, Brock Lesnar’s decimation of John Cena at WrestlePalooza and Stephanie Vaquer’s rather easy victory over Tiffany Stratton at Crown Jewel raised plenty of eyebrows.
At this week’s WWE Saturday Night’s Main Event, the creative team must avoid those booking pitfalls. Here are the best and worst possible outcomes of the marquee matches at WWE SNME.
Worst: Jade Cargill Loses To Tiffany Stratton Again
It was roughly three months ago that Tiffany Stratton made quick work of Jade Cargill at WWE SummerSlam in a lopsided win that seemed to signify the end of Cargill’s monstrous push. Yet, here we are again.
After defeating the likes of Charlotte Flair and Trish Stratus during her WWE Women’s Championship reign, Stratton will once again put her title on the line against Cargill. Just as it seemed inevitable that Cargill would defeat Stratton at SummerSlam, it once again feels like a lock that Cargill will win at Saturday Night’s Main Event.
In fact, it’s been reported that WWE is “committed” to putting the title on Cargill following her heel turn despite speculation that WWE officials may have soured on her. While WWE could have had Cargill turn heel during her feud with Naomi, this is a classic case of “it’s better late than never.”
Cargill is now positioned for a dominant run as SmackDown’s top champion, and if she loses to Stratton yet again at Saturday Night’s Main Event, WWE may as well forget about her being perceived as a top star anytime soon.
Best: Dominik Mysterio Retains WWE Intercontinental Championship
Dominik Mysterio has been cycling in and out of Intercontinental Championship feuds with Rusev and Penta, and if WWE was going to have Mysterio drop the title to either of them, it probably would have happened by now.
WWE reportedly has penciled in Mysterio vs. John Cena for the IC title at Survivor Series later this month, and that match would lose a lot of its appeal if Mysterio wasn’t holding his title at that PLE. The whole basis of that feud would be the anti-hero Mysterio defending the lone singles title Cena has never won in his hometown against “The Champ” in one of Cena’s final matches.
Long-term, neither Penta nor Rusev would be a bad choice to be Intercontinental Champion, but the timing simply isn’t right for either one of them to hold the title. Mysterio vs. Cena needs to be for the IC title, and that means that any outcome other than a Mysterio win in Salt Lake City would be a head-scratcher.
Mysterio should win at WWE Saturday Night’s Main Event, ideally by stealing a pin from either Penta or Rusev.
Worst: Jey Uso vs. CM Punk in WWE World Heavyweight Championship Match Ends Without a Winner
Seth Rollins’ untimely shoulder injury threw WWE Raw’s World Heavyweight Championship scene into disarray, and it’s likely that neither Jey Uso nor CM Punk would be leaving SNME as champion if Rollins weren’t sidelined.
Yet, those circumstances have thrust two of WWE’s most popular babyfaces against one another one Saturday in a match that’s actually very unpredictable. There are a lot of potential outside X-factors in this match, like The Vision, LA Knight, Roman Reigns and Jimmy Uso, who all have a reason to get involved in Punk vs. Uso.
There are also plenty of potential ways this World Heavyweight Championship match could end. Maybe Jimmy Uso accidentally costs his brother Jey, maybe Knight purposely costs Punk, or perhaps Jey even turns heel to beat Punk. But given how many possible scenarios involving outside interference there are, here’s one thing that would ruin this match altogether: no decisive winner.
Because WWE was forced into booking this match at Saturday Night’s Main Event so quickly, the creative team could ultimately book a non-finish for this match in order to give itself more time to decide what to do with the world title. In such a big match with two beloved fan favorites, that would be a disastrous booking move that certainly wouldn’t earn WWE any more goodwill with its fans.
Best: Drew McIntyre Upsets Cody Rhodes to Win WWE Title
Is Cody Rhodes going to lose the WWE Championship to Drew McIntyre at Saturday Night’s Main Event? Probably not. But that doesn’t make a Rhodes win the best decision either.
One of the biggest issues with Rhodes’ run as SmackDown’s babyface champion is that he, quite simply, lacks believable challengers on the blue brand. His most believable one, of course, is McIntyre, but the Scottish superstar just lost to Rhodes last month at WrestlePalooza and has been failed time and time again when it comes to major championship matches.
It’s not that Rhodes’ title reign is bad, per se, it’s just not that exciting. McIntyre, however, has been WWE’s best all-around performer over much of the past few years, and, yet, he really hasn’t gotten a legitimate, lengthy title reign since the fan-less era of 2020. That should change, too.
If McIntyre wins the WWE Championship at Saturday Night’s Main Event, that would set up some potentially intriguing feuds with stars like Sami Zayn and an eventually-returning Jacob Fatu. But if McIntyre loses again? Then, much like a Cargill loss would do to her, McIntyre’s character would be all but finished.