8 Times WWE Stars Couldn't Hide Their Boo-Boo Face

7. CM Punk & Cody Rhodes

WWE SummerSlam 2026 Cody Rhodes CM Punk
WWE

Double bubble boo-boo face in the main event of the second biggest show of the year?

Well, no actually. For one, SummerSlam's attendance fell so well short of expectations that it couldn't really earn the honour of being one rung below WrestleMania in terms of stadium showcases for WWE in 2026. And also, perhaps most relevant to this particular list, the WWE Championship bout between CM Punk and Cody Rhodes categorically wasn't the main event of the show. It wasn't the main event, and damningly, it wasn't even a main event.

'The Biggest Party Of The Summer' has decided to live up the billing with two-night cards since 2025, resulting in the event having familiar debate in the build about what warrants the grand billing on Night Two, and exactly what it even means to headline Night One. 'The Straight Edge Superstar' and 'The American Nightmare' were shockingly ruled out of both when it was revealed that Roman Reigns and Seth Rollins had secured top billing on Sunday, with Oba Femi and Brock Lesnar's Hell In A Cell battle getting the Night One nod.

Despite grand entrances and the contest being for the WWE-billed "richest prize", the shared sense of demotion was unavoidable before the pair hit the ring for a match that had been years (and years) in the making. It felt as though the two were just as disappointed as the audience with their spot, and a stare-down that should have defined 2020s Sports Entertainment was instead neutered by a mutual realisation between the wrestlers and the crowd that this was a weekend for the tastes of the the 2010s instead.

Both men have had impressive runs in this boom/post-boom 2020s WWE too. This sideswipe was nothing new for Cody though...

Contributor
Contributor

Michael is a writer, editor, podcaster and presenter for WhatCulture Wrestling, and has been with the organisation for nearly 10 years. He primarily produces written, audio and video content on WWE and AEW, but also provides knowledge and insights on all aspects of the wrestling industry thanks to a passion for it dating back over 35 years. As one third of "The Dadley Boyz" Michael has contributed to the huge rise in popularity of the WhatCulture Wrestling Podcast and its accompanying YouTube channel, earning it top spot in the UK's wrestling podcast charts with over 70,000,000 total downloads. Within the podcasting space, he also co-hosts Benno & Hamflett, In Your House! and Podcast Horseman: The BoJack Horseman Podcast. He has been featured as a wrestling analyst for the Tampa Bay Times, Fightful, POST Wrestling, GRAPPL, GCP, Poisonrana, 411Mania and Sports Guys Talking Wrestling, and has provided in-person coverage of some of the biggest pay-per-views and Premium Live Events in wrestling history, including WrestleMania, Survivor Series, All In & Double Or Nothing in destinations such as New York, New Jersey, Chicago, Dallas, Las Vegas, Philadelphia, London and Cardiff. Michael's background in media stretches beyond wrestling coverage, with a degree in Journalism from the University Of Sunderland (2:1) and a series of published articles in music and culture magazines The Crack, Pilot as well as Sunderland AFC's premiere fanzine A Love Supreme. When not offering his voice up for daily wrestling podcasts, he can be found losing it every other Saturday at the Stadium Of Light, and at Cribs gigs nationwide.