There’s few things that can crack through the resistance I have to modern WWE programming. The post-pandemic product somehow stayed even about as sterilized as lifeless screens in an empty room, but every now and then real wrestling breakthroughs and my curiosity overcomes my apathy. In 2026, that’s been a bit more of a rarity than ever before. Despite a fairly high watermark with AJ Styles’ two matches with Gunther, very little else in the WWE has interested me in spite of rave reviews from the general fanbase for things like the White Boy Apuesta or or even the decent response from most circles to the Mania main event of Punk/Roman.
That said, few things have been quite as appointment viewing as WWE Champion Sami Zayn.
As a 2000s super indie kid, there’s just too much love in my heart for someone like Sami Zayn. One of the greatest pro wrestlers of all time, it’s gratifying to see the man finally get his due even in spite of the myriad asterisks attached. Saudi Arabia title win? Yeesh. One-week transitional title reign? I mean, at least it happened. The matches are just kind of okay? That lost one stings the most, but it’s the inevitable byproduct of the system around him. It’s not that great wrestling can’t happen in the WWE, it’s that so much of the house style and production seem so thoroughly postured against it.
But as has happened before, and likely will always happen in the fed’s history, the real breaks through every now and then.
When one imagines the things that CM Punk and Sami Zayn can do together, this match of their three encounters gets the closest to really delivering on that promise. Where Chicago turned into a numb bout of finisher spam, the rarefied Mexico City air seems to have activated the finer qualities these two have always possessed. This match is rife with the subtler ideas that have elevated so much of their respective work through the years and it’s a pure joy to see them revel in meatier material once again.
To get this out of the way, yes, it’s a limbwork match. But as with so many of the better examples of that, it’s a match that arrives at that point through ways that feel both organic and inevitable. For one, Sami Zayn’s entering the match recovering from a hand injury and comes to the ring wearing a brace on his left hand. The brace is subtle enough that it might not even catch the eye if you’re not watching this show week to week. But what does lend it gravity and weight–aside from the blunt WWE commentary stylings–is Zayn’s defensiveness around it. In the opening moments, any time Punk even gestures towards the hand, there’s a panicked urgency from Zayn to keep the limb out of the champion’s reach.
Meanwhile, on the champion’s end there’s a trick leg. It’s likely that I’m missing some context here from not watching the show, but Punk’s selling of the leg here feels like it’s harkening to a long history of injuries, maybe going as far back as the ankle injury that stalled out his AEW World Championship run in 2022. The same sort of bum wheel injury that allowed him to be demolished by Jon Moxley in seconds on AEW television. As with that injury four years ago, it seems to be just a bad stroke of luck for Punker here as well. The two men rush in early with an aggressive punch off, only for Punk to tweak his leg while coming off the turnbuckles from a ten-punch spot. It’s a small moment and Punk registers the discomfort immediately, keeping in mind to gesture to it even before Sami smells the blood in the water. Most notably, when climbing the barricade to pose for the crowd, he slips just enough to make it clear that he’s not working with a full set of wheels. There’s something so satisfying about the injury happening almost out of nowhere, again calling to mind things like Punk aggravating the injury against Moxley with his own signature roundhouse kick.
With those two things on the table, it’s such a delight to see how things progress. Again, as he has before, Punk overextends himself to the detriment of his own chances in the match. The transition into the leg work is some of my favorite in quite a while. Punk tries to fire off a kitchen sink knee to the gut, and while it’s enough to drop Zayn, the impact damages Punk’s leg more than it does Zayn’s body. Punk’s writhing in pain on the mat by the time Zayn recovers from the impact, and from there the challenger has a clear target to go after. It’s a beautiful balancing act they manage here, having the audience realize what’s going on with the injury before Sami, and making the attack on it feel inevitable and oppressive at once. Sami’s attack also feels creative in so many fun ways. Chop blocking Punk from his blind side is great, but then the ringpost smashes and kneecap punches add a lot of fun variety to this leg work.
And of course, Punk’s just fantastic on the sell here. This is the most engaged I’ve seen him as far as match construction goes maybe since the Collision run but he does so much great stuff here. It’s not even just those prerequisite (and well-done) Kawada-style crumbles, but these little moments that he includes during his comeback work that really make this sing. Early into the leg work, Punk tries to transition back into control with punches and there’s a brilliant moment where Sami lunges for the leg only for Punk to side step and keep laying in the blows. Maybe it’s just because Bill Dundee’s on the brain from his recent passing, but that moment brought back memories of Dundee working Lawler’s blind side, just this puncher using space and the minute reactions of his opponent to their own advantage.
Hobbled, it’s only here that Punk’s really given the opportunity to work the hand. There’s a cornered animal quality to his attack on the hand as it’s instantly more brutal than any of the control work he’s done on Zayn at any point in their previous matches. If it didn’t come as a direct response to the leg work too, it would almost feel underhanded how he’s ripping at the brace and stomping without mercy on the hand. Because these two are so well practiced at this kind of thing too, it’s a wonder how they incorporate the limb work into things that should be rote like the strike exchanges between them. Punk blocking a punch and using the opportunity to elbow Zayn’s hand while Sami Zayn tries to switch levels and kick out Punk’s bad leg, that’s the kind in the moment presence and creativity that breaks up what should just be rote pro wrestling.
Where their previous match felt excessive with nearfalls and finishers too, here there’s so much actual work to preserving each man. The best moment comes when Punk’s finally able to nail that GTS of his. In an almost Tanahashi-esque gambit, Zayn survives thanks in large part to how much work he’s done on the knee. Punk strikes with the bad knee on the GTS and the pain from delivering the move stalls his ability to get into position for the cover, leading to one of the most well-earned and natural two-counts I’ve seen from the WWE in quite some time.
For so much of this match, Punk and Zayn deliver on the kind of thoughtful, physical wrestling that made them two of the best ever. But because this is the WWE, things can’t ever just be left alone. Just as I was about to declare that we had found Punk back at the top of his form from this decade, the thumb finally finds the scale. Gargano and Candice come out and then Kevin Owens not far behind them. It’s a mess from there, with the interference and counters feeling both forced and sloppy in execution. The only real good that comes from it is Punk once again selling the knee on a GTS to Gargano but the rest is about as tedious as it sounds. It’s enough of a tax on the match to keep this out of being one of Punk’s better matches of the decade, but still leaves it maybe being the best of his run in the WWE since returning.
Still, before Gargano comes rushing out, this remains one of the most thoughtful and exciting pieces of honest to god pro wrestling to come through in the WWE in quite some time. As it is, it can’t quite match the highs of Gable/Rey or the two AJ/Gunther matches, but the fact it gets as close as it does is no small feat. And hey, Sami Zayn’s World Champion again, this time getting it in a really great match to boot. You take the good where you can when it’s World Wrestling Entertainment you’re dealing with.
Rating: ****
