WWE Saturday Night’s Main Event Erupts: 2 Titles Change Hands as Dominik Mysterio Bends the Rules

Saturday Night's Main Event rolled into Salt Lake City on November 1 with a pretty wild promise: four title matches in one show. They actually delivered on it, too, with the WWE Championship opening the night and the World Heavyweight Championship closing it. Here is how it all shook out.

• Cody Rhodes def. Drew McIntyre to retain the WWE Championship
• Jade Cargill def. Tiffany Stratton to win the WWE Women's Championship
• Dominik Mysterio def. Penta and Rusev to retain the Intercontinental Championship
• CM Punk def. Jey Uso to win the World Heavyweight Championship

WWE Championship: Cody Rhodes vs. Drew McIntyre

They kicked off the show with Rhodes vs. McIntyre, and it had that big-fight feel. Rhodes, 40, started sharper and got more sustained offense early, but McIntyre kept timing smart counters and wouldn’t go away. Then we got the chaos: the referee went down late, and McIntyre reached for the WWE title belt to finish the job. It backfired spectacularly. Rhodes turned it around with a DDT right onto the belt, followed up with Cross Rhodes, and sealed the pin. Weaponizing the hardware ended up helping the champ, not the challenger.

WWE Women's Championship: Jade Cargill vs. Tiffany Stratton

Stratton showed up with her left knee heavily wrapped, and it became a factor immediately. She had a couple flashes, but this was mostly Jade Cargill bullying her from bell to bell. After several minutes of one-way traffic, Cargill planted her with Jaded and pinned her clean to take the title. That is Cargill's first reign as WWE Women's Champion, and it was about as decisive as it gets. Tough night for Buff Barbie; The Storm had her number.

Intercontinental Championship: Dominik Mysterio vs. Penta vs. Rusev

Yes, that is Rusev and Penta in the same WWE title match. If that combo made you do a double take, you were not alone. The story once the bell rang: Rusev did most of the damage, Penta delivered the flash (including a late Penta Driver), and Dirty Dom spent long stretches lurking on the outside to avoid the heavy shots.

The turning point was good old-fashioned trickery. Rusev cinched in the Accolade and looked close to finishing it, until Mysterio rang the bell to force a break and make Rusev think he had already won. When the ruse got exposed, Rusev dragged Mysterio back in with the bell hammer in hand, things got messy, and Penta accidentally popped Rusev with that same hammer while going after Dom. Mysterio then rammed Penta into the ring post to clear him out and hit a frog splash on the wounded Rusev for the 1-2-3. Not pretty, but effective. He keeps the Intercontinental title.

World Heavyweight Championship: CM Punk vs. Jey Uso

Punk came in with a score to settle after what he viewed as an unfair loss at Clash In Paris, and he wrestled like a guy who decided there would not be a round three. He pushed the pace early with heavy strikes, including knees, while Jey Uso played it smart and bailed to the floor a few times to reset. The match tilted into a submission battle late: Uso slapped on a sleeper, Punk reversed into an Anaconda Vise, and that swing in control set up the finish.

Punk closed strong, drilling a dual Go To Sleep and covering for the win. That makes him a four-time World Heavyweight Champion and, counting his other world title runs, a seven-time world champion overall.

"CM Punk is NOW a 7x World Champion!!"

All told, the show gave fans in Salt Lake City their money's worth: two big title changes, two crafty retentions, and more than a little chaos getting there. If you like your premium live events with some controversy and a couple emphatic coronations, this one hit the checklist.