WWE Clash In Italy 2026 Match Card

Here is the full card for WWE Clash in Italy 2026:

• WWE Championship: Cody Rhodes (c) vs. Gunther
• World Heavyweight Championship: Roman Reigns (c) vs. Jacob Fatu
• WWE Women’s Championship: Rhea Ripley (c) vs. Jade Cargill
• Women’s Intercontinental Championship: Becky Lynch (c) vs. Sol Ruca
• Brock Lesnar vs. Oba Femi

WWE Clash In Italy 2026 Best Booking Options

WWE Clash in Italy 2026 is a pivotal stop for the creative team following WrestleMania 42, Backlash and Saturday Night’s Main Event.

In just four weeks, WWE will head back to Saudi Arabia for Night of Champions while the King and Queen of the Ring tournaments will kick off tomorrow night on Raw. At such a critical time in the WWE calendar, it’s imperative that Sunday’s PLE is a booking success.

Here are five booking decisions WWE must make at Clash in Italy 2026:

Sol Ruca Wins WWE Women’s Intercontinental Championship

Sol Ruca’s start on WWE’s main roster hasn’t gone quite as smoothly as planned, but it’s still obvious that she’s a tremendous in-ring talent who’s already developed a connection with the crowd.

Ruca is working with a top star in Becky Lynch who has a long track record of elevating new talents, and that’s precisely what Lynch should do for the former NXT stalwart at WWE Clash in Italy. Lynch has spent well over a year out of the women’s world title picture, and she’s badly needed there.

A loss to a rising talent in Ruca at Clash in Italy would accomplish two things: getting Lynch away from the midcard title scene and catapulting Ruca up the card less than two months after her official main roster debut.

Rhea Ripley Dominates Jade Cargill At WWE Clash In Italy

At WrestleMania 42, Ripley and Cargill had an evenly balanced match that was much better than most fans likely expected. Then, last week at Saturday Night’s Main Event, Cargill pinned Ripley clean after hitting her with the patented Jaded finisher.

Now, it’s Ripley’s turn to dominate.

Following Ripley’s WWE Women’s Championship win at WrestleMania 42, “The Eradicator” moved over to SmackDown, where she’s the clear-cut No. 1 star in the blue brand’s women’s division. As such, Ripley should instantly be established as SmackDown’s most dominant star.

With SmackDown’s recent influx of women like Jordynne Grace, Jacy Jayne and Blake Monroe, Ripley should be recemented as an unbeatable star in order to “pass the torch” to a newer talent down the road.

Jacob Fatu Is Protected In Loss To Roman Reigns

Given that Reigns just won the World Heavyweight Championship last month at WrestleMania 42, it’s nearly impossible to envision him losing the title so soon after winning it.

What appeared to be a stopgap feud with Fatu, however, has produced compelling TV on Raw, where The Bloodline family drama has been reignited. In the ideal situation, Reigns would be at the end of a lengthy world title reign, and WWE would have him drop the title to Fatu. In reality, though, Reigns is probably just getting started as World Heavyweight Champion.

If the assumption is that Reigns is leaving WWE Clash in Italy as champion, then exactly how he retains his title is of utmost importance. The second assumption is that Fatu will not win the World Heavyweight Championship in Italy, so he must be protected in defeat.

Expect Fatu to lose in controversial fashion even though the Tribal Combat stipulation is supposed to prevent outside interference. Worth noting: Fatu was reportedly hurt at a live event earlier this week, so his status for Clash in Italy is touch-and-go.

Oba Femi Destroys Brock Lesnar Again

After seemingly faking his retirement at WrestleMania 42 following a shockingly lopsided loss to Oba Femi, Brock Lesnar is already back and will face Femi once again at Clash in Italy.

The widespread belief within WWE has been that that Lesnar would retire at SummerSlam in August, leading to rampant speculation that Lesnar vs. Femi will now be a trio of matches with Lesnar retiring against Femi at SummerSlam. In that scenario, that final match would be the rubber match. In other words, Lesnar would likely beat Femi at WWE Clash in Italy in order to even the score and lead to the third match at SummerSlam.

But WWE doesn’t need to overcomplicate Femi’s push.

Femi shouldn’t lose at Clash in Italy or anytime soon for that matter. WWE has caught lightning in a battle with “The Ruler” and can’t risk losing it with a Femi loss to the soon-to-be-retiring Lesnar.

Gunther Defeats Cody Rhodes To Win WWE Championship

Aside from briefly dropping the WWE Championship to Drew McIntyre early this year, Rhodes has essentially held that title hostage for much of the past two-plus years. It’s time for a change.

Originally scheduled to feud with Reigns on Raw, Gunther instead found his way to SmackDown after WrestleMania, essentially swapping spots with Fatu. Now, Fatu is feuding with Reigns on Raw, and Gunther has immediately stepped up as a serious threat to Rhodes’ WWE title.

Although it remains to be seen how Randy Orton, Rhodes’ WrestleMania challenger, might figure into all of this, the best move for SmackDown right now is to put the WWE Championship on a proven commodity in Gunther. Moving “The Career Killer” to SmackDown only to immediately have him lose to Rhodes would be a misguided booking move.

If Gunther can retire Goldberg, John Cena and AJ Styles, then he should also beat Rhodes at WWE Clash in Italy.