CM Punk defeated Cody Rhodes with an assist from Randy Orton to retain the WWE Championship at SummerSlam Saturday.Punk sought a GTS early on but Rhodes escaped and took the advantage in the early stages, working over the knee to remove his base and neutralizing the ability to land the finisher.The action went to the top rope and Punk managed to deliver his signature elbow drop, looking for the GTS once more but failing again. Rhodes then connected with the Cody Cutter and followed up with a Disaster Kick but still couldn't Punk away.Another Cody Cutter failed to put Punk away and he sought Cross Rhodes; Punk escaped that and an attempted figure four leg lock to go for GTS, but Rhodes reversed that into a successful leg lock in the middle of the ring.Punk escaped and cinched in the Anaconda Vise before Rhodes broke the hold. The challenger reversed another attempt at GTS before going for a spinning Alabama slam, but that was then turned into another Anaconda Vise from the champion.Rhodes fought out of that and connected with Cross Rhodes for the closest near-fall of the bout. He took Punk to the top rope and sought an avalanche version of his finisher, getting dumped back to the mat for Punk to connect with a moonsault instead.Punk finally hit GTS but couldn't make an immediate cover due to the damaged knee, and Rhodes kicked out when he did make the cover. When Punk hit a second GTS, Rhodes broke the fall with a hand on the ropes.He set Rhodes up on the announcer's desk and sought to use an elbow drop to put him through it, but Rhodes rolled out of the way to send him crashing through it on his own. Rhodes went for Cody Cutter once again, catching the referee instead. And that allowed Randy Orton to make his return and deliver an RKO to Rhodes before scarpering. Punk then returned to the ring to hit another GTS and make the winning cover.
