Tag: Cody Rhodes

Cody Rhodes Responds To Fans Booing The Rock Over WWE WrestleMania Match: ‘Trust Me’

It’s only been a few days since Cody Rhodes indicated he’d be passing up a WrestleMania rematch against WWE Universal Champion Roman Reigns, seemingly ceding his spot to The Rock, but the wrestling world has been absolutely on fire over the notion since and Rhodes hasn’t said much in the interim. Tonight, following chants of “Rocky sucks” and “We want Cody” as he interacted with WWE World Heavyweight Champion Seth Rollins and Drew McIntyre on “WWE Raw,” Rhodes took to X to offer fans a bit of comfort.

Friday on “SmackDown,” Rhodes confronted Reigns for the first time since WrestleMania 39 (excusing a brief fly-by on the ramp last year), with fans hoping for “The American Nightmare” to confirm that he and “The Tribal Chief” would indeed be running things back as he attempted once more to “finish the story.” Instead, while he said he was still coming for Reigns and that he wanted to take everything from him, it wasn’t going to be at WrestleMania. Rhodes explained that he’d sought counsel from legends and one in particular who knows Reigns very well, which prompted The Rock’s iconic entrance music.

While the live crowd in Birmingham, Alabama seemed to initially respond positively as that show ended in a staredown between Rock and Reigns, fans took to the internet to voice their displeasure, creating the #WeWantCody hashtag and otherwise voicing their displeasure far and wide, along with many wrestling pundits echoing their sentiments. Still, with a shade over two months left until WrestleMania 40 — and WWE possibly testing fan reactions even still — perhaps trusting Rhodes is indeed the smart move for now.

Source: Wrestling Inc.

I believe we will have definite answers on Cody Rhodes’ WrestleMania opponent and more on The Rock vs. Roman Reigns at the WrestleMania 40 Press event this Thursday night in Las Vegas.

Backstage Report On Why WWE Swapped The Rock In For Cody Rhodes At WrestleMania 2024

Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson appears to have replaced Royal Rumble winner Cody Rhodes as Undisputed WWE Universal Champion Roman Reigns’ opponent at WrestleMania 40. Despite being a much-discussed dream match, the timing of the announcement and shunting of Rhodes out of the picture has led to huge backlash from fans, and there’s been some updates on the matter since.

Dave Meltzer wrote on the F4W Forum that it was Rock who pushed super hard to make his match with Reigns happen, and the change came to be when it was clear CM Punk and Brock Lesnar were both off the WrestleMania card. Rhodes was previously planned to challenge Reigns in a rematch of their WrestleMania 39 bout, while Punk was penciled in to face WWE World Heavyweight Champion Seth Rollins, and a Rock-Reigns bout was due to be made further down the line with either next year’s WrestleMania or a potential Saudi Arabia show in mind. Meltzer floated the idea that the change could have been made to divert attention from Vince McMahon’s sex trafficking scandal.

PWInsider later indicated that, per some of their WWE sources, Johnson put himself forward to “save WrestleMania” in the absence of Lesnar and Punk. Yet, still other sources reportedly believe he was going to push for this regardless, given his conditional $30 million stock deal with TKO is contingent on hitting milestones. Such milestones are speculated to have included a return to the ring, and Johnson felt the time was right to do so with the idea that Rock vs. Reigns will be the larger attraction. Therefore, it’s possible that regardless of who won the Royal Rumble it was going to be Rock challenging “The Tribal Chief” in Philadelphia. 

Source: Wrestling Inc.

Cody Rhodes Accepts Fan Request To Be His Best Man

Cody Rhodes was victorious in a singles match against Shinsuke Nakamura during Saturday’s WWE house show at the Spokane Arena in Spokane, Washington.

Rhodes noticed after the match that a fan held up a sign, asking him to be the best man at his upcoming wedding. Rhodes accepted the fan’s request.

Source: eWn

Cody Rhodes Reveals Fifth Member Of War Games Team After Losing Advantage On WWE Raw

The WarGames team of Drew McIntyre and The Judgment Day may have the advantage to start out the match at Survivor Series, but the team is also going to up against a viper.

McIntyre took on Jey Uso in a WarGames Advantage Match on “WWE Raw,” and won clean with a Future Shock DDT. With the win, The Judgment Day’s team will have the numbers advantage at the beginning of the match on Saturday. After the match and subsequent beat down, however, the opposing team ran down to the ring to help out their teammate. After they cleared the ring, Cody Rhodes got on the mic and announced that a friend with whom he has a “legacy” with would be joining their team. Rhodes said their final teammate is an “apex predator,” and while he didn’t outright say it would be Randy Orton will be backing them up on Saturday, he did hear the crowd’s “Randy” chants and add, “They’re right.”

Orton has been out of action for well over a year with a lower back injury that required surgery. Sidelined since May with an injury that had doctors telling him he would never wrestle again, Orton will make his return at the premium live event, which will emanate from the Allstate Arena in the Chicago suburb of Rosemont, Illinois.

Source: Wrestling Inc.

John Cena, Cody Rhodes, Paul Heyman And Asuka Set For Next Week’s NXT

No fewer than four huge names on the WWE main roster will be headed to “WWE NXT” next Tuesday as the show goes head-to-head against “AEW Dynamite.” In addition to Asuka, who will be wrestling Roxanne Perez on the show, John Cena, Cody Rhodes, and Paul Heyman will all be appearing in what has to be considered the most star-studded “NXT” event of all time.

Cena will be in former “NXT” Champion Carmelo Hayes’ corner when he faces Bron Breakker, who, as it turnes out, will have Heyman in his corner. Cena is currently involved in a feud with the Bloodline and will face Solo Sikoa and Jimmy Uso in tag team action alongside LA Knight at the Fastlane premium live event on Saturday. As for Rhodes, he’s set to make “a major announcement,” but what exactly Cody wants to talk about has not been revealed.

“NXT” will go up against “Dynamite” on AEW President Tony Khan’s birthday, on what Khan is calling “Title Tuesday.” Only one match has been announced for the show so far, but it’s a big one: Adam Copeland, formerly known as Edge in WWE, will be making his in-ring AEW debut on the Tuesday edition of “Dynamite” against Luchasaurus. WWE’s recent strategy of infusing “NXT” broadcasts with main roster talent like Dominik Mysterio and Becky Lynch has paid off in ratings numbers that rival the ones “Dynamite” gets on Wednesdays; as a result, these announcements can safely be read as an attempt by WWE not only to counter-program “Title Tuesday” (and Copeland’s debut) but to beat “Dynamite” in the ratings for the first time since the heyday of the “Wednesday Night War.”

Source: Wrestling Inc.

Cody Rhodes – ‘I Was Adamant My Peacock Documentary Covered All In’

The Cody Rhodes documentary that is airing on the Peacock network features some footage of The American Nightmare’s involvement in All In. Of course, that show led to the debut of All Elite Wrestling.

Speaking to Denise Salcedo of “Instinct Culture,” Rhodes revealed that he pushed hard for All In to be featured. He said,

“I had really minimal requests. Here’s why I had minimal requests. I’ve done enough reality TV where you think, ‘Oh, you’re a producer. Please, ask for this and you’ll get it.’ Then you’ll find out they’re not interested in what you have to say. They’re gonna run their show and that’s their job. So now my expectations are really low.”

He continued, “So I have, ‘Hey, these are two things I’d like to see in there.’ They were really small. I wanted to see if they found any footage of me wrestling when I was in high school or younger. Found it. I was adamant that All In be covered. You cannot tell the story unless you cover All In, and All In is not mine, it’s someone else’s. That’s a troublesome but also beautiful thing, in the spirit of it. So for it to be covered here, I was really happy, and for WWE to allow it to be covered kind of goes along with how WWE has treated me since I’ve come back. The song says, ‘Wrestling has more than one royal family.’ It doesn’t say sports entertainment has more than one royal family. There hasn’t been a revision to me. Kevin Dunn and Vince (McMahon) and Bruce (Prichard) and Stephanie (McMahon) and Hunter [Triple H] have just tried to make me bigger, and I thank them greatly for doing that because they haven’t changed me in the process.”

Source: eWn

Cody Rhodes Teases That Brandi Could Make Her Return To WWE

Could Brandi Rhodes be making an appearance on WWE programming in due time? Never say never.

In February 2022, both Cody and Brandi parted ways with AEW but at this time, the American Nightmare is the only one to have made a return to WWE.

Speaking on the “Out of Character with Ryan Satin” podcast, Cody spoke about his wife, saying that it isn’t unusual for the pair to do things independently. He said,

“We always wanted to do everything separately. I think even in one of the last interviews she had done before I left, guy was making fun of me in the ring, and she went out there and didn’t even need me anywhere near her. She very much can defend herself and fight her own battles.”

Cody went on to say that given her support for his career both on and off-screen, Brandi is already playing a role in his WWE return.

The 2023 Men’s Royal Rumble winner remained cagey when discussing the possibility of Brandi returning to WWE, saying,

“I wouldn’t rule it out, but she absolutely loves watching what I’m doing. She’s got some stuff that she’s working on secretly, unrelated.”

Rhodes said he won’t spoil what his wife is working on, but he reminded fans to “never say never” when it comes to the wrestling business.

Brandi worked as a ring announcer for WWE in 2011 and then for a second run from 2013 to 2016 under the name Eden Stiles.

Source: eWrestlingNews

Backstage News On Scrapped WrestleMania 39 Plans For Cody Rhodes

Cody Rhodes may have promised to take the Undisputed WWE Universal Championship from Roman Reigns during his promo exchange with Paul Heyman last night on “WWE Raw,” but at one point in time WWE had other plans for him in regard to WrestleMania 39, according to Dave Meltzer on “Wrestling Observer Radio.”

This plan would have seen a brand new title created by the company that would have been defended on NIght One of WrestleMania, while Reigns would defend his titles on Night Two. It was noted that Rhodes, Drew McIntyre, and Seth Rollins were the names discussed to walk away with the mysterious new title, with WWE hoping to have two top titles once again. 

This idea only would have happened if The Rock had been involved at WrestleMania 39. There had been a “pie-in-the-sky” idea for the WWE legend to win the Royal Rumble match earlier this month and go on to face Reigns at WrestleMania. Of course, Rhodes won the Rumble match instead, and The Rock is not scheduled to be in a WrestleMania match this year due to the Hollywood star not having enough time to get into ring shape.

Rhodes is now set to collide against Reigns at WrestleMania in the main event. However, there could be another twist yet due to the fact that the “Tribal Chief” is defending his titles against Sami Zayn at the upcoming Elimination Chamber event first. 

Source: Wrestling Inc.

It’s Official – Cody Rhodes Enters The 2023 Men’s Royal Rumble Match

It’s official – Cody Rhodes will be making his in-ring return at the 2023 WWE Royal Rumble pay-per-view event.

On this week’s episode of RAW, it was announced that Rhodes, who has been out of action with a torn pectoral muscle following his match with Seth Rollins at WWE Hell in a Cell 2022, will be entering the men’s Royal Rumble match.

Rhodes joins Kofi Kingston, Ricochet, Baron Corbin, Austin Theory, Santos Escobar, Seth Rollins, Bobby Lashley, Rey Mysterio, and Gunther as confirmed competitors for the match so far.

Cody Rhodes Willing To Pay $1000 Fine Each Time For Banned Term

Cody Rhodes has previously indicated that one of the traits of his American Nightmare character is to go against the grain and challenge WWE’s time-honored verbiage.

On the April 11 “WWE Raw” episode, for example, Rhodes would refer to “Superstars” as “Wrestlers” and “Titles” as “Championship Belts” during a Miz TV segment, for which he was corrected on live television by The Miz.

Turns out, Rhodes is fine being charged a $1,000 fine every time he uses a banned word on WWE TV.

Rhodes made his intentions known during Mattel’s recent WWE San Diego Comic-Con 2022, where panelist Steve Ozer pointed out how “title belts” were being added to the 2-pack WWE figures before he quickly corrected himself to say “championship titles.”

This promoted Rhodes to ask the Mattel employee to continue saying whatever he wishes.

“Buddy, you can say belts,” Rhodes said. “If they fine me $1000 every time I say belts, I’m fine with it. Belts. It can be a title belt, sure, it’s a championship. But it also physically goes around your waist. It’s a belt. So, those are great belts [in the new Mattel figures].”

Earlier this year, Dave Meltzer of The Wrestling Observer released WWE’s updated internal list of over 30 banned terms.

Wrestling

Wrestlers

Belt

Blood

Choke

Diva

Strap

Kayfabe

Mofos

Head Shot

Trauma

DQ

The Anti-Diva

Spinal Injuries

Victim

Violence/Violent

WWF

Wifebeater

Curb Stomp

Strangle

Kill

Murder

Kayfabe

House Show

Push

Being Over

Babyface

Heel

Job/Jobber

Card

Non-Title

There is also speculation that the word “attacked” was added to the list following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine earlier this year. This is supposedly why announcer Jimmy Smith corrected himself to say “assaulted” after using the term “attacked” while describing Seth Rollins’ backstage fight with Cody Rhodes following their match at WrestleMania Backlash in May.

Rhodes, currently sidelined with an injury, is the early odds-on favorite to make a triumphant return at next year’s Royal Rumble. During the same Comic-Con panel, Rhodes discussed the possibility of his comeback at January’s annual battle royal.

“[My doctor] told me flat out that he’s not going to give me a timeline because he’s afraid I’m going to try and jump it,” Rhodes said. “So I’m still going to try and jump it.”

Rhodes added that his recovery is “ahead of schedule” but also noted that he “couldn’t win an arm wrestling contest” right now.

“My Royal Rumble stats are top 10, they’re phenomenal,” Rhodes added. “So if I was to come back at that event, there is a chance I could actually get up in the top five and I’m all about that …. You never know! We’ll see.”

Source: Wrestling Inc.