Cody Rhodes Wants His WWE Title Matches To Reflect A Different Time
Cody Rhodes wants his WWE Championship matches to have a different feel compared to other champions from the past.
It was at WrestleMania 40 in Philadelphia when Cody Rhodes became the WWE Champion for the first time. Cody’s win over Roman Reigns cemented him as WWE’s top star who is currently on the Smackdown brand.
Since winning the WWE Championship, Cody has defended the title at live events regularly while also picking up wins over AJ Styles at Backlash France and Logan Paul at the King and Queen of the Ring PLE in Saudi Arabia.
Those two matches were both considered to be outstanding by many people who watched them. The Wrestling Observer’s Dave Meltzer rated the Rhodes/Styles match at five stars, which is another way of saying it was an exceptional match because not a lot of matches will reach that level in a given year.
In an interview with The Babyfaces Podcast, Cody spoke about how he wants his WWE Title matches to represent a different time for the company compared to what it was like during Roman Reigns’ 1,316-day title run that Cody ended at WrestleMania.
“Big thing for me was, I wanted the matches to reflect a different time for the title, and I don’t know if the Logan [Paul] one checked that box necessarily, but I can tell you the first AJ match certainly did, in terms of what myself as champion would look like.”
“I think a thing to avoid, pitfall, is to make the comparisons to what Roman did because it was such a unique time, Roman carrying WWE through COVID and having the titles for so many years and all that.”
“For me, it’s all about making it my own thing, and the reality is, if WrestleMania XL was the peak, then it was a really incredible peak. But I had a good tendency to see where the puck is going in the industry, and I think it only gets better from here.”
While Cody specifically didn’t say it, he may have been referring to the Roman Reigns match template that saw the Tribal Chief cheat to retain his title on many occasions.
Cody Rhodes Defending The WWE Championship At Clash At The Castle
At the WWE Clash at the Castle PLE in Glasgow, Scotland next Saturday, June 15th, Cody Rhodes will defend the Undisputed WWE Championship against AJ Styles for the second time.
The match was agreed to on WWE Smackdown in Louisville when an enraged Cody wanted revenge on Styles, who faked his retirement one week earlier and that led to a cheap attack by Styles on Rhodes. After Styles said that he wanted a WWE Championship match, Cody granted it, but only if Styles agreed to an “I Quit Match” and it became official shortly after that.
Check out the WWE Clash at the Castle lineup below.
* World Heavyweight Championship: Damian Priest (c) vs. Drew McIntyre
* I Quit Match for the Undisputed WWE Championship: Cody Rhodes (c) vs. AJ Styles
* WWE Women’s Championship: Bayley (c) vs. Piper Niven
* Intercontinental Championship: Sami Zayn (c) vs. Chad Gable
* WWE Women’s Tag Team Championships: Bianca Belair & Jade Cargill (c) vs. Shayna Baszler & Zoey Stark vs. Alba Fyre & Isla Dawn
You can watch WWE Clash at the Castle, streaming live Saturday, June 15, at 2 p.m. ET/11 a.m. PT on Peacock in the United States and on WWE Network everywhere else.