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Details On WWE Plans For Cody Rhodes’ First Title Challenger

By John Canton • Published 12th April 2024
Cody Rhodes WWE Championship

The first challenger for the WWE Championship held by Cody Rhodes will likely be coming from the Smackdown brand.

At WrestleMania 40 in Philadephia, Cody Rhodes ended the 1,316-day Undisputed WWE Universal Championship reign of Roman Reigns.

In the WrestleMania 40 Sunday main event, Cody faced Roman in a Bloodline Rules match that saw all kinds of interference take place. The good thing for Cody was every time Reigns had help from his family, Cody had backup too. After The Undertaker took out The Rock with a Chokeslam and Reigns attacked Seth Rollins with a steel chair to the back, Cody avoided a Spear from Reigns. That led to Cody hitting the Cross Rhodes neckbreaker for the pinfall win.

On Raw After WrestleMania, it appeared as though WWE was teasing a Cody Rhodes singles match with The Rock, but that could be a year away at WrestleMania 41 due to The Rock having other, non-WWE commitments like movies to film and produce.

In the immediate future, Cody will likely defend the WWE Championship against a Smackdown wrestler.

It was reported by WrestleVotes on Twitter/X that tonight’s WWE Smackdown from Detroit will feature two triple threat matches and the winner of those matches will face off next week to see who gets to challenge Cody Rhodes for the WWE Title.

Tonight’s #SmackDown is set to feature 2 triple threat matches to name a brand new #1 contender. As of now those matches are: Kevin Owens vs Rey Mysterio vs AJ Styles and Santos Escobar vs LA Knight vs Bobby Lashley. With the winners going one on one next week.

Four of the six men mentioned there have been WWE World/Universal Champions before while Knight and Escobar are rising stars on the blue brand.

Cody Rhodes Featured On WWE Backlash Poster

The next WWE Premium Live Event is the Backlash from Lyon, France on Saturday, May 4th with a special start time of 1 pm ET. Cody Rhodes as the WWE Champion is on the poster for the event, which was tweeted out by WWE Chief Content Officer Paul “Triple H” Levesque.