Cody Rhodes Felt “Shoot Magic” At WWE WrestleMania 40
Cody Rhodes felt something very special during his WWE Championship win at WrestleMania 40.
In the main event of WWE WrestleMania 40 in Philadelphia in 2024, Cody Rhodes beat Roman Reigns in a Bloodline Rules Match for the Undisputed WWE Universal Championship.
It was the night when Cody Rhodes “finished the story” because he became the WWE Champion for the first time. Cody would go on to hold the title for one year, and has since won it and lost it. No matter how many times Cody wins it, it’s going to be hard for him to top the thriller of his first WWE Championship win.
Since it was Bloodline Rules, Jimmy Uso tried to help Reigns, but Jey Uso stopped his brother. Solo Sikoa showed up to help Reigns just like he did a year earlier at WrestleMania 39, but John Cena was there to nullify that. After Cena got in the ring, The Rock took him out. That led to Seth Rollins trying to help Reigns, but Rollins was hurting, so Reigns took him out with a Superman Punch.
The Undertaker’s music hit, and the WWE Hall of Famer got a huge pop from the crowd! The lights went out. When the lights were back on, The Undertaker was standing behind The Rock. Rock went for a move, but Taker caught him, and Taker gave Rock a Chokeslam. The lights went out again right after that.
Thanks to the assists from the WWE legends, and Reigns going after Rollins with a chair to the back, Rhodes hit Reigns with the Cross Rhodes three times in a row, and Cody covered Reigns to win the WWE Title for the first time.
After the show, it was reported that WWE originally wanted “Stone Cold” Steve Austin in Undertaker’s spot, but Austin couldn’t make it, so Undertaker was given the spot.
Cody Rhodes spoke to The Undertaker on Rhodes’ “What Do You Wanna Talk About?” podcast, and Rhodes gave his perspective on how things went that night.
“The part to me that was so wild, because you know how blackout looks in the arena, it’s not always a blackout in the arena as it is on TV, but you pull a little bit of a Yoda move, where you’re moving around backstage real slow, just kinda conserving your energy.
Then the speed to which you roll into the ring, you can hear it, it’s like listening to a guy at a wrestling school do a roll for the first time, you sped in there and stood right up, then the reveal comes up, there you are, this moment happens, grab him, give him a big Chokeslam, he goes up for it, big moment.
Then you did the coolest thing. You looked back, knowing what was happening in the entire match, you look back at me, and of course I was in a sell, so the moment maybe wasn’t what you envisioned, but you looked back at me to give me a little ‘I got ’em, it’s your’s now, I got ’em’.”
Cody Rhodes Feels The Undertaker Has A Powerful Wink!
As he continued, Cody Rhodes talked about how there was a moment where Taker winked at him, and the lights went out at that exact moment, which made Cody feel like the Deadman really had some magical powers.
“But then you winked. And I tell people this all the time, when you winked, the lights went out, and I remember thinking ‘he’s shoot f**king magic’. I’m going in my mind ‘oh did they know, did they see him do it?’ No, they didn’t because you turned your back to the hard cam to look at me, and give me that moment.
That moment, accompanied by, I saw John’s eyes, and he just watched and kinda just like, gave me something, just a nod, whatever it is. I’m sure you know but that did so much, not just for the match, not just for the spectacle of WrestleMania, not just for WWE history because WrestleMania 40, it’s everything past, present, future.
But the amount of people who did honors for me and put me over, to go over in that moment, I can never tell you enough times how grateful I am for it, and how special it was, and how honored I was and still am, and not only that, but pressure in terms of what they did, don’t screw it up; honor what they did here.”
The Undertaker has previously discussed how that WrestleMania 40 appearance was big for him because he got to have a huge moment in front of the crowd since he retired in 2020 when there were no fans in attendance for his final match.