Cody Rhodes’ Potential Motivations For WWE Heel Turn At WrestleMania Revealed

Cody Rhodes has shown signs of turning heel, but he hasn’t actually embraced the dark side.

Fans want him to go over the dark side and show the audience what he is capable of; however, that comes at the cost of losing one of the top babyfaces of the current era.

The American Nightmare is heading to the upcoming episode of WWE SmackDown for an Undisputed WWE Championship match against Drew McIntyre. If he wins, he can turn heel at WrestleMania 42.

Here’s why Cody Rhodes can turn heel

On Notsam Wrestling, Sam Roberts looked into why The American Nightmare will turn heel, or rather, his motivations.

He explored a situation where Rhodes establishes that WWE needs him to be champion, and following that, he will stop Randy Orton from coming close to John Cena’s Never Seen 17!

Fans will be cheering for Randy Orton already, so if Rhodes faces him at WrestleMania, he has the motivation to turn heel and stop The Viper from inching towards the record-breaking 17th World Championship.

Here’s Cody’s motivation as a heel if this is the way you go. You need me. You need me to be the champion. You need me to be QB1. You can’t have Randy Orton as a 15-time champion. And the idea that Randy Orton goes into WrestleMania and he might become 15 time champion.

If Randy Orton becomes 15-time champion, then Randy Orton at least tying John Cena’s record at 17 becomes feasible. The difference between 14 and 17 seems like a lot. The difference between 15 and 17, while it’s only one, seems attainable. And I think that that’s what being a 15-time champion would do for Randy Orton. It would make it seem like, well, man, even if I lose this at some point, I might be able to get John Cena in his record.

And if he goes into WrestleMania and he makes that clear, and he knows that while he’s not leaving anytime soon, he doesn’t have all the time in the world to accomplish this goal. And Cody doesn’t let him have it. I think they’ll already be cheering Randy Orton when we go into WrestleMania. I think there’ll be respect for Cody Rhodes. I think they’ll be cheering Randy Orton. And I think Cody taking that personally.