Sami Zayn Shares Cryptic Post With Cody Rhodes Ahead Of WWE SmackDown Title Match
Ahead of a major WWE title match on SmackDown this week, Sami Zayn shared a post with Cody Rhodes.
Over the past few weeks, the WWE Champion, Cody Rhodes has been in an interesting dynamic with Sami Zayn on SmackDown. Although the two had mutual respect for each other for years, Sami recently refused to save Cody from a beatdown by Gunther. Last Friday on SmackDown, Rhodes and Zayn also had a heated segment.
Later in the show, Gunther demanded that Sami Zayn be the special guest referee for his WWE Championship match against Cody Rhodes. The match is set for this Friday on SmackDown. Ahead of the big match, Sami dropped a cryptic post.
Taking to the X social media platform, Sami Zayn shared a picture with the current WWE Champion, Cody Rhodes before being the special guest referee in his title match on SmackDown.
— Sami Zayn (@SamiZayn) June 19, 2026
Cody Rhodes on being a survivor of the WWE creative
Ever since his return to the WWE in 2022, Cody Rhodes has been one of the top babyfaces in the company. Cody recently revealed how he works with the creative team.
Speaking on his What Do You Wanna Talk About? podcast, Cody disclosed how he comes up with a pivot in his creative plans:
You know, here’s something that I’ve adopted at Backstage and the real cameras have, they’ve seen me say it enough that I feel like they now know what I mean. But we run in all these situations where it’s WrestleMania this year, for example, or the title change in Germany.”
And let’s pivot, let’s make some different moves and all this. And oh, there’s a lot of momentum behind Drew. Do people love Drew? And as they should. He’s awesome.”
Cody Rhodes further revealed that he could survive the creative, whether it’s good or bad:
I always tell people because people will say I don’t know if that’s good for you or you know, and I don’t know if I mean it arrogantly. I think I just mean it from my own experience. But what I tell them is I can survive it.”
That’s what I tell everyone. Michael Hayes has heard me say it a lot. Mr. Heyman’s heard me say it a lot, is I can survive it. I don’t know if that’s good or bad, but I felt like as a babyface, it’s becoming a powerful trait.”
It will be interesting to see what transpires in the WWE title match between Cody Rhodes and Gunther with Sami Zayn as guest referee on SmackDown.