News

Shocking Claim Made About Cody Rhodes’ WWE Future

By Monika Thapa • Published Jan 18, 2026 03:46 EST
cody rhodes wwe

WWE legend predicts Cody Rhodes’ future after losing the WWE Undisputed Championship.

On the January 9 edition of Friday Night SmackDown, The American Nightmare lost his title to Drew McIntyre in a Three Stages of Hell match. Jacob Fatu played a key role in Rhodes’ loss.

On the January 16 episode of Friday Night SmackDown, Rhodes made his first TV appearance after losing his title to The Scotsman. He addressed his loss and promised to win back the title.

Since Drew McIntyre added a no-rematch clause into the contract for his Three Stages of Hell match against Cody Rhodes, the former world champ can’t challenge McIntyre for the title.

Therefore, he’s willing to do it the old way and announced himself as the first entrant at the upcoming Royal Rumble match. He vowed to win the Rumble and challenge The Scottish Warrior at WrestleMania for the gold.

Cody Rhodes Needs To Rebuild Himself

Cody Rhodes is a babyface, but in the past few months, WWE dropped subtle teases, hinting at Rhodes’ heel turn. He has delivered a few aggressive promos hinting that he might be tapping into his dark side.

On the latest SmackDown episode, the London crowd at the OVO Arena Wembley booed Rhodes loudly, which led WWE Hall of Famer Mark Henry to believe that Rhodes, who was once the top babyface of the company, had now turned into a tweener.

Speaking on Busted Open, Mark stated that since Cody is a tweener now, he needs to rebuild himself and earn the “respect and admiration” that he’s lost.

Mark said, “Cody gets to travel the less popular road now. One of the things that I’ve said with Cody is, Cody has established himself as a tweener. He’s kind of been very heelish. This is the road he has to travel, where he has to re-earn the respect and admiration of the fans because of the journey he’s taken.”

Make TJR Wrestling your choice for news by clicking here.