WrestleMania Finish Made Cody Rhodes Look Weak Claims Ex-WWE Star

A former WWE star has hit out at the finish to Cody Rhodes and John Cena’s WrestleMania 41 main event.

At WrestleMania 41, John Cena defeated Cody Rhodes to win his historic 17th World Title. Cean didn’t win the match alone, though, as Travis Scott distracted The American Nightmare just as he was closing in on victory. While Rhodes dropped Scott with a Cross Rhodes, the rap star recovered and pulled the referee out of the ring just as Cena looked beaten.

Rhodes was able to keep the upper hand, but his refusal to hit Cena with the title belt cost him when the veteran hit him with a low blow and hit nailed him with the belt to claim the win.

Analysing the bout on his ‘Extreme Life’ podcast, Matt Hardy joined the chorus of fans who questioned why The Rock was nowhere to be seen after being instrumental in Cena’s recent heel turn.

“The match, when I watched it back, especially the match they had between one another. You had Cody kick out of multiple [Attitude Adjustments], right? He escaped the STFU a couple of times. I thought, especially for what I expected for John, John being older, I still thought he had a real solid match for a main event when it was all said and done. The biggest critique I have was that finish and protecting Cody and the way it was done. I would have loved to seen Rock there, I felt like The Rock being there would have made sense, it would have kind of tied everything together that was part of the story.”

Hardy gave his thoughts on how the match could have went, suggesting that Rhodes should have gone for the belt shot but been thwarted by Scott.

“What I would have personally liked to see is something where they end up doing the spot where Cody already had a visual pinfall and now there’s another one and there’s another pinfall after Cross Rhodes and there’s a one, two, and Travis Scott pulls out the ref, which is a spot that did happen in the match. Pulls out the ref and the ref is supposedly knocked out. Maybe he gets up on the apron like he’s going to come in, Cody goes to confront him, Cody goes after him and then chases him around the ring or something. He comes back in and now John has gotten back up and has the title and now John swings. Cody catches it, they’re fighting back and forth and they’re kind of struggling. They turn around, then finally when Cody is free and he has the title and he’s going to hit Cena, as the last second Travis Scott just hits him, drops the title. He turns around, Cross Rhodes him, and that’s where he gets blasted with the title by [Cena].”

The former WWE star believes the way things went down has led Rhodes to a position where he looks “weak.”

“I don’t want to see the deal where Cody had this title after what John Cena had done to him where he punted him the balls, they beat him blatantly, they destroyed him, and now he has sympathy for this guy. I feel like you can’t put Cody in that position. It’s just hard for Cody. I want Cody to still be the cool babyface champ. I don’t want to see Cody in that position where he looks weak. We need to keep Cody as strong as possible and in that finish, I would have tried to book him as strong as possible. If the ultimate story is that he gets kicked in the nuts and hit with a title, I’m fine with that, but the way we get into it is the thing I’m critical of.”

Where Has Cody Rhodes Been Since WWE WrestleMania 41 Defeat?

After being defeated at WrestleMania, Cody Rhodes was absent from WWE TV, while John Cena stole the limelight on Raw. It has been reported that the star has been taking some well-deserved time off with his family, although it’s possible he will return as soon as the April 25th edition of SmackDown.

H/T to Fightful for the above transcription.