Cody Rhodes defeated John Cena at SummerSlam 2025 to kickstart his second reign as WWE Champion. After climbing up the ranks to turn out to be the brand new face of WWE following his comeback to the corporate, Rhodes has had extra success than anybody in the previous few years with two Royal Rumble wins, three straight WrestleMania predominant occasions, two WWE Titles, the King Of The Ring, and extra. Nevertheless, the latter half of 2025 has seen his momentum drop regardless of being WWE’s primary titleholder. Actually, it isn’t far-fetched to make the declare that his WWE Title reign has been an absolute catastrophe up to now, with poor reserving choices, a scarcity of spark, and just about nothing of be aware.
Cody Rhodes’ Feud With Drew McIntyre Has Flopped
Rhodes and McIntyre have feuded for a lot of months.
Their matches at Wrestlepalooza and Saturday Night time’s Major Occasion underwhelmed.
WWE’s reserving of this feud has been stuffed with questionable choices.
Followers have been fairly completely satisfied when John Cena’s travesty of a heel run got here to an finish, bringing to an finish with it his WWE Championship reign. WWE’s primary babyface, Cody Rhodes, received again his prize in the primary occasion of SummerSlam 2025, restoring the established order. Followers had excessive hopes for Rhodes’ second reign as WWE Champion after a fairly sturdy first reign, beginning off in a promising method as Drew McIntyre stepped as much as problem him. As an alternative of a private, intense rivalry to match the likes of Drew McIntyre vs. CM Punk or Cody Rhodes vs. Kevin Owens, these two high stars have had a rivalry that has underwhelmed, featured poor matches, and been sufferer to some very lazy reserving.
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For months, Rhodes & McIntyre have feuded for the WWE Title, throughout which era they’ve each had weeks value of absences from WWE programming, a PLE predominant occasion that ended due to a bizarre spot during which a referee stopped McIntyre from attacking Rhodes throughout a sanctioned match, and a conflict at Saturday Night time’s Major Occasion the place the babyface Rhodes truly used underhanded ways to safe one other title protection. Their promos have lacked spark and clear story, followers haven’t purchased McIntyre as a legit challenger, and Rhodes has not felt just like the champion he was beforehand. Oh, and to make issues even worse, this has been the ONLY feud of Rhodes’ WWE Championship reign.
Cody Rhodes No Longer Feels Like WWE’s Quantity One Babyface
Rhodes hasn’t been as current on WWE programming since successful the WWE Title.
RAW’s predominant occasion scene has overshadowed Rhodes and his WWE Championship run.
Rhodes’ star energy doesn’t really feel as outstanding because it was earlier than successful the WWE Title.
There was a time during which no one was hotter in WWE than Cody Rhodes. Nevertheless, with all the larger storylines, hype, and high quality happening on Monday Night time RAW and within the World Heavyweight Championship scene, Rhodes has felt misplaced on SmackDown, with the blue model dwindling in high quality and feeling very very similar to WWE’s “b-show”. Because of this, each Rhodes and the WWE Championship have felt secondary to different stars resembling CM Punk, Roman Reigns, Seth Rollins, Gunther, and extra.
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Ever since turning into WWE Champion, Rhodes has defended the gold occasionally, been absent amidst film commitments, and he has subsequently misplaced the air of feeling like “the man”. Positive, WWE will nonetheless thrust him in predominant occasions, he’ll nonetheless get monumental reactions, and his merchandise is on the high degree… however one thing has undoubtedly been lacking from Rhodes’ presentation since turning into WWE Champion once more, and it has ruined his reign.
WWE Have Dropped The Ball On Cody Rhodes
WWE missed reserving a Cody Rhodes vs. Randy Orton feud.
Rhodes might have had feuds with totally different names apart from Drew McIntyre.
Stories counsel one more Rhodes vs. Roman Reigns feud.
Cody Rhodes can’t be blamed for the failure of his present WWE Championship reign, with the blame sitting with the reserving from Triple H and people above. WWE have did not capitalize on the curiosity in a Rhodes vs. Randy Orton feud, as an alternative losing a match between the 2 within the King Of The Ring finals earlier this 12 months that wasn’t something particular, and different feuds with totally different names of SmackDown have did not climb to problem Rhodes resembling Aleister Black, Damian Priest, Carmelo Hayes, and Sami Zayn, all of which might have been contemporary.
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Latest experiences per the likes of Wrestling Observer Radio have prompt that WWE is planning one more Cody Rhodes vs. Roman Reigns WrestleMania predominant occasion. That is one other repetitive route, and one that may doubtless see Rhodes’ reign finish to Reigns, which means that there might be one other part-time run on the horizon.
