When Cody Rhodes returned to WWE earlier this year, he was the very definition of a wrestler with a rocket strapped to his back. Not only did WWE treat his arrival as a big deal, Rhodes himself spoke about how his motivation was winning the WWE world championship his late, great father never did.
Add in the fantastic program Rhodes worked with Seth Rollins and it was easy to imagine that the company had planned for him to win either the WWE Championship or Universal Championship before too long — at least until a torn pec sidelined him for the remainder of 2022.
Then again, maybe not.
A recent Fightful Select report suggests that Vince McMahon, who was still very much in charge of creative at the time, may not have had that endgame in mind so soon.
Fightful Select spoke to numerous sources in WWE who said that as the time that Cody Rhodes sustained his injury, Vince McMahon had not solidified plans to make Cody Rhodes the WWE or Universal Champion. Many assumed it was happening, but we’ve heard that there were not firm plans for the title change in place.
The outlet added that McMahon was instead in favor of Roman Reigns holding both main men’s championships and hadn’t signaled that he was ready to move on from that this summer.
Rhodes’ injury ended up making the whole question moot, but there are some fascinating “what if?” questions to ponder anyway. If McMahon’s personal scandal wouldn’t have forced him out of WWE, would he eventually have been swayed to put one of the world championships on Cody? Or if things proceeded as they did, might the new creative team led by Paul “Triple H” Levesque have pulled the trigger on a title run by this point?
We’ll never know, but assuming Rhodes is still on track for a late 2022/early 2023 return, things might break just right for him anyway. The time-honored mechanism of the Royal Rumble to shoot right into the title picture is practically begging for Rhodes to win it, which would reignite his rocket in a hurry.
And this time, he wouldn’t even need Vince McMahon’s approval to reach his intended destination.
[lawrence-related id=12578]