At WrestleMania 39, Roman Reigns’ historic multi-year run continued when he defeated Cody Rhodes for the WWE Undisputed Championship. This sparked mixed reactions, as many had hoped that it would be Rhodes’ time to win and “finish his story.” Maybe it will happen another time, at another event against Reigns — if he still has the title.
Rhodes had significant crowd support on his side, which could have grown with a win at SoFi Stadium or potentially plateaued on the Raw after WrestleMania. “Stone Cold” Steve Austin, who knows a thing or two about crowd reactions, doesn’t think a victorious night for Rhodes would have helped him further.
In an interview with Busted Open Radio, Austin said that given Reigns’ run and WrestleMania 39 as the “wrong time” to take the belt off him, it would not have made him the mainstream star many assumed (h/t Fightful for transcription).
“Cody beating Roman would not have gotten Cody over anymore. As a matter of fact, it might have worked against him. The way they had it set up, he showed the belt, his wife and beautiful baby are there he’s holding the baby and it’s a storybook ending and the story is told. Those guys came out there with the outside interference. Like I’ve said before, I love that spike from Solo Sikoa. Sami, Kevin, Jimmy, Jey, it was chaos, it was exciting. They built it up and had a hell of a match. Roman is on fire right now, and one of these days it will be time to take the belt from him and put it on somebody else, but you don’t make Cody by taking the belt off the right guy at the wrong time,” he said.
Austin added that it would have been “cliche” to put the title on Rhodes. While the Texas Rattlesnake thought the path was also “storybook,” he believes the celebration will happen at some point.
Austin continued, “I completely thought they made the right decision. I really respect the hell out of Cody for what he did walking away from WWE, found himself, went down to AEW and then came back. He gets injured, blows out a pec, competes in the Rumble, gets in the main event with Roman. It was so storybook and would have been so cliche to put the belt on him more so. Has he earned the opportunity to be there? Yeah. Would he have been the right guy, right now, trying to take out Roman Reigns? I just think not. Roman is so fire and so money. Cody is going to be there. To me, it made me respect Cody more when you’re laying there and looking at the lights. That story is going to be completed one of these days, but it ain’t going to be right here. It was for the right reasons and the reason was business. He’ll get it, and when he does, it’ll be a celebration like no other. I’m one of his biggest fans. I see nothing but good things for Cody.”
For now, Rhodes has a program with Brock Lesnar outside the championship picture that can bridge the gap to rekindling the Reigns feud. Somewhere in Texas, Austin likely approves.