WWE Raw: Brock Lesnar Lays Out Cody Rhodes In Their Final Confrontation Before SummerSlam 2023

Brock Lesnar once again left Cody Rhodes in a heap on this week’s Monday Night Raw, marking the final confrontation before the pair have their tiebreaker match at SummerSlam this weekend in Detroit. Unlikely every other encounter they’ve had throughout this months-long feud, Lesnar was the first to come out and cut a promo, saying it was “Fight Week” and that he’d be getting paid to beat up Rhodes this Saturday. He demanded Rhodes come out and shake his hand, which “The American Nightmare” eventually agreed to.

Rhodes didn’t say a word, opting instead to attack Lesnar from behind with a dive after “The Beast” left the ring. Lesnar responded by whacking Rhodes with a set of steel steps, followed by an F-5 inside the ring.

WWE SummerSlam 2023 Card

• Undisputed WWE Universal Championship: Roman Reigns vs. Jey Uso (Tribal Combat Rules)
• World Heavyweight Championship: Seth Rollins vs. Finn Balor
• SmackDown Women’s Championship: Asuka vs. Charlotte Flair vs. Bianca Belair 
• Intercontinental Championship: Gunther vs. Drew McIntyre
• Cody Rhodes vs. Brock Lesnar 
• Ronda Rousey vs. Shayna Baszler
• Ricochet vs. Logan Paul
• SummerSlam Battle Royal

How Cody Rhodes’ “Heel” Run in AEW Was Supposed to End

Rhodes’ final year in AEW saw him portray a pseudo-heel character where he actively refused to turn heel despite outcry from fans. He explained in a recent interview with ComicBook that the endgame of his heel run would’ve been a match with Sting, something teased all the way back in December 2020 but never materialized. 

“I was going to wrestle Sting,” Rhodes confirmed. “I don’t think I’ve ever shared that with anybody and nothing was on paper or anything like that. But I can say I got a tremendous offer from AEW creatively, financially, the full package. You won’t hear me say anything bad about AEW or Tony (Khan) or my time there. It was a tremendous offer, but the offer wasn’t right for me. What I wanted to get back to was the first goal that I ever had (winning the WWE Championship). But yeah, that probably would’ve been the endgame. That’s what had been discussed, was to get one (match) with one of my heroes, Sting.

“And it’s one of those things, you can wrestle one of your heroes or you can work with one of your heroes and he can be the head of creative (Paul Levesque), you can’t have it all,” he continued. “And I think one thing I do pride myself on as a wrestler is I will make a decision. It might be a left turn, it might be exactly where you think I’m going, but I will make a decision. I will not get stuck because I felt like I’d been stuck early in my career and never want to be that way again.”