Cody Rhodes is supposed to face Seth Rollins inside Hell in a Cell at tonight’s Hell in a Cell pay-per-view at the Allstate Arena outside of Chicago. However, “The American Nightmare” was advertised to face “The Visionary” at WWE’s latest live event on Saturday night, only for fans in the arena to be told he was injured. He wound up getting replaced by Drew McIntyre, but was still at the arena and chased Rollins off after the match.
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Even though Rhodes hasn’t wrestled in any capacity since a dark match following the May 30 episode of Raw, there’s no indication this is a real injury. Nothing has been reported to confirm it and WWE has continued to advertise Rhodes vs. Rollins III on social media on Sunday morning.
Update: The Wrestling Observer’s Dave Meltzer reported via Sunday Night’s Main Event that Rhodes’ injury is legitimate and that it happened while he was weightlifting (h/t WrestlingNews.co) — “Cody was injured lifting weights. From what I gather, it’s a pretty serious injury. My impression is that he is working the match tonight with the injury and I guess will get it taken care of later. The injury is legit. Everything that I heard was that he was working tonight. The doctors may say you can’t, I don’t know. It’s not an in-ring injury, it was a weightlifting injury.”
Rhodes’ return at WrestleMania 38 was quickly followed by the announcement that his No. 1 goal is to finally become WWE Champion. He has since talked about challenging Undisputed WWE Universal Champion Roman Reigns in a number of interviews.
“Roman Reigns and I, we haven’t had any interactions yet,” Rhodes told Sports Illustrated last month. “We haven’t crossed paths in the ring. I’ve seen enough to know he is incredible, and even better when you see him up close. So this isn’t the easiest path I’ve chosen. But I know I can do this.
“I think I’m the best wrestler in the world,” he continued. “And I think it’s by a large margin. That upsets a lot of people, but I don’t mean it to draw ire. This is all I do. I’m not in charge. I’m here to hone my craft, build my body, and win matches. Every week, I have to be better. That’s the ultimate clarity for me. I’m on the flagship show. Look at the pyro and grandeur. Hats off to Kevin Dunn and his team for taking the ‘American Nightmare’ and expanding upon it. I know I must be better every week. That’s the only way I can stay the best in the world. Week to week, I’m putting myself under a microscope. Go ahead and put all the microscopes in the world on me. I want Fox to come calling. I did it for Turner Media and I got a great education at my last spot. Bring it on; I want it all.”
