Cody Rhodes Teases WWE Match With Roman Reigns

Cody Rhodes opened this week’s Monday Night Raw with an emotional promo stating that he was back in the WWE to finally win the WWE Championship. But the one name Rhodes never mentioned during the promo was Roman Reigns, the man who became the Undisputed WWE Universal Champion at WrestleMania 38 by beating Brock Lesnar for the WWE Championship. Rhodes finally addressed that possible matchup on this week’s edition of The Bump, teasing that the match will happen soon. 

“…When I left here, Roman Reigns was on top. And I think Roman Reigns was experiencing some of the negative byproduct of being on top. Some of the pushback that a new face, a new individual [deals with],” Rhodes said. “But the thing that makes a champion in any company is consistency. And when he said ‘Dallas, Texas, acknowledge me’ and whether they’re supposed to boo, cheer, whatever it might be, and they acknowledged him. That’s what, you want to know a term that is really overused in what we do, is over.

“…He has truly gotten over via consistency and via hard work. What he has going now with Paul Heyman and [The Usos],” Rhodes added. “I don’t want to use this word because I don’t want to sound like… he’s an intimidating presence. I just look forward to obviously, again, it exists. There’s a match out there that is likely the match that exists out there. But before the matches, you’ve got to cross paths in some capacity and we haven’t yet, and I look forward to that.”

Rhodes said he knows “to a degree” what it feels like to be “pulling the wagon” for a promotion, referencing his time in AEW. Wrestling fans got SummerSlam trending on Monday by speculating over what the main event of the July 30 event could be, with many pointing towards Reigns vs. Rhodes. 

In an interview with Variety that dropped when Rhodes arrived at WrestleMania, “The American Nightmare” addressed his AEW departure. Rhodes was one of the founding members of the company and an executive vice president but left in February.

“I chose to remain silent about my departure from AEW and I’m going to keep my word on that,” Rhodes said. “There’s no shoot interview. There’s no nefarious tale that’s going to be told. There were all these different theories and none of them are correct. I mean, there were things about money and creative control. They were printed as fact and it’s been a very difficult two months to see that, when the reality is it was just time. It was a personal matter and we couldn’t move past it. I have nothing but respect for Matt [Jackson], Nick [Jackson] and Kenny [Omega]. I’m rooting for Tony Khan. His name is going to be in the history books as someone who helped to bankroll and support this entire alternative and revolution that AEW became but for me, it was just time to move on. I get an opportunity at my dream, I get another chance at it. And you really can’t leave any stone unturned with that.”