After weeks and weeks of anticipation, Cody Rhodes finally got his first successful title defense at WWE Backlash in Lyon, France, successfully defeating AJ Styles in the main event to go 1-0 as the Undisputed WWE Universal Champion.
Unfortunately for Rhodes, while he’s clearly happy to remain on top of the WWE Universe at Backlash, a champion can never get too comfortable, as there’s always another challenger waiting in the wings to take their shot at the top star.
So naturally, after his huge win in Lyon, Rhodes was asked who he would like to wrestle next in WWE, be it a fresh foe or someone new he hasn’t wrestled before, to which the “American Nightmare” named not one but two foe’s he’d be down to work with at a future PLE, maybe even King of the Ring later this month.
“That is a really great question. It’s almost a better question for Triple H in terms of the matchmaker, the person who is putting on these international PLEs. Clearly, you can see the effort is being made to… we’re not resting on our laurels in the sense of ‘Oh, business is the hottest it’s been in the last two years.’ The intention is that next year when we’re at Backlash again, it’s even bigger. It’s even better. That would truly be amazing. Not to skate away from your question… there’s so many. I feel I’ve only scratched the surface, perhaps with AJ Styles. I don’t know if we’ll revisit that. That’s a type of fight I’d love to get into one more time. And he left a little ding on my shoulder that perhaps I’d like to return the favor,” Cody Rhodes said via 411 Mania.
“There’s a lot of folks. I’ll tell you one that’s maybe a little strange. I could name everybody but LA Knight is somebody that I look at because, I get it, ‘Oh they’re two good guys.’ I understand that. There is a flavor there. There is something about it. When you have that fever, you gotta know. You want to know. ‘I’m the man.’ ‘No, I’m the man.’ All that macho toxic alpha stuff that I still have a bit of, I suppose. There’s so many, and there’s probably new faces that we don’t even know. And I’m not gonna say his name, he had a birthday the other day, but he returned a gift to me that I did not appreciate and when that man returns I’d like to take something from him as well.”
Would a rematch with Styles be fun to see? You bet; the two men worked a great match in France, and there’s certainly more meat left on the bone in that feud if WWE wants to take things in that direction. But LA Knight? Another babyface who has a rags-to-riches story far closer to the “American Dream” Dusty Rhodes than his own son? Yeah, that sounds like an awful lot of fun indeed.
Cody Rhodes is ready to be the new face of WWE.
Elsewhere in his post-WWE Backlash media availability call, Cody Rhodes was asked about being the new face of WWE, a goal he’s had since returning to the promotion in 2022. While Rhodes understands the challenge ahead of him, he’s more than ready to take on the role of quarterback.
“A wrestler will tell you, ‘I’m the face of the place, I’m the face of this new era. I’m the lead dog. I’m the quarterback.’ A wrestler will say all those things and say it with bravado and beat his chest. But how you know it’s true is when somebody else tells you. There are two people tonight who told me exactly what you just said in their own way,” Cody Rhodes explained. “I won’t name names, but one of them said, ‘this is your spot.’ And that was the most important spot on the card, to take us home, to go last. And the other one, I will name his name, he’s been very helpful and that’s Jamie Noble. And Jamie Noble called me the golden boy tonight. I dreamed of that, sure. But I got hit in the mouth enough times, I fell down enough times, I looked up at the lights enough times to think maybe that won’t happen. So if that is the case and I am the face of all of this, I want to make sure that this new era and this run is remembered with as much excitement and love and happiness as it has brought me.”
As unlikely as it may have seemed on multiple occasions over the last 18 months, Rhodes did it; he accomplished his goal, kicked some behind, and even had a few fun side quests along the way, learning to do a Kimura from Brock Lesnar due to their series of matches together last year. But now that the formalities are out of the way, Rhodes actually has to deliver over and over again, a challenge he’s clearly down to take on moving forward.
