Cody Rhodes Bloodies And Beats Brock Lesnar

Cody Rhodes beat a bloody Brock Lesnar with a pinning combination at WWE Backlash 2023 after countering the Kimura lock as his redemption story begins.

WWE, through various Cody Rhodes promos, put a lot of stakes on Rhodes beating Lesnar. This past week on Raw, Rhodes noted he must go to the back of the line should he lose to Lesnar, similar to how he took himself out of contention for the AEW World Championship after losing to Jericho at AEW Full Gear 2019.

“I’m the one that has to win at Backlash, because if I don’t the whole idea of finishing the story ceases to exist,” said Rhodes in a backstage promo highlighted in his WWE Backlash promo video.

As WWE missed its window to finish the story and give wrestling fans truly special moment during its hottest period, WWE is now trying to reopen Rhodes’ window for the sake of storytelling.

“In the WWE, the story never changes. Tomorrow night on Raw at the sold out Crypto Arena the story continues, the story takes another chapter. We just got to the end of the chapter. But the story continues and that is where the story gets interesting to me,” said Triple H while defending WWE’s asinine decision to defeat Cody Rhodes at WrestleMania 39. Story enthusiast Triple H, by the way, once won the recently resurrected WWE World Heavyweight Championship in a “story” where Eric Bischoff simply handed him the belt like it was a Costco sample.

With WWE dragging out its once-simple Cody Rhodes story, Triple H added a third world championship in the form of the WWE World Heavyweight Championship. And though many who defended absentee champion Roman Reigns retaining his title in Inglewood under the guise that Cody Rhodes hasn’t faced enough adversity, Seth Rollins—quite possibly WWE’s most one-dimensional character—is currently favored to win the new title despite the fact that the only stories this character has told in recent months are the melodies of his catchy theme song.

With the daunting task of facing Brock Lesnar, speculation ensued that Cody Rhodes may get squashed by the Beast Incarnate, similar to top stars John Cena and Kofi Kingston as WWE has kept Lesnar mostly overpowered since the day he returned to the company in 2012.

A Lesnar win would have been yet another head-scratching decision from WWE with the Cody Rhodes character, which they continue to overthink in the midst of a historically great run as a babyface.

Great babyfaces don’t grow on trees. Despite all his talents, WWE tried to make Reigns into a top babyface and failed miserably. Even John Cena endured mixed-to-negative reactions throughout most of his run. If a babyface connects with today’s more fickle wrestling fanbase, it’s wise to go all the way with no hemming, hawing or hesitation. WWE had something with Drew McIntyre in 2020 until the character lost one big match after another, and now McIntyre may or may not be on his way out of WWE with his days as a top babyface far behind him. I don’t blame Drew. And if WWE continues to insist on dragging out Cody Rhodes’ story for the sake of adversity, I wouldn’t blame Rhodes for leaving the territory the next chance he gets, similar to the choice he made while being disrespected by AEWs’ fanbase.

A victorious Rhodes will now turn his sights to the WWE World Heavyweight Championship. WWE Raw will kick off a tournament for the world title on Monday night in the form of two Triple Threat matches with the winners facing each other in the main event. While no participants have been announced, Cody Rhodes is strongly expected to compete.