There were fears that Cody Rhodes may be the latest name to be side-lined following his most recent match.
Appearing live on the April 26th episode of SmackDown, the Undisputed Champion first addressed the live crowd before joining Triple H to announce the first round of WWE Draft picks. In the opening round, former NXT Champion Carmelo Hayes was selected to be a part of SmackDown and was the first of many main roster call-ups. Looking to make an impression right from the start, Melo challenged Rhodes to a match that night, which was booked in the main event of the show.
During the match, both men appeared to go for a jumping cutter but missed. Rhodes landed badly on his shoulder and continued to grab it multiple times for the remainder of the match. The clip from the match would quickly circulate online and led to some fans being concerned for Rhodes following the match. With multiple top stars being sidelined with injuries, including Rhea Ripley being forced to vacate her title due to injury, many were hoping that Rhodes would not be added to that list.
Providing an update on Wrestling Observer Radio, Dave Meltzer confirmed that Rhodes is not listed as injured and it will not be a part of the storyline as it would have been mentioned on Raw:
“He’s not listed as injured. They never mentioned it on TV so it’s not a worked injury either, it’s not like it’s in storyline because it wasn’t mentioned. [Bryan Alvarez – Rhodes wasn’t on the show, if it was going to be mentioned, then it would have been on Friday]. It’s the main event on the pay-per-view, I would think that if they were doing a storyline they would have mentioned it. They showed all kinds of clips from SmackDown and they never addressed it.
I would say if they were going to address it as storyline then it would have been [addressed on Raw]. It’s the pay-per-view main event, it would have been addressed tonight. So I don’t think it’s being addressed. I was told that it was not listed as a real injury so whatever it was, it might be something minor, it might be nothing at all. It’s probably nothing at all significant.”
Cody Rhodes Prepares For Next Championship Defence
Following on from his historic victory at WrestleMania 40, Rhodes will next defend the title in Lyon France at Backlash on May 4th. In what will be The American Nightmare’s first televised defence of the championship, Cody Rhodes will face AJ Styles at the upcoming Premium Live Event.
Cody Rhodes has also detailed a monumental goal he wants to achieve in WWE.
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