When Cody Rhodes failed to overcome Roman Reigns to claim the Undisputed WWE Universal Championship at WrestleMania 39, fans were left in shock and wondering what would be next for ‘The American Nightmare’.
Many current and former wrestling personalities have since had their say, with a good percentage suggesting that WWE creative had made the wrong call with Reigns retaining at the SoFi Stadium. Current AEW star Matt Hardy is the latest name to give his views on the action in Los Angeles and has offered an alternative take, suggesting that he understands why WWE made the decision but warned that the window to ascend Cody Rhodes to the throne may be smaller than some expect.
Matt Hardy believes Cody Rhodes must defeat Roman Reigns at SummerSlam.
Speaking on his podcast, The Extreme Life Of Matt Hardy, the former ECW Champion believed that Cody Rhodes should have scored victory over Roman Reigns at WrestleMania, but thinks the company may be trying to draw parallels with his father Dusty Rhodes’ struggles to get to the top:
“I mean, I will 100% tell you I think they had a I think they had lightning in a bottle and they could have made a really magic moment there. If Cody would have won and you know, came back to finish the story, and actually finished it there, and ran as the champ for a while, you know Roman could have time off he could act or do whatever I don’t know what his plans are. I’m acting like I do but I don’t. I think it would have been a big win. I think if Cody would have won the title it would have been a big win.
But with that same thing being said, looking at it from another perspective, if they actually have something, if they have this great idea for Cody, if they ever graded for Cody that is mapped out for the next few months or whatever. And maybe it was some sort of representation of Cody first had to feel like his dad to actually overcome bigger obstacles. That’s something that I could get with.”
Hardy would go on to praise the new direction Rhodes’ path has taken, noting that getting past Brock Lesnar could prove a positive for the former Intercontinental Champion. He did, however, warn that WWE had limited time to put the belts on Rhodes before fans lost patience:
“I dug the deal with Brock Lesnar turning on him the next night because I feel like if you already get back to Roman, and that just can’t be your only thing like I’ve got to wrestle Roman again or whatever. Yeah, I feel like you need something else to overcome. So to stick a Brock Lesnar in there and be able to overcome a Brock Lesnar and beat Brock Lesnar to get back on path and get back on the path of facing Roman Reigns to finish the story, I could possibly get on that.
But I don’t think you can go too long with it like I don’t think you can like go a year. I think this is something that he could probably at a maximum go through SummerSlam before fans start to lose hope and faith in Cody Rhodes, I think you might build him up have been a Brock Lesnar, maybe somebody else and get back to Roman, and then you could do the win where Cody becomes the undisputed champion. But I think the window is smaller than I think a lot of people think. But I do like the thing about Brock and him overcoming him.”
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