Cody Rhodes currently finds himself on the sidelines with a torn pectoral muscle, following an injury he suffered prior to his Hell in a Cell match with Seth Rollins earlier this year. Rhodes would ultimately go on to compete in and win said match, although following its completion it was announced that he’d require surgery, and thus is expected to miss the remainder of the year. Prior to this injury, many had suspected that Rhodes was in line for a WWE Championship victory over current champion Roman Reigns, although according to a new report from Fightful Select, this was seemingly not as certain as many believed it to be.
According to the report, despite speculation from the fans that Rhodes would be the one to dethrone the Tribal Chief, Vince McMahon was fully behind Reigns as the Undisputed WWE Universal Champion, and thus had no concrete plans in place indicating that a Rhodes title victory was on the cards at the time.
“Many assumed it was happening, but we’ve heard that there were no firm plans for the title change in place. Instead, we were told that Vince McMahon was “all on board” for the Roman Reigns double title reign, and there weren’t ideas floated from Vince that would have indicated he was ready to move on from that this summer.”
-Fightful
At the time of writing, Reigns is still currently the Undisputed WWE Universal Champion, whilst Rhodes finds himself atop of the betting odds to win the 2023 Royal Rumble, due to fans believing that the former AEW EVP will be able to make a full return to the ring by that time. Whether these rumours come to fruition or not remains to be seen, however a potential Reigns VS Rhodes Wrestlemania main event would undoubtably be one of the biggest matches the company could make on the Grandest Stage of Them All.
As always, we wish Rhodes all the best in his recovery from injury, and look forward to his return to the ring when the time his right. Rhodes will return to a new Triple H-led regime following the retirement of McMahon earlier this year, and thus whilst Vince may have had no concrete plans for a title change featuring the former AEW star, plans could always change now that the company are under a new creative vision.
