A new Undisputed WWE Champion was crowned on SmackDown. Just weeks after Drew McIntyre won the championship, he lost it to former champ Cody Rhodes. Rhodes earned the title shot after McIntyre cost him the Elimination Chamber.
Nick Aldis made the match official last week. If Rhodes defeats McIntyre one last time, he’ll face Randy Orton — the 2026 men’s Chamber winner — at WrestleMania 42. This is a match WWE has been building to since Rhodes’ return to WWE in 2023. They were once part of the Legacy stable together and Orton was instrumental in helping Rhodes win at WrestleMania 40.
Rhodes won with a little interference from Jacob Fatu who pulled a chair out of the ring McIntyre intended to use on Rhodes. This allowed the challenger to hit the Cody Cutter and a Cross Rhodes for the win.
According to reports from Fightful Select, WWE took the belt off Rhodes to have him part of the Royal Rumble and the Chamber. Despite the negative online perception — and sometimes live crowds — Rhodes still puts a lot of butts in seats. The WrestleMania ticket sales are relatively stagnant, so making bold moves like this can only work in WWE’s favor.
“Roman Reigns called me a politician once. And I remember thinking, I’m not mad at that,” Rhodes said on his podcast What Do You Wanna Talk About? “I grew up in the business. Everyone is [a politician], to a degree. But to me, there’s politics, there’s posturing, and then there’s snaking, and backstabbing.
I think a lot of guys on our modern roster are straight up: This is what I think is better, this is what I think isn’t. Let’s talk about it. Someone’s making a decision, but the opinion’s been weighed.
Because you can smell when you get around the ones today that are like, ‘This is gonna be really good for you.’ And you can already tell like, no it’s not! I can tell this isn’t even for me. No.”
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