Cody Rhodes has formed a partnership with Roman Reigns over the past few weeks, and not everyone on the WWE roster is happy about it. Despite Reigns’ absence, the drama continued on the final SmackDown pay-per-view, with tensions escalating between Rhodes, Randy Orton, and Kevin Owens.
advertisement
During the main event of the show, Rhodes attempted to prevent Tama Tonga and Tanga Loa from interfering in a tag team match between Orton and Owens against Solo Sekoa and Jacob Fatu. However, Fatu used the opportune moment to throw Rhodes into the referee, allowing Sequa to cheat and get the win. Speaking on Busted Open Radio, Bully Ray shared his belief that Rhodes should have injected more drama into the situation.
“I was hoping to see Cody get out and then hit the brakes at the bottom of the ramp,” Pauley said. “He runs out like Randy asked him to, but then he slams on the brakes like Kevin asked him to do. “What do I do? What do I do?” And for a brief moment, Kevin looks at Cody, Randy looks at Cody, Cody looks at both of them, and they’re both getting hit from behind. [by] Dynasty, then Cody slides in to be champion.”
advertisement
If the company had bookended the segment in this way, Pauley argued that the conflict going on internally within Rhodes would have been externally projected to the audience. The WWE Hall of Famer believes the crowd would have reacted audibly to such a move, but instead, the angle was played out in a relatively straightforward manner. For now, the storyline paints Rhodes as a babyface, with Orton and Owens questioning the champion about his decision to trust Reigns.
If you use any of the quotes in this article, please add “Busted Open Radio” with ah/t to Wrestling Inc. For copying.
