How Randy Orton vs Cody Rhodes at WrestleMania 42 has been built for 18 years but somehow still feels rushed | Column
Randy Orton vs Cody Rhodes at WrestleMania 42 should’ve been the easiest match to build to on the entire card. Rhodes joined the Legacy faction in December 2008 and he has at least in part been linked with the 14-time World Champion kind of ever since. It’s student has become the master level stuff, but somehow WWE (and TKO) have managed to make this natural slow build turn into a convoluted mess just weeks before ‘Mania takes place in Las Vegas. How, HOW do you manage that? It’s almost impressive levels of neglect when it comes to creative.
Rhodes vs Orton – Legacy vs Legacy
We all know the story of why Cody decided to leave WWE in 2016 during his run as Stardust. Rhodes managed to build himself outside of the company on the indies, New Japan, ROH and of course, All Elite Wrestling. Orton however was a made man in the company from the early to mid-2000s and he has stuck around since.
It’s two completely different trajectories from a second and third-wave generation of performers that are now meeting for the biggest prize in the game at the biggest event of the year. The story writes itself, yet WWE creative has insisted on trying to rewrite that story with twists and turns they did. not. need.
Cody Rhodes wins the WWE Championship
One of the big issues with this build towards Cody vs Randy is how much it has affected another star on SmackDown, namely Drew McIntyre. The Scottish former WWE Champion has never really had the full backing from the back office; he’s used as a guy that faces “the guy” (see CM Punk, Roman Reigns et al) or as a placeholder until something better comes along.
Orton vs Rhodes appeared to be that “something better” in the company’s eyes, but Rhodes winning the WWE Championship and bringing that into this feud just felt extremely forced and (pardon the pun) outta nowhere. American Nightmare vs The Viper did not need the WWE Championship, except the poor ticket sales for WrestleMania 42 thus far prompted the company to hit the panic button and put both Cody and Roman Reigns back in the main event in some fashion across Night 1 and Night 2.
WWE or TKO isn’t seeing the problem
WrestleMania isn’t selling out tickets because they cost too much. Yes you can look at the card and say it’s not exactly stacked, but ‘Mania shows have often sold a decent amount of allocation before even the Rumble has taken place and we know the main feuds heading into the grandaddy of them all. Hell, I bought WrestleMania 29 tickets in November the year prior (what an excellent life decision that was) and watched in genuine pain as I realised we were getting Twice in a Lifetime.
I paid $150 dollars for that ticket, which wasn’t exactly close to the ring but it was close enough that I could see what was actually going on. That price now will either get you full on nosebleeds or a half decent seat at the Hall of Fame. Oh, and that’s just for one night, you’ll be paying double that if you want to see everything that weekend.
Last Minute “Saves” don’t work here
TKO (meaning UFC), has been a business that can “save” a PPV event in the dying embers by adding a fight that fans genuinely want to see. Although a natural storyline can massively add to the allure of a fight card (think McGregor vs Khabib or Jones vs Cormier), if you can add a big name at the last second then sometimes it can feel like it has saved the entire night. Pro Wrestling, however, is not the same as combat sports, because as fans we treat the build to an event as part of the enjoyment of the match that is then presented to us.
Shoehorning Pat McAfee will not sell more tickets to the show, at least not in a big or meaningful way. There was a natural story to tell here, and instead of just letting it happen, TKO decided that they needed to throw everything at the wall because it worked for Nate Diaz vs. Conor McGregor or Anderson Silva vs. Daniel Cormier. Forget saying this isn’t ballet (which is a dumb phrase btw)…this isn’t MMA.
So what has happened here is WWE dropping years and years of natural build because they wanted to try and sell far-too-expensive tickets. They could get away with it last year when it was billed as John Cena’s last ever WrestleMania match, but there’s nothing on that level to get away with exceedingly expensive tickets in 2026. Making the focal point of a Cody vs Randy an NFL kicker turned commentator turned part-time wrestler won’t fix anything.
Adding “and this and this and this” to a natural storyline has made it rushed over the past few weeks:
- Cody beats Drew for the title after Randy wins at Elimination Chamber
- Randy turns Heel
- Randy reveals he was on the phone with Pat McAfee this whole time
- Cody compares the reveal that same night to Disco Inferno being the nWo third man.
That’s all since March 6th. That’s 4 major twists in a storyline in a month and we’ve still got a week or two left. Didn’t need it. Didn’t want it. Who is this even for?
Jake is an SEO-minded Football, Combat Sports, Gaming and Pro Wrestling writer, successful Editor in Chief, Sports SEO Coordinator for NationalWorld and SEO Writer for F4Wonline.com. He has more than ten years of experience covering mixed martial arts, pro wrestling, football and gaming across a number of publications, starting at SEScoops in 2012 under the name Jake Jeremy. His work has also been featured on Wrestling Headlines, Wrestlingnewsco, HotNewHipHop, The Hard Times and Sportskeeda.
Previously, he worked as the Editor in Chief of 24Wrestling, building the site profile with a view to selling the domain, which was accomplished in 2019. Jake was previously the Editor in Chief for FightFans, a combat sports and pro wrestling site that was launched in January 2021 and broke into millions of pageviews within the first two years. He previously worked for Snack Media and their GiveMeSport site, creating Evergreen and Trending content that would deliver pageviews via Google as the UFC and MMA SEO Lead. Jake managed to take an area of GiveMeSport that had zero traction on Organic and push it to audiences across the globe. Jake also has a record of long-term video and written interview content with the likes of the Professional Fighters League, ONE and Cage Warriors, working directly with the brands to promote bouts, fighters and special events.
He previously worked for the (then) biggest independent wrestling company in the UK, PROGRESS Wrestling, as PR Head and Head of Media across the social channels of the company.