Cody Rhodes put the Undisputed WWE Championship on the line against Kevin Owens during last night's Royal Rumble PLE. In the closing stages of the match, the American Nightmare snapped and repeatedly punched KO until the heel was busted open.
After sending Owens through a ladder with a brutal Alabama Slam, Rhodes pulled his title down from above the ring and posed with that and the Winged Eagle championship above his lifeless opponent as Sami Zayn watched on.
Rhodes' celebration felt very heel-ish, and speculation is already running rampant about that being the direction he's being taken in. WWE seems to be telling a story about the WWE Championship corrupting those who hold it, with Rhodes' actions becoming increasingly darker.
However, it's just as likely this was meant to set the stage for Rhodes to feud with Zayn heading into the Elimination Chamber PLE.
After the Royal Rumble ended, it was said that Rhodes suffered multiple injuries that could put his Road to WrestleMania in jeopardy. He'll provide an update on those during Friday's SmackDown.
Rhodes has previously said this about being compared to The Boys' Homelander:
"With all the love I have for The Boys and his [Anthony Starr's] performance as Homelander, the entire cast, and their production is first class, what a production. The robe is not based on it. The robe is based on military dress uniforms. It’s the little bit of scales, the gold on my bigger robe that has the eagles and of course, the blonde hair and I think the AEW run where people thought I’m pretending to be a good guy but I’m actually a bad guy, which maybe it was what was happening? I think that’s where it really became 'Is gonna go full Homelander?' Truthfully, Homelander the character is a terrible human being."
As for the possibility of turning heel, he's cast doubt on the notion but not fully dismissed the idea of one day breaking bad:
"You can do whatever. WWE is such a hot ticket now. It moves on. It’s great to have a quarterback, great to have franchise players or top stars, whatever it might be, but it’s going to move on with or without you there, someone will fill that spot. Social media for pro wrestling is very important and you’ll hear people try to say it’s not important, you’ll hear people say they’re just trolls. I think you need to know what a troll really is. This is a real person who probably has a pretty good high-paying job. This is how they release. This is their event, whatever. This is my weird psychology or theory on trolls."
"But with all that said, there’s a whole section, a huge section of WWE audience that’s not actively on social, they have it, they do stuff on it, but that is not their bread and butter. They’re not dictated to by it. Whereas some of the other independent and smaller promotions are dictated to by social media so we have to always look at it. “We want Cody” is a prime example. Is this social media or is this bigger? It only became bigger when we showed up in that arena on Monday and they started chanting it in real time. That’s where you know the difference between a fad, between this thing and something that okay, this is a wave that’s far far bigger. It could happen for sure. I just don’t see it happening."
Do you think Rhodes is turning heel?