10 Fascinating WWE Backstage Facts About Cody Rhodes
7. He's Been In Three Intercontinental Championship Matches At WrestleMania
If you ask somebody about the Intercontinental Championship at WrestleMania, they’ll most likely tell you that it doesn’t get the matches it deserves. It used to be missing from the card altogether, but with ‘Mania stretching to an extra night, you’ll see it in a match every year now.
One Cody Rhodes knows all about that. At a time when the belt was lucky to even make the preshow, the American Nightmare fought with the IC title on the line three times. The first time was a laughable match against the Big Show that was only there to give the World’s Largest Athlete a win on the Grand Stage of Them All and hand him a strap he’d never won.
The next two were as part of let’s throw everybody else together Ladder matches. Having dived headfirst into his much-hated Stardust character, Rhodes was rewarded as filler in multi man matches where first Daniel Bryan, then Zack Ryder left with the gold.
Not long after the latter match at ‘Mania 32, Cody was on his way to main eventing pay-per-views on the indies. When he finally came back to WWE in 2022, his first title match at the Showcase of the Immortals was for the top prize instead.