4 Ups & 5 Downs For WWE Wrestlepalooza 2025 (Results & Review)

3. Workmanlike Men’s World Title Match

Calling Cody Rhodes versus Drew McIntyre a disappointment would be doing the wrestlers an injustice. However, the match fell far short of its placement on the card.

Since that criticism has already been leveled, the match itself should be judged on its merits. And even then, it was just an average title match, the third-best match of the night, and a bout that felt more like it was setting up a stipped-up rematch rather than a main event title battle.

Cody kept holding his head throughout the match, seemingly selling the kicks from several weeks ago and Friday night, but the injury didn’t factor into the finish in any meaningful way – he just stumbled about a couple times and grabbed his head.

McIntyre has gotten incredible mileage out of being wronged during his big matches, whether it’s interference or a bad call from a referee. Drew has always been able to turn a slight into a grave injustice perpetrated against him. Saturday’s match no doubt will only add to that list, with the ref out of position for a rollup where McIntyre had Cody pinned for a good six count.

Later, the referee tried to stop Drew from kicking Rhodes’ head through the desk again, which gave Cody time to recover and move. McIntyre’s leg went through the table, hobbling him for the rest of the match and costing him the victory. Look for the Scottish Warrior to blame the referee and demand a rematch.

Otherwise, this would have been a perfectly fine SmackDown main event, but on this card, it probably should have gone on third.