5 Ups & 4 Downs From WWE SmackDown (25 July - Results & Review)
Downs...
4. Cody’s Back To Building On His Own
Listen, there was nothing wrong with the promo Cody Rhodes cut around halfway through SmackDown. He's an accomplished talker - Cody was fired up at the right times, said he wants the best version of John Cena so he can find out if it’s possible to beat him, and even found time to pay touching tribute to Hulk Hogan. However, Cena kinda needed to be here to give a receipt for that beatdown on the 18 July episode.
His limited schedule and the small number of dates remaining on the retirement tour becomes a problem at times like this. Cena really had to ambush Cody from behind as a surprise, or at least be present to hype the match in some form or fashion. As it was, this could’ve been a hype package more than an in-ring promo.
It pretty much exclusively existed to get Cody’s entrance in front of fans more than because Rhodes had strong material. Those there live in Cleveland who stumped up cold, hard cash for tickets surely appreciated seeing Cody, but they'd have relished some killer SummerSlam 'Street Fight' build more than a lonely speech from the poster boy babyface.
Not bad by any means, but definitely closer to ‘Down’ than ‘Up’. Things would've been so, so different for this had John been waiting behind the curtain to ambush Rhodes, or maybe distracted him with a pre-taped video before running in from behind to put him through a table (or something).
Yes, Cena only has a finite number of dates to work with, but that ruins the flow when building towards his bigger PLE matches.