5 WWE Wrestlers Who SHOULD Have Dethroned Roman Reigns (And 5 Who Still Could)

2. Cody Rhodes

Cody Rhodes Roman Reigns
WWE.com

Many thousands of words have been spilled about WWE’s booking decision to put Roman Reigns over Cody Rhodes at WrestleMania 39, opting to continue(?) the story rather than finish it. It’s a controversial decision that will be second-guessed for a long time, at least until we see what happens longterm with Cody.

But after 940+ days as champion, an increasingly desperate Reigns finally felt vulnerable, with Rhodes having all the momentum, both in storyline and in fan support. It finally felt like the right moment and the right person to take the banner and run with it.

Simply put, no challenger had been hotter and ready to become the face of WWE than Cody was at Mania. Had he won, he would have been positioned to be the guy for some time to come. Now, he’s presumably on a redemption arc to get back to the title, but God only knows if Vince McMahon won’t change his mind on a whim and scrap that entire storyline in favor of someone like Omos.

The jury will be out for a while on this one, but Rhodes easily could have and should have been the one to topple Reigns for good.

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Scott is a former journalist and longtime wrestling fan who was smart enough to abandon WCW during the Monday Night Wars the same time as the Radicalz. He fondly remembers watching WrestleMania III, IV, V and VI and Saturday Night's Main Event, came back to wrestling during the Attitude Era, and has been a consumer of sports entertainment since then. He's written for WhatCulture for more than a decade, establishing the Ups and Downs articles for WWE Raw and WWE PPVs/PLEs and composing pieces on a variety of topics.