6 Ups & 5 Downs From WWE Raw (April 25)

Downs…

5. A Misfire For Cody?

We don’t want to sound the alarm here, but after last week’s countout win, it felt a bit odd to see Cody Rhodes reduced to Randy Orton’s silent tag partner Monday night.

Cody came out as Riddle’s surprise guest for Orton’s 20th-anniversary celebration, but before he could say anything, Seth Rollins interrupted, kicking off a promo train that gave us an eight-man tag match for the main event.

The match itself was fine, with Orton nailing four RKOs for the win. But Cody was little more than a body in the ring, doing not much more than Ezekiel, albeit with more crowd support. But this was clearly Orton’s show.

So why was Rhodes out there? Simple comparison: Could you see Roman Reigns out there in a similar situation, getting roped into an eight-man tag (pretend the Usos weren’t involved)? What about Brock?

This isn’t some huge problem, and the answer really is simple: Cody is a major draw for WWE right now, so putting him in a match will hopefully get eyeballs on it. But in the weeks since Mania, he’s beaten Miz, defeated Kevin Owens via countout, and now won an eight-man tag match. It’s something that bears mentioning here and watching for the next several weeks.