7 Ups & 2 Downs From WWE SmackDown (24 April - Results & Review)

3. You’ve Got To Give Cody Rhodes Credit

Has...has Cody Rhodes survived the recent lull he had heading into WrestleMania 42?! The reigning WWE Champion was super over as a babyface on SmackDown, but there was a bit of spice to his words too. Personally, this writer still reckons Rhodes would benefit from going heel, but he was on fire this past Friday night. There's no denying it.

Whilst doing these 'Ups' and 'Downs' articles, it's wise to strike a balance between looking at the bigger WWE picture and analysing matches/segments/promos on an individual basis. “I’m easy to find and I’m hard to beat” was one hell of a line from Cody, and it'd be daft to ridicule him or the company for buying some time with this sort of promo.

A rematch vs. Randy Orton will surely happen at Backlash if Rhodes is medically cleared in time. The fact remains that he isn’t for now, so this was the best use of him possible. Leaving the main man off SmackDown entirely would've sucked, and all Trips had to say was: 'Bring the fire, champ'. Cody 100% did, and he successfully managed to skirt the fine line between using TKO as an excuse for lame content and bashing them for poking their nose into a system they know precious little about.

2026 will be the last year of Cody's remarkable 4-year face stretch, surely. If so, then he obviously plans to go out on a high. Somehow, he's avoided catching strays due to over-exposure and unhappiness about Pat McAfee's involvement in the 'Mania biz with Orton. Onto the next.