Cody Rhodes Injury Update Ahead Of WWE Backlash 2024

The American Nightmare suffered an injury scare on last week's WWE SmackDown.

by Andrew Pollard
WWE Raw Cody Rhodes
WWE

With Cody Rhodes set to defend the Undisputed WWE Championship against AJ Styles at WWE Backlash this weekend, many have questioned whether the American Nightmare suffered an injury on last week's SmackDown.

Serving as the first night of the 2024 WWE Draft, that SmackDown saw Carmelo Hayes drafted to the blue brand and gave Him the chance to face Rhodes in the show's main event. While Cody picked up the win, there was some concern over the second-generation star picking up a shoulder injury, with Rhodes clearly favouring his shoulder during the final moments of the match.

Speaking on Wrestling Observer Radio, Dave Meltzer noted that Cody isn't listed internally as injured and that the belief is that if there is an issue, it's only a minor one.

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As Meltzer explained:

"He's not listed as injured. They never mentioned it on [Raw], so it's not a worked injury either. It's not like some storyline because it was never mentioned."

When Observer Radio co-host Bryan Alvarez pointed out how Cody was completely absent from Raw, Meltzer added:

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"It's the main event on the pay-per-view. I would think that if they were doing a storyline, they'd mention it. They showed all kinds of clips from SmackDown, and they never addressed it. I would say that if it was going to be addressed as a storyline, it would have been addressed [on Raw].

Concluding on this matter, the Observer founder noted:

"I was told it was not listed as an injury, a real injury. So, whatever it was, it might be something minor, it might be nothing at all. It's probably nothing at all significant."

If there is indeed an injury at play for Cody Rhodes - either for real or in a kayfabe sense - one would think it'd have to be addressed on this week's SmackDown. As it stands, though, it appears that the Undisputed WWE Champion is fine to still face AJ Styles in Lyon, France on Saturday at Backlash.

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Once described as the Swiss Army Knife of WhatCulture, Andrew can usually be found writing, editing, or presenting on a wide range of topics. As a lifelong wrestling fan, horror obsessive, and comic book nerd, he's been covering those topics professionally as far back as 2010. In addition to his current WhatCulture role of Senior Content Producer, Andrew previously spent nearly a decade as Online Editor and Lead Writer for the world's longest-running genre publication, Starburst Magazine, and his work has also been featured on BBC, TechRadar, Tom's Guide, WhatToWatch, Sportkskeeda, and various other outlets, in addition to being a Rotten Tomatoes-approved film critic. Between his main dayjob, his role as the lead panel host of Wales Comic Con, and his gig as a pre-match host for Wrexham AFC games, Andrew has also carried out a hugely varied amount of interviews, from the likes of Robert Englund, Kane Hodder, Adrienne Barbeau, Rob Zombie, Katharine Isabelle, Leigh Whannell, Bruce Campbell, and Tony Todd, to Kevin Smith, Ron Perlman, Elijah Wood, Giancarlo Esposito, Simon Pegg, Charlie Cox, the Russo Brothers, and Brian Blessed, to Kevin Conroy, Paul Dini, Tara Strong, Will Friedle, Burt Ward, Andrea Romano, Frank Miller, and Rob Liefeld, to Bret Hart, Sting, Mick Foley, Ricky Starks, Jamie Hayer, Britt Baker, Eric Bischoff, and William Regal, to Mickey Thomas, Joey Jones, Phil Parkinson, Brian Flynn, Denis Smith, Gary Bennett, Karl Connolly, and Bryan Robson - and that's just the tip of an ever-expanding iceberg.