Report: Cody Rhodes Pitched Dropping WWE Title (WWE News)

Bodyslam+ is reporting that both Cody Rhodes and Drew McIntyre had been pitching WWE Title changes behind the scenes stretching right back to their match at Wrestlepalooza in September 2025. Further, sources backstage say that Cody was banging the drum particularly hard and thought dropping the belt to Drew was the right thing to do.

Triple H and the rest of the decision makers finally got onboard with the plan during WWE's latest jaunt to Europe for a special SmackDown episode in Berlin, Germany. There, McIntyre toppled Rhodes in a lengthy '3 Stages Of Hell' main event to finally win the company's richest prize in front of a live audience.

Both of Drew's previous WWE Title wins happened during the closed door days brought on by the COVID pandemic in 2020. Now, the big Scot will roll into a house show in his homeland on Saturday when Glasgow, Scotland welcomes its favourite son.

Jacob Fatu's return played a major role in the '3 Stages Of Hell' finish. The returning hero initially went after McIntyre, but Fatu's scrap with Cody literally opened the door to Drew's escape from the cage for the win.

Perhaps the most interesting thing about all of this is that Rhodes was cheerfully booking the end of his own title reign months in advance. He won the WWE Title back from John Cena at SummerSlam in early-August, but was willing to give McIntyre his big moment as early as September.

There are so many new directions Hunter and gang can go with this. Drew as champ feels legitimately fresh, Fatu is back in the mix, and there are still rumblings that Cody could turn heel soon enough.