The honeymoon is officially over

We are sitting here on March 24, less than a month out from WrestleMania 41 in Las Vegas, and the reality of being the guy has finally caught up to Cody Rhodes.

Remember the magic of finishing the story? The tears, the pyrotechnics, the absolute catharsis of finally dethroning Roman Reigns? It was a flawless piece of professional wrestling theater.

But here is the dirty little secret about finishing a story. Eventually, you have to write a sequel. And wrestling sequels are notoriously difficult to pull off without looking like a direct-to-DVD cash grab.

For the last year, Cody has been the model champion. He wears the bespoke three-piece suits. He kisses the babies. He does the morning radio shows in markets where they still call it the WWF and ask him if the ring canvas hurts.

He wrestles on every single live event, defending the WWE Championship against anyone who asks nicely. He has racked up over 80 televised and house show title defenses since winning the belt. But being the ultimate workhorse champion comes with a massive downside. The magic starts to fade when you see the wizard every week.

The problem with the honorable babyface

Let's be brutally honest about Cody's run over the last several months. The match quality has been consistently good, but the emotional stakes have been hovering right around absolute zero.

We have seen him drag long, exhausting main events out of challengers who had absolutely no chance of winning. A random SmackDown defense against a mid-card heel is fine for killing time, but it does not build a legacy.

It reminds me of Seth Rollins' babyface run in 2019. Seth was having incredible matches, but the booking was so agonizingly safe that the crowd eventually turned on him out of sheer boredom.

Cody is dangerously close to that territory. The Vegas crowd at WrestleMania 41 is not going to be a forgiving bunch of families happy to see the good guy hit his finisher and send them home smiling.

They are going to be a stadium full of hardcore fans who paid thousands of dollars for their tickets. If the main event of Night 2 feels like just another standard title defense, they will hijack the show without a second thought.

The curse of the working champion

If you want a historical parallel for what Cody is dealing with right now, look no further than Bret Hart in 1994. Bret was the absolute undeniable fan favorite who finally won the big one at WrestleMania X.

He was the guy WWE trusted to carry the banner, do the international press tours, and make sure the main event was a technical clinic every single night.

But what happened to Bret? The booking around him got soft. While he was having technical masterpieces, the company was throwing him into feuds with mid-card acts and goofy gimmicks that did nothing to elevate his status as a killer.

Cody is fighting that exact same battle today. Being a reliable worker is a double-edged sword in professional wrestling. When management knows you can get a three-star match out of a broomstick, they tend to hand you a lot of broomsticks.

We have watched Cody bump his ass off to make challengers look like a million bucks, only to hit a sudden Cody Cutter, fire up, hit three consecutive Cross Rhodes, and pose for the hard cam. It is a strict, predictable formula. And wrestling fans despise a predictable formula.

The politician promo

We also need to have an honest conversation about the Cody Rhodes promo style. At his best, he is a fire-breathing babyface who can channel Dusty Rhodes and make you believe every single word he says.

But over the last few months, we have seen far too much of Politician Cody.

You know the exact promo I am talking about. He comes down to the ring, pauses for the crowd to yell "Whoa," asks the city what they want to talk about, and then delivers a polished monologue that sounds like a stump speech for a mayoral campaign.

It is safe, it is articulated perfectly, and it is completely devoid of danger. Professional wrestling thrives on danger. When Stone Cold grabbed a microphone, you didn't know if he was going to swear, attack someone, or drink a beer.

When Cody grabs a microphone lately, you know you are getting a thesis statement on respect and perseverance. It is admirable, but it isn't exactly must-see television.

The ghost of the Tribal Chief

You cannot talk about Cody Rhodes' run as WWE Champion without talking about the enormous shadow he is standing in. Roman Reigns held that title for so long that the leather probably molded to his waist.

Roman's title defenses were rare, but they felt like massive heavyweight championship prize fights. The slow walk to the ring, the Paul Heyman monologues, the sheer theatricality of the Bloodline cinema.

Cody is the antithesis of that. He is the people's champion in the most literal sense. He is high-fiving the front row, giving away his weight belt, and making sure everyone goes home happy.

But giving the people exactly what they want every single week eventually leads to diminishing returns. It is the wrestling equivalent of eating cake for breakfast. It sounds amazing until you actually do it for six months straight.

This brings us back to WrestleMania 41 in Las Vegas. The setup for Night 2 on April 20 is a massive powder keg.

WWE has painted themselves into a corner. If Cody wins cleanly and emphatically, the Bloodline story takes a massive hit. If the Bloodline interferes and costs Cody the title, we are right back to the same tired booking tropes that exhausted us two years ago.

The John Cena trap

It is impossible to ignore the similarities between Cody's current run and John Cena's reign in 2006. Cena was the undeniable face of the company, moving unbelievable amounts of merchandise and doing every single Make-A-Wish request that came across his desk.

But the hardcore fans revolted. They hated the clean-cut presentation. They hated the predictable comeback sequences.

Cody desperately needs his version of the Rated-R Superstar. When Cena faced Edge at New Year's Revolution, it saved his character. Edge cashing in the Money in the Bank briefcase injected pure, unadulterated venom into a sterile title picture.

Cody needs a villain who does not care about having a five-star classic, but just wants to hit him in the head with a steel chair and steal his prize.

Surviving the summer doldrums

The real test of a WWE Champion isn't WrestleMania. Anyone can get cheered at WrestleMania. The real test is a random episode of Monday Night Raw in mid-July.

If Cody survives the chaos of Vegas and walks into WWE Backlash on May 9 still holding the gold, WWE has to drastically alter his presentation.

Here is what needs to happen to save this title reign from collapsing under its own weight:

  • A violent, deeply personal feud that has absolutely nothing to do with mutual respect.
  • An opponent who completely ignores the unwritten rules of professional wrestling etiquette and attacks him outside the ring.
  • A total departure from the weekly 20-minute stump speech promos in favor of short, angry, unpredictable backstage segments.

Give him a challenger who crosses the line. Think about the magic WWE captured with CM Punk and Drew McIntyre. That feud worked because it felt violently personal. They weren't fighting over a piece of metal; they were fighting because they legitimately seemed to despise each other's existence.

Cody needs someone to despise him. Not his position on the card, not his championship, but him as a human being.

The verdict in Vegas

WrestleMania 41 is the ultimate proving ground for the American Nightmare. Allegiant Stadium will host over 60,000 fans who have seen every trick in the book.

This is a crowd that remembers the AEW days. They remember the Stardust days. They know the entire history of this man's career, and they are not going to accept a paint-by-numbers main event.

Cody has proven he can win the championship. He has proven he can carry the company flag and sell the merchandise to a massive audience.

Now he has to prove he can evolve. He has to prove he can take a title reign that is bordering on stale and inject it with the kind of chaotic, unpredictable energy that makes wrestling the greatest spectacle in the world.

The bell rings on April 20. The Bloodline will be lurking. The crowd will be ruthless. It is time to find out exactly what kind of champion Cody Rhodes really is.