Cody Rhodes Was Surprised By Backlash To His WWE WrestleMania 39 Loss

WWE ended WrestleMania 39 in a legitimately shocking manner earlier this year. 

The overwhelming expectation heading into the Show of Shows was that Cody Rhodes would "finish the story" and defeat Roman Reigns in the main event to capture the Undisputed WWE Universal Championship. The view among many was that 'Mania was the right time for Reigns to lose the belts, especially as he had been at the top of WWE since the summer of 2020. 

Alas, it wasn't to be for Rhodes as he lost to Reigns following interference from Solo Sikoa. The backlash to WWE's booking was swift, with thousands criticising the decision to keep Reigns as champion. Triple H addressed the booking in his post-WrestleMania press conference, simply stating the story "always continues." 

Cody Rhodes discussed his WrestleMania loss with the SI Media Podcast and the former AEW TNT Champion admitted he was surprised by the level of the backlash to the result. 

"I was surprised at how p****d people were. A lot of managerial people in the company reached out to me, checking on me, and also reached out to me to let me know, 'Don't go online. Don't go online.' I didn't even think to go. It's such an incredibly busy week, there are so many emotions in that experience, I have my family with me, I lost in front of them, which is another level of embarrassment. I didn't even think to go online. Just the fact that they were preparing me or battening down the hatches. 'This is shaky, people are really frustrated,' that surprised me. That surprised me a lot," Rhodes said.

Rhodes has been locked in a feud with Brock Lesnar since WrestleMania 39 and they will go one-on-one for the third time at SummerSlam on August 5. The rumoured main event of WrestleMania 40 has Rhodes challenging Roman Reigns once again for the Undisputed WWE Universal Championship.

H/T to Fightful

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