Less than 24 hours after securing the biggest win of his professional wrestling career, Cody Rhodes showed up bright and early at the WWE World at WrestleMania in Philadelphia to make his first-ever appearance on The Pat McAfee Show as the new and defending WWE Universal Champion.
Marching out onto the stage with the bright gold strap Roman Reigns made famous over the last year, Rhodes showcased his crowning accomplishment to McAfee, his friends, and the world watching at home, even if, assuming he has his way, it might be one of the few times people see him with the “Tribal Chief's” former strap.
“The side plates haven't been changed yet. The Tribal Chief's plates are still on there. A couple of things, we should just come out with it,” Cody Rhodes told Pat McAfee via Fightful. “This is what I got in the ring, so there is a level of specialness to this equity that has been put into it that I have a warm feeling about. I feel differently about it today. However, that said, I changed the title previously. I am not in charge of anything; I am no longer an EVP. I have no stroke other than the fact that I am the champion, but I just think it would be special, perhaps, to see a particular championship, one that I grew up on. That is the [crowd chants' Winged Eagle.'] Again, I'm not in charge of anything, Triple H is in charge of things, but you're d**n right, the Winged Eagle. If it doesn't happen, don't get mad at me. I'll do what I did the last time. I'm going to try my best.”
Now, for fans out of the know, the “I did what I did the last time” refers to when he brought back the white Intercontinental Championship during his first run in WWE, a look the company had moved away from in the 2000s. While it may not be ideal for corporate synergy, if Rhodes has his way, he will make the belt all his own, which appears to be his intention after nearly four years with Reigns on top.
Cody Rhodes has been talking a lot about the Winged Eagle WWE Title.
Speaking of the “American Nightmare” pushing for changes he'd like to make to the top of the WWE card if he became the WWE Champion at WrestleMania 40 in an earlier appearance at the WWE World at WrestleMania, Cody Rhodes noted that for starters, he'd actually show up and be a fighting champion, which hasn't been Reigns MO in years.
“I think the type of champion I'd be for starters, from a logistical standpoint, is I would be on both Monday Night RAW and Friday Night SmackDown,” Cody Rhodes told fans via Fightful. “I don't know, you guys like how the title belt itself looks? Then maybe, again, don't want to get a cart before a horse here, I have to beat the greatest champion in the history of our business, Roman Reigns. But if I do, maybe we change how that title looks, too. Really, if I could do anything as champion, I would want you guys to have fun. That is 100% what I'm in the business of doing, making you guys happy, and I'm blessed and honored to do that. So that's what I look forward to doing, and I hope we have a great weekend, all of us together.”
Rhodes then turned his attention to the title belt, as, after becoming interested in the sport as a child, he wants to bring back the strap he grew up dreaming about.
“I knew, I'd say I knew at four. I'd say particularly at eight years old, when I saw the picture of him holding the WWWF Championship,” Cody Rhodes told Fightful. “He had just won the match against ‘Superstar' Billy Graham, but he didn't win in a way that he could take the title, and that was the big, ‘Hey, I wanna get this,' the belt that ultimately Roman has now that we call the Undisputed WWE Universal Championship. Which, if I win this thing on Sunday, we are not calling it this long-winded designation. It's just the WWE Championship. But I knew then because that was my first big dream and goal was to win it and hand it to him and tell him, ‘Nobody can take it away from you now.' It's moments and events like that.”
Will Rhodes get his way? Will he walk out on RAW to a hero's welcome and watch as Triple H hands him the belt he's dreamed about all of his life, or will Rhodes have to “settle” for the best billboard for WWE in the business? Fans will have to tune in to find out.
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