Cody Rhodes vs Randy Orton in the WWE King of the Ring Finals.
Cody Rhodes beat Randy Orton at WWE Night of Champions using heel tactics to become the 2025 King of the Ring. Wade Barrett described it as a “very different version” of Cody amid a recent interview where Rhodes suggested he was at the tail end of his babyface run.
After the match, Cody Rhodes thanked Randy Orton, saying he has “nothing but respect for the guy who mentored me…a future Hall of Famer.”
Rhodes put over all his opponents en route to winning King of the Ring before acknowledging he’d be facing either CM Punk or John Cena at SummerSlam. Rhodes admitted he’d likely be booed against these beloved competitors, but “At SummerSlam, I get the ball back!”
Fans in Riyadh treated both Rhodes and Orton like babyfaces, cheering wildly for both and even chanting “This is awesome” before the match even began. But Cody Rhodes quickly became the de facto heel by exploiting Orton’s back injury early in the match, which garnered boos. Rhodes won with shady tactics, using the exposed steel turnbuckle, but it was Randy Orton who exposed the turnbuckle to begin with.
King Cody And A Possible Cody Rhodes Heel Turn
Cody Rhodes returned at WWE Saturday Night’s Main Event to a monstrous pop that served as a stark contrast to the boo’s he received last time we saw him during WrestleMania weekend. Of course, WrestleMania crowds are a unique bunch who tend to celebrate cool heels like Karrion Kross and Jacob Fatu at the time. Even in today’s piping-hot WWE, where fans are in lockstep with the booker, WrestleMania weekend is where whitemeat babyfaces go to die.
But after John Cena killed Cody Rhodes’ title reign, Rhodes came back from the dead to run through the King of the Ring tournament and defeat his former mentor in the KOTR finals.
Randy Orton vs. Cody Rhodes is a match capable of headlining a Big-4 PLE. Many assumed Orton would be one of Cody’s challengers at a big show. WWE even went as far as teasing an Orton feud with Cody Rhodes several times, with Orton often looking, lovingly, at Cody’s WWE Undisputed Championship. Instead, there was no heel turn, and the two babyfaces only faced one another out of necessity once each star won their respective brackets on Raw and SmackDown.
Rhodes and Orton had as good as a match as one would expect from two future Hall of Famers. But a feud between a babyface Cody Rhodes and a heel Randy Orton would help a possible rematch reach its full potential following a King of the Ring tournament filled with good guys. Given the way Cody was acting tonight, however, it could be more likely that a heel Cody Rhodes will face a babyface Randy Orton.
Cody Rhodes will now set his sights on the WWE Undisputed Championship, which means either a WrestleMania rematch against John Cena or a long-anticipated match against CM Punk. WWE’s babyface room as crowded as its ever been. Even though Cena is technically a heel, he is being wildly cheered during his retirement tour, and will be a huge babyface in the New York market for SummerSlam no matter what story WWE tries to tell.
This add fuel to the fire of a possible Cody Rhodes vs. CM Punk match, with Punk playing the role of the heel. Having said that, a heel CM Punk against Cody Rhodes might be cheered just as much as a retiring heel John Cena. Regardless of Rhodes’ opponent in August for the WWE Championship, it figures to be a blockbuster matchup that will headline WWE’s first two-night SummerSlam. Not to mention a SummerSlam that is setting up for a massive heel turn.
