Cody Rhodes Wins WWE Title from Drew McIntyre, Will Face Randy Orton at WrestleMania 42 After Rumors

Cody Rhodes defeated Drew McIntyre on Friday night’s episode of SmackDown to win the WWE Championship.

By virtue of his victory, Rhodes is slated to defend the WWE title against Randy Orton at WrestleMania 42 after Orton’s win in the men’s Elimination Chamber match last weekend.

Rhodes got the job done with a Super Cutter and then a Cross Rhodes to beat McIntyre and get his belt back.

Both men beat each other up pretty good in this match. In the early going, Rhodes was favoring his arm, and McIntyre dealt with a bad leg.

Rhodes later tried to deliver the Cross Rhodes to McIntyre on the announcers’ table, but it gave way before he could do so, sending both men falling to the floor.

Soon afterward, McIntyre powerbombed Rhodes through a table. He soon hit the Cross Rhodes on the challenger, but he kicked out at two.

Rhodes fought back and hit McIntyre with a Claymore, but he kicked out two.

The match continued, and referee Charles Robinson accidentally got knocked out when Rhodes jumped off the ropes and tried to slam into McIntyre, who moved out of the way only for the ref to get hit.

Rhodes got the upper hand again with another Cross Rhodes, but with no ref available, he didn’t go for the pin and summoned an official from the back.

A new ref sprinted to the ring, but McIntyre kicked out at two. The momentum swung back to McIntyre, who hit Rhodes with the Claymore. Rhodes kicked out again.

The new ref caught the ire of McIntyre not once but twice. After the second time, McIntyre headbutted the ref and knocked him out.

McIntyre seemingly had the edge again, but an interfering Jacob Fatu had other plans as the champion was looking to attack Rhodes with a chair. Fatu grabbed the chair out of Rhodes’ hands, and Rhodes looked for the quick roll-up pin but couldn’t get the three-count from Robinson, who regained his senses.

With both men battle-weary, it was Rhodes who emerged victorious, hitting the lethal Super Cutter-Cross Rhodes combo at the end for the win.

This bout was set up after McIntyre interfered during the latter stages of the Elimination Chamber match, and Orton took advantage by hitting Rhodes with an RKO to win and punch his ticket to WrestleMania.

SmackDown general manager Nick Aldis was furious afterward since McIntyre had been interfering in various matches involving Rhodes and Orton for weeks.

Elimination Chamber was the final straw, and Aldis announced that McIntyre would have to put the WWE Championship on the line against The American Nightmare on SmackDown.

The rematch was a long time coming since The Scottish Warrior beat Cody for the title under dubious circumstances in January.

Their Three Stages of Hell match on the Jan. 9 episode of SmackDown came down to a steel cage match, which saw Fatu return after months on the shelf.

Fatu prevented McIntyre from exiting the cage and began brawling with him, but when Rhodes intervened, Fatu turned his attention to him, and it allowed McIntyre to escape the cage and win the title.

It looked for quite a while like Rhodes would get his rematch at WrestleMania, but things changed with Randy Orton’s win at Elimination Chamber, and Mike Johnson of PWInsider Elite reported shortly thereafter that the WrestleMania plan had morphed into Rhodes defending the title against Orton with no McIntyre involvement.

Given Rhodes’ triumph on Friday to become a three-time WWE champion, it appears as though the rumors were true, unless McIntyre and possibly others are still added to the mix to make it a multi-man match on the Grandest Stage of Them All.