Royal Rumble Winner Cody Rhodes Competes And Wins In His First RAW Match Since Last Year

On this RAW after Rumble, Cody Rhodes, winner of Men’s Royal Rumble, opened the show to a loud pop and “You deserve it” chants. The American Nightmare reminisced about his 15 year old journey in the wrestling business. He also said that in order for his family to really be royal, he needs to beat Roman Reigns at WrestleMania.

The Judgment Day, without Rhea Ripley, then came out and they accused him of being the golden boy who has everything handed to him. Edge, who has his eyes set on them, attacked the trio on the stage and Cody joined him as well. Cody took down Finn Balor and the RAW main event was announced between him and Balor. This will be the first time the 2 superstars are in a singles match.

It was a technically sound match with both expert competitors trying out each others’ chops. Balor, being the heel, focused on targeting Rhodes’ surgically repaired pec. The rest of his faction, this time including Rhea Ripley, laughed as he kept trying to re-injure Cody. Towards the end, Edge entered through the crowd and attacked Priest and Dominik again. Ripley jumped on Edge until his wife Beth Phoenix arrived and speared her again like at the Royal Rumble. Back in the ring, The American Nightmare avoided the Coup de Grace before hitting Cross Rhodes 3 times consecutively for the win.

This was Rhodes’ first RAW match in 8 months since his horrific torn pectoral injury. He tore it while training for his Hell In A Cell match with Seth Rollins last year. At Royal Rumble last night he had another small injury where he popped his eardrums but pulled through.

“Don’t tell anyone, don’t put it on a medical report, but I popped my eardrums. So, what a night not to hear that much. But I could hear them loud enough and it’s a beautiful moment,” Rhodes told WWE Digital Exclusive.

Cody now has a massive mountain to climb in the form of Roman Reigns & his Bloodline.