Cody Rhodes Responds To ‘Outside Forces’ Getting Involved In His WrestleMania Main Events: ‘You Have To Be Ready For The Big Jobs’

Published: Apr 14, 2026 by Connel Rumsey | Last Updated: Apr 15, 2026 by Connel Rumsey

Connel has over five years of wrestling journalism experience writing about some of the biggest stories from across the wrestling world. Being a fan for 20 years, Connel has an expansive knowledge from a wide range of various wrestling promotions, including WWE, AEW, NJPW, TNA and Joshi.

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Cody Rhodes Responds To ‘Outside Forces’ Getting Involved In His WrestleMania Main Events: ‘You Have To Be Ready For The Big Jobs’

Cody Rhodes has opened up on ‘outside forces’ getting involved in his WrestleMania main event builds over the past three years.

With Pat McAfee now involved in Cody Rhodes and Randy Orton’s WrestleMania 42 main event, this marks the third straight year that an outside force has got involved in Cody’s WrestleMania main event.

In 2024, The Rock made his return to WWE for a planned match with Roman Reigns, before fan backlash led to a change back to Cody vs. Roman, with Rock becoming ‘The Final Boss’ in the process.

Last year, The Rock returned once again, this time for John Cena’s heel turn and him aligning with Travis Scott, with Travis appearing solo for the main event of WrestleMania.

Cody Rhodes Says ‘Outside Forces’ May Lead To Him ‘Changing’

Speaking to the Rich Eisen Show, Cody opened up on ‘outside forces’ interfering in his WrestleMania main events, and how it may lead to him ‘changing’.

He said:

“You can look at this year and say ‘hey, here’s Pat McAfee’, you could look at the year before and say ‘here’s Travis Scott’, you can look at the year before and say ‘here’s The Rock’.

“If you’re a Cody Rhodes fan during WrestleMania season, it’s a choice. We deal with outside forces, we deal with ‘hey, they want to be part’, we’re about it, and I can say this, it’s a spot I always wanted. If you’re gonna be in the big moments you have to be ready for the big jobs.

“Pat being part of ESPN and WWE WrestleMania is on ESPN for the first time ever, it’s actually a natural fit. Does if fit in a 20 year wrestler-wrestler student-teacher mentor, all that, does it fit in there? No, but Pat sure thinks it does, and now Pat has the title, so we can tell that story another time. That story’s also already been told, lets figure out how this unfolds.

“Listen, Pat McAfee, Randy Orton, that’s one thing, but we’re getting to this point now where you go through so much as a wrestler, I mentioned the previous WrestleManias, maybe it’s time for me to change. That’s a new layer of paint for Randy Orton, he’s associated with Pat, he doesn’t need that by any means, but that’s what he’s doing. Maybe I change? Maybe you walk that other side.

“I’ve been saying for so long I don’t think I can do heel stuff. After a while it feels like it’s almost expected that I’m gonna lose it at some point, he’s gonna snap, and how does that look?

“It’s WrestleMania though, it’s the best thing we do, it’s the post-season. It’ll be great with Pat McAfee or without Pat McAfee.”

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Who Should Win Between Cody Rhodes & Randy Orton At WrestleMania 42?

With WrestleMania Saturday now just 4 days away, the clash between Cody Rhodes and Randy Orton is set to take place in the main event of the show, with the result up in the air.

Pat McAfee stated that he will never appear on wrestling television again if Randy Orton loses at WrestleMania, which has led to fans irritated at his involvement hoping for a Rhodes victory on the show.

However, it was reported that WWE is planning a tag team match between Orton and McAfee against Cody Rhodes and Jelly Roll for Backlash next month, which would seem to imply Orton will leave WrestleMania as champion.