WWE Champion Cody Rhodes Cleared To Return, Confronted By Ricky Saints On SmackDown

WWE

Undisputed WWE Champion Cody Rhodes kicked off tonight’s SmackDown with an announcement but was interrupted by Ricky Saints.

After his WrestleMania 42 night one main event against Randy Orton, Cody Rhodes was deemed not cleared to compete after suffering an eye injury that resulted in swelling and his eye being completely shut for a while.

With the wounds still visible, Rhodes headed to the ring tonight to open tonight’s May 1 SmackDown show and announced that he’s now officially cleared for a return, wondering what could be next for him.

Before he could get much further after saying that, he was cut off by the entrance of new SmackDown star Ricky Saints, the latest call-up from NXT.

This is a somewhat poetic WWE main roster debut for Saints, as it’s the same way he debuted in AEW by answering Cody Rhodes’ TNT Championship open challenge back in 2020.

Rhodes even brought that up, asking Saints what had changed since the last time Saints stepped up to him. Saints replied:

“You’ve got staples in your head and a black eye, those 3 title reigns have aged you 30 years.

“I congratulated you milestone after milestone even when it was a detriment to my career, and I hope you’ll keep the same energy for me, because I’m here to relieve you of your duties champ…”

If you use this transcription or any portion of it, please credit WrestleTalk.com and link to this page.

Ricky Saints welcomes us to Friday Night Saints!pic.twitter.com/ljmVFlrKVv

— WrestleTalk (@WrestleTalk_TV) May 2, 2026

After Saints introduced himself, Rhodes got heated and offered Saints a match tonight, which Saints accepted.

Saints ended his side of the conversation by saying:

“I didn’t come out here to make a statement, I came out here to change who the show is about.”

Rhodes’ response was what seems to be his new catchphrase, that he’s “easy to find but hard to beat.”

We’ll update his story with the result when the Cody Rhodes vs Ricky Saints match takes place later tonight.

WWE SmackDown Debut A Good Sign But Not A Guarantee For Ricky Saints

Of course, being positioned with WWE Champion Cody Rhodes is a good start to life on SmackDown for Ricky Saints and suggests management is already behind him.

However, exactly the same thing happened two years ago with Carmelo Hayes, who didn’t really end up being elevated afterwards and had to spend another couple of years getting to the point he is today, where there was an uproar about him not being on WrestleMania – but the fact is he still wasn’t on WrestleMania.

Saints definitely has all the skills and hopefully this is a sign he’ll be at the top of the card, but it’s all about connection with the audience coming out of tonight – his opening promo was an excellent start though.

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• wwe
• Cody Rhodes
• Smackdown
• ricky saints

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