WWE Icon Believes Cody Rhodes Winning At WrestleMania 39 Would Have ‘Worked Against Him’

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The finish to WrestleMania 39’s main event is still being discussed over a month after the fact, with Cody Rhodes’ heartbreaking defeat fresh in the minds of wrestling fans.

WWE Hall of Famer ‘Stone Cold’ Steve Austin had his take on the finish, where he said that he believes Roman retaining the gold was the correct decision by the company.

During a recent appearance on Busted Open Radio, Austin doubled down on his take, saying that beating Roman ‘wouldn’t have gotten Cody any more over’.

He said:

“Cody beating Roman would not have gotten Cody over anymore. As a matter of fact, it might have worked against him. The way they had it set up, he showed the belt, his wife and beautiful baby are there he’s holding the baby and it’s a storybook ending and the story is told. Those guys came out there with the outside interference.

“Like I’ve said before, I love that spike from Solo Sikoa. Sami, Kevin, Jimmy, Jey, it was chaos, it was exciting. They built it up and had a hell of a match. Roman is on fire right now and one of these days it will be time to take the belt from him and put it on somebody else, but you don’t make Cody by taking the belt off the right guy at the wrong time.

Austin carried on, noting that he gained more respect for Cody after he lost the match, believing that WrestleMania wasn’t the time.

He said:

“I completely thought they made the right decision. I really respect the hell out of Cody for what he did walking away from WWE, found himself, went down to AEW and then came back. He gets injured, blows out a pec, competes in the Rumble, gets in the main event with Roman. It was so storybook and would have been so cliche to put the belt on him more so. Has he earned the opportunity to be there? Yeah. Would he have been the right guy, right now, trying to take out Roman Reigns? I just think not.

“Roman is so fire and so money. Cody is going to be there. To me, it made me respect Cody more when you’re laying there and looking at the lights. That story is going to be completed one of these days, but it ain’t going to be right here. It was for the right reasons and the reason was business. He’ll get it, and when he does, it’ll be a celebration like no other. I’m one of his biggest fans. I see nothing but good things for Cody.”

Here are results from the May 15 episode of WWE Raw:

Shinsuke Nakamura def. The Miz

It was announced Liv Morgan had suffered an injury and the scheduled Women’s Tag Team Championship match was cancelled

Mustafa Ali won a battle royal to become #1 contender for Gunther’s Intercontinental Championship at Night of Champions

Becky Lynch returned and cut a promo on Trish Stratus, challenging her to a match at Night of Champions

Dominik Mysterio def. Xavier Woods

As JD McDonagh left the arena after an interview, there was a tease of Finn Balor scouting him to recruit him for Judgment Day

Indus Sher (Sanga & Veer) def. two jobbers

Cody Rhodes promo on Brock Lesnar ahead of their Night of Champions match

Raquel Rodriguez def. Chelsea Green

Judgment Day (Finn Balor & Damian Priest) def. Kevin Owens & Sami Zayn after interference from Imperium, which had been instigated by Paul Heyman doing deals with Judgment Day and Imperium earlier in the night

transcription via Fightful

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• Steve Austin
• WrestleMania
• Cody Rhodes
• wwe

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