When Cody Rhodes Vs. Randy Orton At WWE WrestleMania 42 Was Decided

Published: Mar 13, 2026 by Dave Adamson | Last Updated: Mar 13, 2026 by Dave Adamson

Dave has been a website writer for WrestleTalk since October 2022, having previously written for Den of Geek, among a number of wrestling, movie and television-related sites. Dave has been around the independent wrestling scene for more than a decade, including behind-the-scenes.

When Cody Rhodes Vs. Randy Orton At WWE WrestleMania 42 Was Decided

The moment when WWE decided to have Cody Rhodes face Randy Orton at WrestleMania 42 has now been revealed.

With Cody Rhodes having defeated Drew McIntyre on last week’s SmackDown, The American Nightmare heads to WrestleMania 42 as Undisputed WWE Champion.

The current issue of the Wrestling Observer Newsletter has revealed that the decision to have Rhodes vs. Orton at WrestleMania had changed a number of times, crystalizing ahead of Elimination Chamber.

The report states:

Barring a late decision change, Rhodes will defend the title against Randy Orton, and it’s pretty much a lock that it will be a singles match rather than a three-way or four-way match. This ends weeks of speculation and changes when it came to that title, which originally was scheduled for Rhodes vs. Roman Reigns, possibly in a Hell in a Cell match. There were reports this week that when the match was going to be McIntyre defending against Rhodes at Mania, that it would have been a Hell in a Cell match, which does make sense as it would have been the fourth singles meeting on a major show in the past several months.

Those in WWE that we asked said that there was never a serious thought or plan, but Hell in a Cell was heavily discussed for Rhodes vs. Reigns before the decision to change everything after the injury to Seth Rollins and the decision to put the title on McIntyre.

We were told the idea of Rhodes vs. Orton came up, was the direction and then that was changed four different times since it was first brought up. But it has been largely the direction since the plan for Orton to win the Chamber match, which we were told was made the first week of February. Given Rhodes was never going to be out of that position, the Rhodes over McIntyre on television decision had to be made at the same point.

The television mentioning of Orton as a 14-time champion and going after the John Cena record would date to the original idea being at least under consideration for Orton, as prior to that he wasn’t the pick.

Booker T has revealed that he ‘feels for’ Drew McIntyre following his Undisputed WWE Championship loss ahead of WrestleMania 42 on April 18 & 19.

The card for both nights of WWE WrestleMania 42 can be found right here.