{"id":241394,"date":"2026-05-02T02:39:17","date_gmt":"2026-05-02T02:39:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/2026\/05\/02\/cody-rhodes-real-life-best-friend-confronts-him-on-smackdown-in-a-massive-wwe-debut\/"},"modified":"2026-05-02T02:39:17","modified_gmt":"2026-05-02T02:39:17","slug":"cody-rhodes-real-life-best-friend-confronts-him-on-smackdown-in-a-massive-wwe-debut","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/2026\/05\/02\/cody-rhodes-real-life-best-friend-confronts-him-on-smackdown-in-a-massive-wwe-debut\/","title":{"rendered":"Cody Rhodes&#8217; real-life best friend confronts him on SmackDown in a massive WWE debut"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><\/p>\n<div id=\"article-content\" data-postid=\"5162073\" data-slug-id=\"2776409\">\n<div class=\"vidazoo-player-container\">\n<span class=\"vidazoo-close-btn  hidden \"><br \/>\n<img data-lazy=\"\/\/staticg.sportskeeda.com\/cmc-predictor\/v2\/cross-icon.png?w=40\" width=\"20\" height=\"20\" alt=\"close\" loading=\"lazy\"\/><br \/>\n<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>&#8220;Easy to find, hard to beat&#8221; &#8211; Those were Cody Rhodes&#8217; words before he dropped the mic on SmackDown. One of his real-life best friends confronted him in a huge WWE debut, setting up a massive match.<\/p>\n<p>This week on SmackDown, Cody Rhodes would make a huge announcement &#8211; just a couple of weeks removed from his WWE Title match at WrestleMania 42, where he defeated Randy Orton, The American Nightmare was medically cleared. So it begged the question &#8211; What is next for him? Or rather, <em>who <\/em>is next for him? It seemed like, based on the ending of WrestleMania 42, that we would be seeing Rhodes go up against Randy Orton again. It seems ironic that Rhodes took the punt, yet it is Orton who has yet to show his face on WWE television.<\/p>\n<p><template id=\"also-read-articles-template\"><\/p>\n<p><\/template><\/p>\n<p><template id=\"template__newsletter-inline-banner-form-combo-widget\"><\/p>\n<div class=\"wrapper\">\n<p><img id=\"subscribe-img\" loading=\"lazy\"\/><\/p>\n<p>\nThanks for the submission!\n<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><\/template><\/p>\n<p>Either way, Cody Rhodes was quickly cut off by Ricky Saints, the former AEW star and NXT Champion, who was advertised to be making his debut on May 1st anyway. The newest addition of SmackDown came out and made his intentions clear to his real-life best friend. He told Cody that he was there to start a revolution and to change the entire way things are structured. He is gunning for Cody&#8217;s spot, and that set up a huge match in the main event of SmackDown.<\/p>\n<p>For those who don&#8217;t know, when Ricky Saints debuted in AEW (where he was Ricky Starks), he had his first match against the then-TNT Champion, Cody Rhodes. As we know, Saints&#8217; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sportskeeda.com\/aew\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" data-is-sponsored=\"false\">AEW<\/a> run didn&#8217;t work out as he was effectively frozen out. However, it turned out to be a great thing in hindsight as he would sign for <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sportskeeda.com\/wwe\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" data-is-sponsored=\"false\">WWE<\/a> and become a big star in NXT.<\/p>\n<p>He was one of NXT&#8217;s key names, and now he is set to make a huge splash on SmackDown.<\/p>\n<div class=\"article-post-rating-widget\">\n<p><template id=\"post-rating-feedback-modal-template\"><\/p>\n<div class=\"post-rating-feedback-feedback-box\">\n<div class=\"post-rating-feedback-content\">\n<div class=\"post-rating-feedback-data\">\n<p>Why did you not like this content?<\/p>\n<p><textarea id=\"dislike-feedback-text\" rows=\"4\" placeholder=\"Please type your feedback...\"\/>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>\n<button class=\"close\">Cancel<\/button><br \/>\n<button class=\"submit\">Submit<\/button>\n<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><\/template><\/p>\n<div class=\"post-rating-widget-parent hidden\">\n<div class=\"rating-parent-container\">\n<div class=\"rating-content-holder\">\n<p>Was this article helpful?<\/p>\n<div class=\"post-rating-action-container\">\n<div class=\"like-container\">\n<button class=\"post-rating-like-button post-rating-button\" data-action=\"like\" title=\"like article\"><br \/>\n<img class=\"post-like-image post-rating-image\" data-lazy=\"\/\/staticg.sportskeeda.com\/like-articles\/upvote-icon-grey.svg\" height=\"20\" width=\"20\" loading=\"lazy\" alt=\"like selected\"\/><br \/>\n<\/button>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"dislike-container\">\n<button class=\"post-rating-dislike-button post-rating-button\" data-action=\"dislike\" title=\"dislike article\"><br \/>\n<img class=\"post-dis-like-image post-rating-image\" data-lazy=\"\/\/staticg.sportskeeda.com\/like-articles\/upvote-icon-grey.svg\" height=\"20\" width=\"20\" loading=\"lazy\" alt=\"avatar selected\"\/><br \/>\n<\/button>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>\nThank You for feedback\n<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"bottom-tagline bottom\" data-tab=\"bottom\">\n<p>Get all the hottest wrestling news FIRST by clicking <a href=\"https:\/\/www.google.com\/preferences\/source?q=sportskeeda.com\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" data-is-sponsored=\"false\" class=\"bottom_tagline_link\" data-tab=\"bottom\">here<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div id=\"tag-cloud\">\n<div class=\"tags-text\">\n<div class=\"scrollable-content-holder  article-padding\">\n<p class=\"article-p  \">Quick Links<\/p>\n<p><button id=\"pnAdvancerLeft\" class=\"pn-Advancer pn-Advancer_Left \" type=\"button\"><br \/>\n<img style=\"background: none;\" data-lazy=\"https:\/\/staticg.sportskeeda.com\/skm\/assets\/article\/article-scroll-left.svg\" loading=\"lazy\"\/><br \/>\n<\/button><\/p>\n<nav id=\"pnProductNav\" class=\"pn-ProductNav\">\n<\/nav>\n<p><button id=\"pnAdvancerRight\" class=\"pn-Advancer pn-Advancer_Right \" type=\"button\"><br \/>\n<img style=\"background: none;\" data-lazy=\"https:\/\/staticg.sportskeeda.com\/skm\/assets\/article\/article-scroll-right.svg\" loading=\"lazy\"\/><br \/>\n<\/button>\n<\/div>\n<p>More from Sportskeeda<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>\n<span class=\"publisher-name\">Edited by Rohit Nath<\/span>\n<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.sportskeeda.com\/wwe\/news-cody-rhodes-real-life-best-friend-confronts-smackdown-massive-wwe-debut\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&#8220;Easy to find, hard to beat&#8221; &#8211; Those were Cody Rhodes&#8217; words before he dropped the mic on SmackDown. One of his real-life best friends confronted him in a huge WWE debut, setting up a massive match. This week on SmackDown, Cody Rhodes would make a huge announcement &#8211; just a couple of weeks removed [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":241395,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[6806],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-241394","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-gossip"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/241394","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=241394"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/241394\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/241395"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=241394"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=241394"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=241394"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}