{"id":243619,"date":"2026-05-16T03:22:21","date_gmt":"2026-05-16T03:22:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/2026\/05\/16\/breaking-huge-twist-in-gunther-cody-rhodes-storyline-as-former-aew-star-enters-the-wwe-title-picture-on-smackdown\/"},"modified":"2026-05-16T03:22:21","modified_gmt":"2026-05-16T03:22:21","slug":"breaking-huge-twist-in-gunther-cody-rhodes-storyline-as-former-aew-star-enters-the-wwe-title-picture-on-smackdown","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/2026\/05\/16\/breaking-huge-twist-in-gunther-cody-rhodes-storyline-as-former-aew-star-enters-the-wwe-title-picture-on-smackdown\/","title":{"rendered":"BREAKING: Huge twist in Gunther-Cody Rhodes storyline as former AEW star enters the WWE Title picture on SmackDown"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><\/p>\n<div id=\"article-content\" data-postid=\"5167850\" data-slug-id=\"2782628\">\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>Gunther and Cody Rhodes were all set to go head-to-head at Clash in Italy, but the Ring General made it a bit too complicated. In an insane twist, a former AEW star entered the title picture, and Nick Aldis approved.<\/p>\n<p>Cody Rhodes came out with Gunther&#8217;s contract from last week, which Gunther hadn&#8217;t signed. As he was about to sign a contract, which was negotiated for him by Paul Heyman, that said that his signature to SmackDown would guarantee a WWE Title shot, Cody Rhodes made his entrance, and an offended Ring Gunther would walk out without signing the contract. This week, Cody got the contract with him and made it clear that his intention was to have the match at Clash in Italy. Except the Ring General still kept making a fuss over the way things had played out. What nobody expected was the man who would come out after that. It was none other than Royce Keys, who has only been in <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sportskeeda.com\/wwe\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" data-is-sponsored=\"false\">WWE<\/a> since January. <\/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>Royce Keys made his stance clear. He placed his face towards Gunther and told him that if the contract wasn&#8217;t going to be signed, Keys himself would go and sign it. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sportskeeda.com\/player\/cody-rhodes\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" data-is-sponsored=\"false\">Cody Rhodes<\/a> seemed to welcome this, and just as Keys was putting pen to paper, The Ring General stopped him. They butted heads (quite literally), and Nick Aldis told the Austrian that he overplayed his hand. So to determine the #1 contender, he would have to face Royce Keys in the main event.<\/p>\n<p>This was a huge move. People are still trying to figure out what Royce Keys, fka Powerhouse Hobbs&#8217; position really is. He is Jacob Fatu&#8217;s friend, yet shows virtually no signs of other alliances. He also seems to be a valuable target to Solo Sikoa&#8217;s MFTs, who haven&#8217;t touched him, barring that one instance backstage a few weeks ago.<\/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-breaking-huge-twist-gunther-cody-rhodes-storyline-former-aew-star-enters-wwe-title-picture-smackdown\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Gunther and Cody Rhodes were all set to go head-to-head at Clash in Italy, but the Ring General made it a bit too complicated. In an insane twist, a former AEW star entered the title picture, and Nick Aldis approved. Cody Rhodes came out with Gunther&#8217;s contract from last week, which Gunther hadn&#8217;t signed. As [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":243620,"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-243619","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\/243619","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=243619"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/243619\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/243620"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=243619"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=243619"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=243619"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}