Cody Rhodes reveals how he dealt with fans’ disappointment in WrestleMania 39 loss

Cody Rhodes spoke with FanSided on behalf of WWE SuperCard and WWE 2K23. WWE SuperCard is celebrating its 9th anniversary this year as a staple of the card battle genre with 29+ million downloads across all of its platforms, where a brand new update was released the week of April 24, featuring a hint of things to come in Season 10.

The main event of WWE WrestleMania 39 saw “The American Nightmare” Cody Rhodes, who won the 2023 men’s Royal Rumble match, take on Roman Reigns for the Undisputed WWE Universal Championship. Entering WWE’s biggest show of the year, it felt like this was the time for Reign’s 900+-day title run to come to an end, as Rhodes had all of the momentum. He almost had the match won, hitting Reigns with his Cross Rhodes finishing move twice after Sami Zayn and Kevin Owens neutralized The Usos, members of Reign’s Bloodline faction.

But, as Rhodes went for another Cross Rhodes, Solo Sikoa, who was ejected from ringside earlier in the night, returned and hit the Samoan Spike. That allowed Reigns to hit a spear to get the win and retain the championship.

This was a moment in which left a lot of fans stunned and upset. It was a great match, but ended with Bloodline antics to ensure Reigns retained his championship. Reigns, who does get split reactions from the crowd, got pretty resounding boos on the Raw after WrestleMania 39.

I spoke with Rhodes this week and asked him about how he felt about the reaction and the disappointment regarding the ending to the match. Rhodes brought up that a month later, he is still getting strong reactions from fans, bringing up overseas shows he competed at prior to this interview.

You can check out the full interview in the video below:

Cody Rhodes on fan reaction after WrestleMania 39 loss

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"“I feel like I just kind of, I’m not gonna say came to terms with it, but I just kind of made a realization about it all when I was overseas, you know, doing the shows, and Birmingham and Manchester and Belfast and, and the live events that I’m on is, you never want, you work so hard to get their faith, right and their faith and you never want to you don’t want to let them down,” said Rhodes. “You don’t want to let your fans down in any capacity. And you don’t want them to lose faith. And if I had had thought that they did, I was very pleasantly surprised that this reaction has gotten even louder. These metrics have gone even further up. And again, I’m the eternal pessimist. I keep waiting for the shoe to drop, ‘oh, it’s going to end, it’s going to end,’ there seems to be something that’s kind of qualifier overall, a lot of people notice all the sellouts, saw that just the things that are happening in the sports entertainment and pro wrestling space. And that wave is part of all of this, what’s happening with me as a portion of all of this, just a portion, and it’s very, it was very eye opening, being overseas and realizing they haven’t lost the faith. So I can’t lose the faith either. And it may be a longer road to get there, but I just encourage everyone to keep the faith. I’ll do the same.”"

Additionally, I asked Rhodes about where main eventing WrestleMania 39 ranks in terms of his career accomplishments. Rhodes brought up what it meant for his family, and talked about where he was during his previous run in WWE, playing the character “Stardust.”

"“I know this sounds almost downtrodden. But I don’t mean for it to be but I was so happy that my wife got to be there and see that because I mean, get you somebody who will stick with you when you’re an absolute dud and Stardust was a loser,” said Rhodes. “I don’t mean that like that, just Stardust wasn’t going to be in any main events. And the person who was portraying Stardust was getting lower and lower in terms of confidence and self esteem. And she’s stuck with me through it all. So for her, I was just so happy that she could see it. You know, my daughter, my mom, my sister, of course, I was so happy she could see it. I thought about that a lot lately.”"

It was a long road for Rhodes. He had left WWE back in 2016, where he worked as the aforementioned “Stardust” character. Rhodes worked on the independent scene, and played a role in the creation of All Elite Wrestling, becoming the company’s executive vice president. But last year, he left AEW and made his return to WWE. His return match took place at WrestleMania 38 last year when he faced off against Seth Rollins.

Rhodes had a two-to-three month feud with Rollins, culminating in a Hell in a Cell match, in which he wrestled with a torn pectoral muscle. He was sidelined until this past January, where he won the Royal Rumble match as the No. 30 entrant. That earned him a championship match against Reigns at WrestleMania 39.

This Saturday, May 6, Rhodes is set to take on Brock Lesnar at WWE’s premium live event, Backlash, live from San Juan, Puerto Rico.

WWE SuperCard

• WWE SuperCard is celebrating its 9th anniversary this year as a staple of the card battle genre with 29+ million downloads across all of its platforms
  • The game has a very active community of players and creators and a rich history of serving WWE fans
• New update released the week of April 24, featuring a hint of things to come in Season 10
  • New Rarity Draft Board with new effects, animations, and customizations
  • Perks that give players the opportunity to earn rewards more quickly (via BattlePass)
  • A big surprise is coming this May
  • Fans can check out the WWE SuperCard WrestleMania trailer WWE SuperCard WrestleMania trailer featuring Cody Rhodes and The Miz

WWE 2K23

• WWE 2K23 is the highest rated game in franchise history and critics are calling it one of the best wrestling games ever
• WWE 2K23 is currently on sale for 25% off on PlayStation