Cody Rhodes makes big change after WWE Night of Champions

Cody Rhodes' redemption arc saw him earn a massive win at WWE Night of Champions 2025. The American Nightmare captured arguably one of the biggest wins of his career against his mentor, Randy Orton, and won the King of the Ring 2025 Tournament.

With his historic win over The Viper, Cody Rhodes has confirmed his shot at the Undisputed WWE Championship at SummerSlam 2025 against John Cena.

Following his win at the 2025 Night of Champions, Cody Rhodes made a big change as he updated his X/Twitter bio to “King,” after winning the 2025 King of the Ring Tournament. After the match, he made it clear that he was ready to reclaim the Undisputed Championship, which he lost to John Cena at WrestleMania 41.

Expand Tweet

One wrong move ended his WWE career - Watch Now!

Cena is not booked for Monday Night RAW or SmackDown after Night of Champions 2025, as of now. However, Cody Rhodes might start building up their feud for the first-ever two-night SummerSlam this week.

Wrestling veteran points out major change in Cody Rhodes' WWE character

While speaking in an exclusive chat with Sportskeeda Wrestling, veteran journalist Bill Apter pointed out how Cody Rhodes’ Night of Champions bout could kick off his potential heel turn. Moreover, Apter noted that Cody Rhodes didn’t hesitate to use the exposed turnbuckle.

"This is the first start of Cody Rhodes' slow heel turn. He was excellent in his role with so much anger against Randy Orton. He held nothing back. He didn't care what he had to do to win. The finish was something that we thought Randy Orton was going to win, and Cody used what Randy did to his advantage. But I thought out of a one to 10 being the best match, this was close to a 20," he said.

It will be interesting to see how the 2025 King of the Ring, Cody Rhodes, builds his feud against Undisputed WWE Champion John Cena in the coming weeks leading to WWE SummerSlam 2025.

About the author

Nayan is a WWE News and Features writer at Sportskeeda Wrestling. After completing his bachelor's degree in Mass Communication from Poddar International, he began working as a YouTube script writer. Nayan then transitioned to Pinkvilla as a combat sports writer. He gained valuable experience there before finally coming under the banner of Sportskeeda.

Within 1.5 years, Nayan has written over 1,000 articles, interviewed MFN promotion owners, and conducted a Twitter campaign that gained over 50k retweets and more. He puts fact-checking and mindful journalism above everything by applying a three-check method, where he tries to verify reports from reliable sources and cross-check whether other major publications have covered them.

Looking back at his association with pro wrestling, Nayan recalls being hooked on the sport after watching Shawn Michael vs. The Undertaker at WrestleMania 25. Since then, the product has been an inseparable part of his life.

Apart from The Heartbreak Kid being Nayan's favorite wrestler for his confidence and charisma, he is also a fan of Brock Lesnar due to The Beast's "work speaks louder than words" attitude.

Nayan can be found performing mixed martial arts and reading true crime in his free time.

Know More

These WWE moments were totally off-script - Check now!

Edited by Arsh Das