Cody Rhodes defeats former champion for the 16th time after SmackDown goes off air in his first WWE title defense

This week saw the first WWE SmackDown of the Cody Rhodes era. He opened the show and sent a very clear-cut message to The Rock - that when it's time for them to clash, he won't be hiding. He also closed the show as he defeated a former champion for the 16th time after SmackDown went off the air. This marked his first WWE title defense.

This week in the dark match on the blue brand, Cody Rhodes had his very first defense of the Undisputed WWE Universal Championship. His opponent? None other than former NXT North American Champion "Dirty" Dominik Mysterio. The two men have faced off a whopping 16 times since Money in the Bank 2023 in July last year.

Of course, just like the previous 15 occasions, Cody Rhodes went on to defeat Dominik Mysterio for the 16th time to send the crowd in Detroit home happy.

It's hard to call this a rivalry when it's as lopsided as it is, but this was the biggest of their non-televised matches yet. It's a bit surreal to think of Dominik Mysterio challenging for the WWE championship, but it's less surprising when you consider it is a dark match.

As for Cody's first televised title defense, it will take place at Backlash 2024, presumably in the main event. He will face either AJ Styles or LA Knight - both of whom won Triple Threat Matches on SmackDown tonight to set up a WrestleMania rematch against each other next week.

AJ Styles and LA Knight went face-to-face even as SmackDown went off the air, and once the cameras stopped rolling, they had to be separated by referees.