SmackDown star, not Cody Rhodes, tipped to end John Cena's WWE Title reign, says veteran

John Cena will defend the Undisputed WWE Championship against Randy Orton tonight at Backlash. Wrestling veteran Greg Gagne predicted an unexpected finish to the square-off.

The Franchise Player and The Viper's rivalry goes back over two decades. After WrestleMania, Orton reignited it by RKOing the newly crowned Undisputed WWE Champion on RAW. The two later had a heated promo battle on SmackDown, ending with Cena eating another RKO. Last night on the blue brand, the 14-time World Champion took out his Backlash opponent for a third time before their highly anticipated clash.

Speaking on Straight Talk with The Boss, Gagne predicted that Orton would capture the championship in his hometown of St. Louis. He claimed that The Viper would be the one to end Cena's title reign, whether it would happen tonight or later down the road.

"[John Cena vs. Randy Orton, who you got?] Orton. I'm going Orton. Unless they try to get a rematch with Randy and John. I mean, John has how many dates left? Then they might do something where they leave it a little up in the air. But I think Randy's gonna be the one to take it from him, eventually. If it's not this time, it'll be down the road before he quits," he said. [From 1:12:53 - 1:13:29]

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WWE analyst thinks Cody Rhodes would dethrone John Cena

On his Notsam Wrestling podcast, WWE analyst Sam Roberts suggested a scenario where Cody Rhodes would return from hiatus ahead of SummerSlam to tag with Bad Bunny to defeat John Cena and Travis Scott.

The 41-year-old pointed out that The American Nightmare could pin The Franchise Player at The Biggest Party of the Summer before beating him again at Crown Jewel: Perth to recapture the championship.

"Now, it's Cody vs. Cena one final time in Perth, Australia. And this is where Cody Rhodes wins back the WWE Championship. Cody Rhodes wins his title back, and John Cena, at the end of the match, shakes Cody's hand," he said.

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It would be interesting to see if Cena would overcome Randy Orton tonight at Backlash.

Please credit Straight Talk with The Boss and give an H/T to Sportskeeda if you use the above transcription.

About the author

Ahmed Hamdy is an Egyptian journalist with a decade of experience in sports journalism, specializing in pro wrestling and football.

Hamdy kicked off his career as a sports reporter for Al-Ahram Weekly. He then became a producer/reporter for Mal Masr TV program on the Egyptian channel ON TV. In the following years, Hamdy worked as a reporter for several international news outlets, including Deutsche Welle (Germany), As-Safir (Lebanon), and Al-Monitor (U.S.A).

In 2014, Hamdy joined leading Egyptian newspaper Al Masry Al Youm, where he is now a Senior Sports Editor. In addition to all that, the Egyptian also worked as a sports editor for Sport360 and feature writer for Manshoor.com.

Hamdy has covered several sports events throughout the past few years, including WWE's tour in Egypt and the 2019 African Cup of Nations.

The experienced journalist joined Sportskeeda's pro wrestling feature writers team in early 2021. Since then, his work has managed to get millions of reads.

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Edited by Sanchari Bhattacharya