Coming out of WrestleMania XL and ahead of the WWE Draft, the company recently moved one of its top stars to another brand.
The WWE Draft is returning later this month as it will be a two-night event across April 26 and April 29 on Raw and SmackDown. Main roster and NXT stars will be included in the Draft. This will be the first WWE Draft without any input from Vince McMahon.
Cody Rhodes got to finish his story at WrestleMania XL although he had to go through some adversity to get there. The Rock & Roman Reigns vs. Rhodes & Seth Rollins was the WWE WrestleMania 40 headliner of night one, where the heels went over only for the next night to have Rhodes win the Undisputed WWE Universal Title from Reigns.
The following night on Raw, WWE set up an eventual match between Rock and Rhodes, likely at WrestleMania 41 next year. Rhodes said coming out of that title win that he’d work both shows. However, that doesn’t appear to be the case for much longer.
WWE has already moved forward with Damian Priest, who is slated to defend the World Heavyweight Title against Jey Uso at Backlash France next month. Rhodes was on last week’s SmackDown and did an in-ring segment with Jey Uso on Monday Night Raw this week.
As seen below, Rhodes is now officially listed as a SmackDown star. As of April 12th, he was still listed on Raw. It’s unclear whether that will still be permanent or even change following the Draft. It should be noted that since there is no reported internal listing at this time, it’s possible WWE moved Rhodes to the SmackDown roster on its website while also internally planning to use him on Raw as well up until the Draft since it’s right around the corner.
WWE's website moved Cody from Raw to the SmackDown roster. pic.twitter.com/U3Wadse9B7
— Andrew Ravens l WrestlingNews.co (@Andrew_Ravens) April 17, 2024
