Cody Rhodes’ stock is down despite winning the WWE title

Welcome to the final edition of this year’s WrestleMania Stock Report. This five-part series has looked back at everyone on the WrestleMania 40 card (along with a handful of stars who missed last year’s Showcase of the Immortals but are in the line-up for this weekend’s WrestleMania 41) to see what they’ve been doing since and make a determination of whether they’re in a better position in April 2025 than they were in April 2024. Was it a good year? Was it a down year? Are they the definition of Even Steven?

We dove more into my approach to the WrestleMania Stock Report in Monday’s part one and you can check that out if you want more details. There are also links to the first four installments at the bottom of the post, and we encourage you to catch up on those.

Otherwise, it’s pretty self explanatory so we can jump right in.

LA Knight def. AJ Styles

LA Knight
PLE overall record (2-3), one on one (1-1), championship (2-1)

I’ve made it known that I’m a big LA Knight guy, and that’s going to cloud my judgement on the analysis of his year. Because looking at where he came from to where he ended up, it’s pretty solid for the Megastar. But it sure feels like a drop.

Part of the reason is that things were already trending down for Knight come last year’s ‘Mania. His peak moment happened prior when he faced Roman Reigns in Saudi Arabia. It was clear he wasn’t going to sniff that scene again any time soon, so a feud with a heel AJ Styles seemed like a let down, despite that meaning he earned his first WrestleMania win. I believe folks wanted him to win the US title from Logan Paul in Philly, but fans would have to wait a few more months on that.

Very soon after, AJ Styles got his win right back, which detracted slightly from LA’s victory at the Showcase of the Immortals. Styles went ahead to challenger Cody Rhodes for the WWE title while Knight kind of meandered. He’d fail to win Money in the Bank and it felt like we were just biding time until the Megastar finally got his US title shot against Logan Paul.

They were. In the highlight of his year, LA Knight dethroned Logan Paul and won his first title in WWE at SummerSlam.

His reign was solid but not spectacular. They went with the style of booking where he wasn’t champion for super long (three-plus months) but he defended it on television a bunch to pad his defense stats (seven successful).

However, things looked bad when LA Knight lost to Shinsuke Nakamura at Survivor Series in a match that never seemed competitive and framed Knight as in his own head. That decision proved poor because Nakamura’s title reign was a dud (more creatively than anything else) and after a few months of that, Knight just won it back.

In retrospect, he should have just had a long title reign.

He’ll have to defend that title against Jacob Fatu and honestly, I don’t think he’s got a chance in this one. As a fan, I’m just keeping my fingers crossed it’s not some squash. Then I hope they move him to Raw to give him a new scene to work with.

Best Moment: Winning the US title at SummerSlam
Worst Moment: That atrocious loss at Survivor Series

Stock: Down (but may be not as much as I feel as a fan)

AJ Styles
PLE overall record (0-3), one on one (0-2), championship (0-2)

Styles lost to LA Knight last April, but would get his win back as he earned a shot at Rhodes in France. He received a raucous reception from a French crowd who reminded him that he still rules, but he failed to win the match.

He did his best Mark Henry impression with a fake retirement to earn another title match, but the result was the same.

He dealt with a couple injuries this year, including one that was rather serious after a return to TV. But he recovered to return at the Rumble and has a match with Logan Paul waiting for him.

Best moment: The reception in France
Worst moment: Getting injured the same show he returned to start his babyface run

Stock: Mildly increased — he’s in a better spot as a babyface and despite likely taking an L to Logan Paul this year, I still think he’s better positioned than he was last year.

Bayley def. Iyo Sky (c) to win the WWE women’s championship

Bayley
PLE overall record (3-4), one on one (1-2), championship (2-2)

Bayley is a WWE all-timer at this point, but despite winning the title at last year’s WrestleMania 40, this was not her year.

Her title reign, which lasted until SummerSlam when she lost the title to Nia Jax, was underwhelming, with only three defenses (Naomi, Naomi & Tiffany Stratton, and Piper Niven) prior to losing the belt. None of those stories set the world on fire.

After her title loss, and a failed attempt to win it back, she found herself a spot in the WarGames match due to Jade Cargill’s absence (thanks Naomi).

Her path to WrestleMania 41 turned out to be as part of a makeshift tag team with Women’s Intercontinental champ Lyra Valkyria.

It’s clearly been a down year for a wrestler who still can bring a lot to the table. But one of the issues with such reliability is there’s not much to do all the time. She’s bound to have down years. Perhaps 2025 will bring a big story or character shift.

Best Moment: Winning the title at ‘Mania
Worst Moment: Having to team with the woman who she failed to beat for the IC title

Stock: Decent decline creatively but also, it’s Bayley and she’ll always have a spot

Iyo Sky
PLE overall record (0-4), one on one (0-0), championship (0-1)

One thing that stuck out to me about Iyo’s loss to Bayley in this match last year was that she was never afforded a rematch. It’s not that uncommon for champions not to get rematches these days, no matter how long they held a belt. Hell, Roman Reigns was champ for over a thousand days and still hasn’t had a rematch (and there’s good reason for that — they didn’t want him or Cody losing).

Instead Sky moved to Raw in the draft and, while frequently featured, didn’t see another title match for almost a year.

She competed in the Queen of the Ring tournament, losing to Lyra Valkyria. She and Kairi Sane tagged throughout the summer but never captured any gold. The Genius of the Sky competed in WarGames, a match that she’s pretty much guaranteed a spot in at this point… someone’s gotta jump off the top with a trash can on their head.

The year felt like a lot of spinning in place for Iyo. In that time, she became a full-fledged babyface. They didn’t do anything to trigger that specifically. Fans were pretty behind her when she was a heel and creative just let that ride.

It would be almost 12 months until she’d receive a one-on-one title match. Rhea Ripley, who likely felt guilty for costing Sky a spot in the Elimination Chamber, granted her a shot. And that was all it took for Iyo to regain gold.

Sky’s title win was absolutely a hot shot to spice up the women’s world title picture, and get us to a triple threat between her, Rhea, and Bianca Belair. But at the same time, she was over enough with the crowd and protected enough on the roster that it didn’t feel unearned or out of left field.

It is entirely possible that she loses her championship two ‘Manias in a row. Last year there was a long story built around her and Bayley, while she was added seemingly last minute this year. But I argue that Iyo’s stock is higher heading into WrestleMania 41. Even when spinning in place at times, she was constantly featured, and more importantly — consistently over. Given her style and overall appear, babyface is her truer form, and mixing it up with Ripley and Belair feels bigger than feuding with Bayley at this stage of the respective careers.

Best moment: Defeating Rhea Ripley to win the championship
Worst moment: Watching all of her Damage CTRL mates get injured throughout the year

Stock: Mild increase

Nia Jax
PLE overall record (3-4), one on one (3-1), championship (not including Crown Jewel) (2-0)

I almost forgot about Nia Jax to be honest. Despite being back with the promotion, she wasn’t on the card last year. Jax is also not on WrestleMania 41. Seems like an easy call… but then I remembered that she held the the Women’s title for almost half that year in-between.

Jax won the Queen of the Ring tournament in Saudi Arabia, earning her a title match against Bayley at SummerSlam. Nia would make good on that opportunity, with the help of her new buddy Tiffany Stratton, winning the title.

She remained champ for awhile, with Stratton at her side making sure she continued her reign. There were plenty of mildly teased cash ins by Tiffy in the Bank, but Jax went strong from August into January.

Finally, Tiffany cashed in and took that title. Jax would have one more moment, teaming with her new friend Candice LeRae against Stratton and Trish Stratus at Elimination Chamber. But then she disappeared again.

She’s denying it is health related, though you can often not trust wrestlers. But either way, that leaves an odd year where she started and ended in the same spot (not on the card), but in between was booked rather strong,

Best Moment: Winning Queen of the Ring (which she did without interference, unlike her title win)
Worst Moment: Somehow not finding herself on this year’s card again

Stock: Unchanged

Cody Rhodes def. Roman Reigns

Solo Sikoa
PLE overall record (3-3), one on one (0-1), championship (0-1)

Given he was involved in this match and had a busy year, we can’t leave Solo off. And this is the best spot for it.

Sikoa has gone from not having a match last year… to not having a match this year. But that doesn’t mean his stock hasn’t changed.

Last year, he was an unknown. We all figured a solo run (pun unintended) was coming. But we didn’t know how he would do with it. Now we do. And it wasn’t great.

To be entirely fair to Sikoa, he was set up to fail. From WrestleMania 40 to SummerSlam, it was all about making him the leader of the rogue Bloodline and a true threat to Roman Reigns. And that was never ever going to happen. Partially because almost no one could do that. But also because Solo just wasn’t ready for such a monumental task.

Making matters worse, after adding Tama Tonga and Tonga Loa to the new Bloodline, he added Jacob Fatu. The Samoan Werewolf oozes charisma and is better in the ring than Solo. So immediately, Sikoa, who is supposed to be badass enough to be a threat to Roman frickin’ Reigns, has to share the screen with someone who is more suited for that role.

To further the Bloodline story, he ended up with a title match against Cody Rhodes. Unfortunately he didn’t do anything to prove to fans he deserved the match, and certainly that he had any real chance to win. It was obvious this was just a vehicle for Roman’s return.

Reigns re-entry on the scene at SummerSlam started the Bloodline Civil War. Sikoa & Fatu lost to Cody & Roman at Bad Blood. But then he got to stand tall over The OTC a handful of times until Reigns realized he needed a full reunited OG Bloodline to win the war inside WarGames.

Solo lost the Ula Fala back to Roman on Raw’s Netflix premiere in January, officially ending the Civil War.

The rest of the year has focused on the simmering tension between Solo & Jacob. But in general, the damage has been done. Sikoa is done as this character. When he came out last Friday to confront Orton, who is still in need of an opponent at WrestleMania 41, my first reaction was “They should let Aldis have the match.”

Solo Sikoa isn’t cooked by any means. But this version of him is. He needs to move away from the Bloodline and reinvent himself. Otherwise he’s the guy who couldn’t stack up to Roman Reigns.

Best Moment: Getting to main event a Big 4 PPV
Worst Moment: Looking secondary to Jacob Fatu

Stock: Down

Roman Reigns
PLE overall record (2-2), one on one (0-0)

Looking at these last two men will be a bit of a case study on whether the man makes the title or the title makes the man. Not that Cody is levels beneath Roman, but Reigns still feels like the main character at times.

Let’s take a look at his year.

After his Night Two loss ended his historic reign, Roman was off TV for awhile. But even when he wasn’t there, he was a character in the story. Solo built his new Bloodline, donning the Ula Fala and usurping Roman for the Tribal Chief position.

The OTC returned at SummerSlam, helping his enemy Cody in order to begin the process of putting his former enforcer in his place. Reigns teamed with the American Nightmare at Bad Blood against Solo & Jacob Fatu, winning that match.

From there it was time for an OG Bloodline reunion of Roman, the Usos, and Sami Zayn. It was a story that was lacking, mostly because Roman didn’t show any regret or remorse for all the bad things he did to his former family. Perhaps it was because they wanted to protect his character, but it took away from what should have been emotionally rewarding moments.

After winning the Ula Fala back from Sikoa when Raw debuted on Netflix in January. the next stop for the Tribal Chief was the Royal Rumble. There he was eliminated by CM Punk and took multiple stomps from his Shield betrayer, Seth Rollins. From there, we eventually got Saturday’s main event Triple Threat.

That’s right, despite having zero title associated, Roman Reigns is still in the main even of WrestleMania. It is Night One and not Night Two. Rhodes and John Cena get the honor of closing the weekend. But this goes back the our original point — being Roman Reigns is almost a championship in itself. He’s the reason his match is a main event. CM Punk vs. Seth Rollins would not have been guaranteed to close the show alone.

His stock is ever so slightly down because he’s not part of an historic title reign, but he’s still one of the top, top guys.

Best Moment: Winning back the Ula Fala
Worst Moment: The end of his WWE championship run at WrestleMania 40

Stock: Ever so slightly down

Cody Rhodes
PLE overall record (8-1), one on one (7-0), championship (not including Crown Jewel) (6-0)

So what’s the other side of the coin?

Did Cody’s year with the Undisputed title elevate him? Or did he benefit more from the chase? Certainly his dad thought the chase was where the money was.

There was never doubt that Dusty’s son would be a workhorse champion. Since winning the belt last April, he has successful defenses against AJ Styles (twice), Logan Paul, Kevin Owens (three times), Solo Sikoa (twice), and a Crown Jewel championship win over Gunther.

It’s the Solo feud that you could argue lessened Cody’s run. Because Solo, as we discussed, was never a viable challenger. Rhodes was wasting the second biggest show of the year fighting a man that was clearly just in the match to set up another angle. And that isn’t Monday morning quarterbacking. The entire SummerSlam match was spent just waiting for Roman Reigns to return.

It was a moment that made Rhodes seem like he was still taking a backseat to the OTC, despite holding the gold.

His story with Kevin Owens started to develop during the summer, and helped give Cody a program that seemed important. The outcome was also never in doubt, but it was a story worthy of the top title with the champ at the center of it.

At WrestleMania 41, Cody will get the top match, one worth of closing Night Two. That’s because he’ll be John Cena’s final WrestleMania opponent. And this is a heel John Cena, who joined the Rock after the champ refused to sell his soul to the Final Boss. Rock’s absence since Elimination Chamber has made the story more disjointed than it should be, but it’s still a match worthy of closing the weekend.

Being a workhorse means Rhodes is going to have feuds that seem unimportant. When Roman showed up every few months as champion, it felt special because he wasn’t there. The American Nightmare doesn’t have that luxury. But crowds have not tired of him and he’s still doing great work as champion.

So where does that leave us? Is his stock up because he has the belt? Or was he higher when he was in the aura of Roman Reigns last year?

While he’s had a great year and undeniably in a great spot, I’ve come to the conclusion that Reigns is still the main character. Cody is definitely a top guy and the top champion. But nothing he did this year felt as big as the chasing Roman.

Best Moment: No question it’s the main event of WrestleMania 40
Worst Moment: John Cena kicking him in the nuts

Stock: Ever so slightly down

So let’s run some numbers.

Here’s the grade distribution from the WrestleMania Stock Report:

• Stock Up: 13
• Stock Down: 20
• Unchanged: 8
• Injured: 3
• No longer with the company/on hiatus: 3

What do we make of this?

Well to start, this whole exercise is subjective. Adding to that, there were a handful of folks who I felt the change in their stock was there but mild. Looking at the Report this way loses that nuance.

Still, I think the uneven distribution between decreases and increases might be telling us something — and the answer seems evident looking at this year’s line-up. 11 folks who didn’t work WrestleMania 40 are on this weekend’s card in Vegas. Those spots had to come from somewhere. You have folks returning from injury such as CM Punk, Charlotte Flair, Raquel Rodriguez, and War Raiders. You have new talent in Bron Breakker, Penta, Jacob Fatu, Lyra Valkyria, and Tiffany Stratton. And hey, Chad Gable made onto this year’s card.

There aren’t as many multi-person matches to get more folks on the card like they had with the tag team ladder match last year, which contributes to stock decline… but not being on this year’s card wasn’t an automatic downgrade.

It’s always unfortunate when folks are injured, though at least the number is low. We’ll always hope for zero when we do this next spring, though.

Let us know if there are specific takeaways you took from this. Comment away below.

You can catch up on the earlier editions of the WrestleMania Stock Report here — Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4 — and stick with Cageside all weekend for complete coverage of this year’s ‘Mania!