Is the Cody Rhodes backlash real? WWE's QB1 dilemma has become impossible to ignore

Ever since he made his return at the 2024 Royal Rumble, Cody Rhodes has only missed three WWE PLEs — and typically with good reason. (He skipped one last year due to the birth of his second daughter.) Now it looks like we're about to get a fourth PLE on that list, given the champion isn't booked for this weekend's Backlash show.

He was originally meant to be there. If the reports are to be believed, the initial idea was to have Rhodes teaming with Jelly Roll to take on the now-aborted TKO alliance of Randy Orton and Pat McAfee. Then came the massive fan blowback to the idea of McAfee as wrestling's big supervillain, and WWE wisely dropped the whole storyline like a stone.

That all makes sense. But it wouldn't explain why WWE hasn't pivoted to a replacement match for Rhodes, the current Undisputed WWE Champion. Add to that the fact that this all comes just after the champ received an unexpected booing from the fans in Las Vegas, and my Spidey sense starts tingling — is WWE worried that fans are going to sour on its babyface champion?

Steady on now — no one is suggesting Triple H is ever going to bench his QB1 entirely. But it couldn’t have gone unnoticed in Stamford, Connecticut, that this is the second ‘Mania where the biggest babyface in the company — and the man entering as Undisputed Champion — has received a frosty reception from the stadium crowd.

This being ‘Mania, there are some big caveats. Having spent so much on a ticket, plenty of fans want to see a title change (which means a Rhodes defeat), as it's more of a historic moment. It also hinders Rhodes’ babyface credentials that, on both occasions, he was up against a veritable wrestling legend — i.e. exactly the sort of person who will get a massive response from a beer-drinking stadium crowd.

At the same time, it isn't the only time we've had hints of Rhodes fatigue from the fans. His entrance to this year’s Royal Rumble received some booing (in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, of all places). There was some serious grumbling online a few months back when it became clear that WWE was planning to end Drew McIntyre's short title reign and switch the belt back to Rhodes before ‘Mania (despite the latter losing March’s Elimination Chamber).

It isn't hard to imagine why the fans might react badly to that sort of bait-and-switch. Particularly when we later learned that the whole reason for having Rhodes lose to McIntyre in the first place was to be able to advertise "The American Nightmare" for the Rumble and Elimination Chamber — and thus to boost ticket sales and grow TKO coffers. That's a cynical way to use your top babyface.

In fact, TKO has to bear some of the responsibility here. Like John Cena before him, Cody Rhodes has been touted as the face of the company. But when the company in question is one that fans don't particularly like right now — due mainly to TKO's excessive profiteering — the position becomes somewhat of a poisoned chalice.

Just look at some of the duties that have befallen "The American Nightmare" over the past year. He was the first WWE guest on Stephanie McMahon's podcast — a vanity project that gets pushed on "Raw" and "SmackDown" most weeks despite receiving widespread indifference from the fan base. He's also the face of the Wheatley Vodka partnership, one of the many corporate sponsors whose commercials ate into WrestleMania's running time.

Cody Rhodes makes his entrance during SmackDown at BOK Center on May 1, 2026, in Tulsa, Oklahoma. (Photo by Craig Melvin/WWE via Getty Images)

(WWE via Getty Images)

He's even been part of the controversial TKO ploy to offer mega-expensive experiences to fans with deep pockets. Ahead of this year's WrestleMania, you could pay $10,000 to ride with Rhodes in his tour bus down the Las Vegas strip (though the event was eventually canceled). In an age when TKO is squeezing every penny out of us that it can, you can see why that might not go down so well.

It isn't like the creative plans have been on fire with Rhodes either. Topping his life-affirming title win at WrestleMania XL was always going to be hard, but the storylines since then have been middling at best. He's been stuck in a "will they, won't they?" loop regarding a Roman Reigns rematch for two years now. And it doesn't help that The Rock, once styled as Rhodes' ultimate adversary, has cleared off and left everyone else to get on with it.

At times, WWE has seemed unsure about whether it even wants Rhodes to be a babyface, dropping consistent hints about a darker side. Look at the way he brutalized John Cena just before SummerSlam, for example, or the way he sometimes breaks the rules to win his matches. When he faced Randy Orton at WrestleMania 42, he spent most of the match wrestling like a heel, as if trying to justify those boos in retrospect.

Obviously, a bit of booing is a million miles away from the unceremonious scenes in AEW, where Rhodes even had fans throwing his own weight-belt back at him (in fairness, they're probably kicking themselves now given the resale value). But even the slightest hints of antagonism shouldn't be ignored — wrestling history is rich with "babyface" champions who overstayed their welcomes.

Obviously, both Rhodes and Triple H are smart enough to know that and avoid anything like that ever happening. If that means taking some time to reassess the situation, so be it. Better that than risk more booing this weekend.