WrestleMania 40 made history with Cody Rhodes becoming the new Universal champion after an electrifying match against Roman Reigns. It’s a trend that WrestleMania often sees new champions crowned. Another recurring theme that is often overlooked, is AJ Styles being the first opponent of the newly crowned world champion after WrestleMania.
After Cody Rhodes ended Roman Reigns’ more than 1,300-day reign at WrestleMania 40, fans are looking forward to a long championship run by Rhodes, which may stretch a year or more. After beating such a strong champ, Rhodes will likely face top-level opponents early in his rule. Here comes AJ Styles as Rhodes’ first title contender, following an incredible pattern in which he often becomes the first televised opponent for new world champions after WrestleMania.
For those who may not have noticed, this pattern started when Styles challenged Roman Reigns at Payback following WrestleMania 32. To a similar extent, he served as Seth Rollins’ first opponent at Money in the Bank after Rollins’ victory at WrestleMania 35. Now that WrestleMania 40 is over, he is again set to face new champion Cody Rhodes at the upcoming Backlash, which will maintain his role as the go-to first challenger in the post-WrestleMania landscape.
With their showdown just two weeks away, excitement is building to see how the 46-year-old will fare against the American Nightmare. To ramp up excitement, Rhodes quickly sent a message to his first televised opponent by choosing a subtle rather than bold approach.
Cody Rhodes sends message to AJ Styles ahead of Backlash
As the Universal Champion, Cody Rhodes wraps up his WrestleMania 40 run and embarks on his first overseas tour in the UK. It is during his trip that he finds that AJ Styles will be his first televised challenger at Backlash. Rhodes responds to the Phenomenal One’s glorious win against LA Knight by sending a proud video greeting.
Speaking to the live video, the Universal Champion said, “Back home, AJ Styles has emerged as the number one contender for the Undisputed Championship. Two Georgia boys doing it out in the heart of France, for the first time at that. AJ Styles has an unprecedented reputation in the wrestling game. He’s the modern excellence of execution. AJ Styles rarely misses, but I don’t miss either. Lyon, France, Backlash, I look forward to it,” via Sportskeeda.
