Last month Randy Orton punched his ticket to WrestleMania when he won the men’s Elimination Chamber match, and Cody Rhodes went on to win the Undisputed WWE Championship on the following episode of SmackDown.
During the most recent episode of Friday Night SmackDown, Randy Orton and Cody Rhodes met in the ring as they signed the contract for their WrestleMania match. Immediately after Randy signed the contract he turned on Cody and he destroyed The American Nightmare as the show went off the air.
Dave Meltzer discussed Randy Orton’s heel turn on Wrestling Observer Radio, and it was noted that WWE didn’t want to go into WrestleMania with Cody and Randy facing off in a babyface vs. babyface match.
“It’s an interesting one because I still expect Randy Orton to get cheered at WrestleMania. I think everyone’s expecting it, including WWE, don’t kid yourself. They want Randy to be the heel. They wanted to put some conflict into it and they didn’t want to go in there with the babyface vs. babyface.
I think they could have done babyface vs. babyface first match and then do something afterwards to keep it going, but it’s WrestleMania. They wanted to get there now.”
One way or another business has certainly picked up for the Cody Rhodes vs. Randy Orton rivalry. It’s clear that there are a number of fans who are happy to see Orton as a heel again, so it will be interesting to see what type of reaction The Viper receives at WrestleMania 42.