{"id":139361,"date":"2025-07-31T15:32:48","date_gmt":"2025-07-31T19:32:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/?p=139361"},"modified":"2025-07-31T15:32:48","modified_gmt":"2025-07-31T19:32:48","slug":"cody-rhodes-names-wrestlemania-loss-to-roman-reigns-as-his-favorite-match","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/2025\/07\/31\/cody-rhodes-names-wrestlemania-loss-to-roman-reigns-as-his-favorite-match\/","title":{"rendered":"Cody Rhodes Names WrestleMania Loss to Roman Reigns as His Favorite Match"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Despite having a career spanning 19 years and over 2000 matches, Cody Rhodes singled out his loss to Roman Reigns at WrestleMania 39 as his favorite. Rhodes spoke with legendary sports writer and podcaster Bill Simmons, explaining how the crowd at SoFi Stadium is the reason for his ranking.<\/p>\n<p>The American Nightmare described being in a guillotine choke as the moment he had his epiphany. Rhodes said, \u201c[Reigns] had me in a guillotine choke. And you hear all these old timers talk about &#8216;Just stay right there (in the hold) and the people will react.&#8217;\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Rhodes added, \u201cI remember I\u2019m just slowly wiggling my head out. And I can hear an entire stadium where the sound goes up, starts to move. And I think, oh man, they\u2019re into this. How blessed am I that they\u2019re into this?\u201d<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Why Wrestlemania 39 is Cody Rhodes\u2019s Favorite Match<\/p>\n<p>Full episode with <a  href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/CodyRhodes?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">@CodyRhodes<\/a> coming Thursday on the Bill Simmons Podcast! <a  href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/Xe9XdZuleD\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">pic.twitter.com\/Xe9XdZuleD<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&mdash; The Ringer (@ringer) <a  href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/ringer\/status\/1950634546581643612?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">July 30, 2025<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<h2>Roman Reigns vs. Cody Rhodes at WrestleMania 39<\/h2>\n<p>It should not be surprising that the Californian crowd was invested in the highly anticipated encounter. Fans wanted to see Rhodes \u201cfinish his story\u201d and win his first WWE championship, which he did the following year in a rematch with the Tribal Chief.<\/p>\n<p>Rhodes picking this match as his favorite may come as a shock, given that he has had incredible performances in the past. His match with brother Dustin at AEW Double or Nothing, as well as his tag team showdown against the Shield at Battleground, springs to mind. His Hell in a Cell performance vs Seth Rollins also deserves consideration.<\/p>\n<p>Despite the loss, this match was instrumental in Rhodes\u2019 legacy. It was his graduation into wrestling superstardom.<\/p>\n<p>This was Rhodes&#8217; first-ever WrestleMania main event and only the second time he had a main event singles match for the WWE. It propelled him into the role of \u201cquarterback\u201d for the biggest sports entertainment brand on the planet.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"FULL MATCH - Roman Reigns vs. Cody Rhodes \u2014 WWE Universal Championship Match: WrestleMania 39 Sunday\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/cZASY_zwKvs?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><strong>More From LWOS Pro Wrestling<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><em><i>Header photo \u2013 WWE \u2013 Stay tuned to the\u00a0<\/i><\/em><a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/\" target=\"_self\"><em><u><i>Last Word on Pro Wrestling<\/i><\/u><\/em><\/a><em><i> for more on Cody Rhodes, Roman Reigns, WrestleMania 39, and other stories from around the world of wrestling, as they develop. You can always count on LWOPW to be on top of the major news in the wrestling world, as well as to provide you with analysis, previews, videos, interviews, and editorials on the wrestling world.<\/i><\/em><\/p>\n<p><em><i>You can check out WWE programming on\u00a0<\/i><\/em><a href=\"https:\/\/www.netflix.com\/title\/81788927\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><em><u><i>Netflix<\/i><\/u><\/em><\/a><em><i>\u00a0(Raw),\u00a0<\/i><\/em><a href=\"https:\/\/www.usanetwork.com\/wwe-friday-night-smackdown\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><em><u><i>USA Network<\/i><\/u><\/em><\/a><em><i>\u00a0(SmackDown),\u00a0<\/i><\/em><a href=\"https:\/\/www.cwtv.com\/shows\/wwe-nxt\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><em><u><i>The CW<\/i><\/u><\/em><\/a><em><i>\u00a0(NXT),\u00a0<\/i><\/em><a href=\"https:\/\/tubitv.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><em><u><i>Tubi<\/i><\/u><\/em><\/a><em><i>\u00a0(WWE Evolve),\u00a0<\/i><\/em><a href=\"https:\/\/www.aetv.com\/wwe\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><em><u><i>A&amp;E<\/i><\/u><\/em><\/a><em><i>\u00a0(WWE Superstar Sunday \u2013 Rivals, WWE LFG, and Greatest Moments), and\u00a0<\/i><\/em><a href=\"https:\/\/www.peacocktv.com\/watch\/home\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><em><u><i>Peacock<\/i><\/u><\/em><\/a><em><i>\u00a0(WWE Main Event as well as archives and premium live event streaming). Follow WWE on social media to relive top moments and matches on\u00a0<\/i><\/em><a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/wwe\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><em><u><i>YouTube<\/i><\/u><\/em><\/a><em><i>, and catch fast-paced action on X (<\/i><\/em><a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/i\/events\/1773457579022155776?lang=en\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><em><u><i>WWE Speed<\/i><\/u><\/em><\/a><em><i>).<\/i><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Despite having a career spanning 19 years and over 2000 matches, Cody Rhodes singled out his loss to Roman Reigns at WrestleMania 39 as his favorite. Rhodes spoke with legendary sports writer and podcaster Bill Simmons, explaining how the crowd at SoFi Stadium is the reason for his ranking. The American Nightmare described being in [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5523,"featured_media":139378,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[12,2192,4,3],"tags":[98,77,396,8392],"class_list":["post-139361","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","category-wrestling","category-wwe","category-wwe-universe","tag-cody-rhodes","tag-roman-reigns","tag-wrestlemania","tag-wrestlemania-39"],"modified_by":"Chinyere Okafor","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/139361","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5523"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=139361"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/139361\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":139377,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/139361\/revisions\/139377"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/139378"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=139361"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=139361"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=139361"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}