Cody Rhodes and John Cena WWE Raw March 31 2025

Cody Rhodes Reflects on John Cena Feud

Originally posted on The Sportster | By Kellie Crawford | Last updated Oct 2, 2025 5:34 PM ET

Cody says SummerSlam vs Cena was great partly because their WrestleMania 41 match was weak.
Cena's heel WrestleMania 41 main event disappointed; The Rock didn't appear and Travis Scott showed up instead.
Cena's farewell tour continues; Rhodes defends the Undisputed Title and faces Seth at Crown Jewel.

Undisputed WWE Champion Cody Rhodes was recently a guest on the Pat McAfee Show. There, he brought up his feud with John Cena and made a surprising admission about their match at WrestleMania 41.

Cody Rhodes On His SummerSlam Match Against Cena Vs. WrestleMania 41 Match

Rhodes shared how he felt that his match with Cena at SummerSlam was so good because of how “lack of a match” WrestleMania 41 was. Just as an example of how terrible it was, popular wrestling journalist Dave Meltzer gave the WrestleMania 41 match *3/4 stars and called it one of the worst WrestleMania main events ever. Rhodes said:

“I hate saying this, but part of the beauty of how great that match is was the lack of a match that really took place at WrestleMania, in a sense. Sometimes, the long game is the game. And again, it's like going on last—it's a hard spot occasionally, but the bigger picture.I treat them as they were the same match, and then we just got to use all the bells and whistles.” (h/t: WrestlePurists)

At the time of WrestleMania 41, Cena was a heel, and he defeated Cody for the Undisputed WWE Championship. While Cena would become a 17-time champ, it was still a lackluster match. It didn’t help that instead of The Rock showing up, it was just rapper Travis Scott. Fans thought that he would be there, considering what happened at Elimination Chamber.

It definitely didn’t compare to the main event of night one of WrestleMania 41 between Seth Rollins, CM Punk, and Roman Reigns. Heel Cena was a major letdown, and it was fine when he decided to turn back to his usual face self the night before SmackDown.

Cody Rhodes and John Cena Now

Cody Rhodes and John Cena WWE Raw March 31 2025

Since Rhodes won the title from Cena at SummerSlam, what have the two been up to? Well, Cena got obliterated at Wrestlepalooza while Rhodes successfully defended the Undisputed WWE Title against Drew McIntyre.

WWE’s next PLE event is Crown Jewel: Perth, and it’s Cena’s last WWE match in Australia. He’s going to be facing AJ Styles. While Rhodes won’t be defending the title, but will instead be facing WWE World Heavyweight Champion Seth Rollins to crown the Men’s Crown Jewel Champion. Rhodes was the inaugural champion last year.

Cena only has a handful of dates left on his farewell tour. His last WWE match is set for Washington, D.C., on December 13, for Saturday Night’s Main Event. The event won’t be airing on NBC like usual, because SNME has since exclusively moved to Peacock. Rhodes will probably be on the card for that event, too.

This article first appeared on The Sportster and was syndicated with permission.

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