WWE announces Cody Rhodes hospitalized with cervical swelling

Rhodes, 39, successfully defended his title against Kevin Owens in the main event of the show, the first of its kind since July 28, 2008. Rhodes’ celebration was cut short, however. Owens, who failed to get his shoulder up after the count of three from referee Charles Robinson after taking a Cross Rhodes onto a steel chair, hopped back in the ring and ambushed Rhodes.

Owens delivered a piledriver, a banned move, to Rhodes after the show had already gone off the air on NBC. WWE medical personnel stretchered Rhodes out of the arena and loaded him into an ambulance. Owens, meanwhile, took Rhodes’ “Winged Eagle” championship belt with him as he made his way up the entrance way.

Kevin Owens attacks Cody Rhodes after main event match

As Owens mocked the crowd, WWE Chief Content Officer Paul “Triple H” Levesque emerged from gorilla to confront “The Prizefighter.” Levesque shoved Owens, and the two went face-to-face in a tense moment captured by the company’s social media team.

Owens has a history of wreaking havoc on WWE television. He notably hit Randy Orton with a piledriver on his surgically repaired neck during the Nov. 8 edition of “Friday Night SmackDown.” Orton is currently out of action as a result of the injuries he sustained from the piledriver.