The real reason for Cody Rhodes losing the Undisputed WWE Championship to Drew McIntyre ahead of WrestleMania 42 has now been revealed.
The WWE Championship changed hands on the January 9 SmackDown episode, with Drew McIntyre winning the Three Stages of Hell match to end Cody Rhodes’ second reign with the gold.
Per Dave Meltzer in the latest edition of the Wrestling Observer Newsletter, Triple H changed plans as he felt the previously planned direction could have resulted in audience fatigue.
Meltzer wrote:
“The way it was explained is that Paul Levesque took another look at the Rumble-to-Mania planned direction and decided that doing a Rhodes vs. Reigns match for the third time in four years and spending months building the direction would lead to audience fatigue.
“Rhodes brought up McIntyre at the same time and asked for advice if it made sense, and if he would be more valuable chasing than defending and eventually decided chasing would be better.”
Dave Meltzer also reports that both Drew McIntyre and Cody Rhodes had pushed for the title change, writing:
Both McIntyre and Rhodes had been pushing that McIntyre should get the title.
McIntyre was said to be pretty vocal that he felt it was the best thing for all concerned, and Rhodes agreed, feeling it would be fresher to go into this year’s Mania chasing the title rather than defending it.
Drew McIntyre will defend the WWE Championship at Royal Rumble on January 31, against the winner of the #1 contender’s four-way match slated to take place at the January 24 Saturday Night’s Main Event special.
Qualifying matches for this four-way will take place on the January 16 episode of SmackDown.
For latest WWE update on WWE Championship match plans for WrestleMania 42, click here.
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