The longstanding rivalry between Cody Rhodes and Roman Reigns was originally scheduled to culminate in a trilogy match at WrestleMania 42, planned for April 18-19, 2026, at Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas. WWE‘s concept for their flagship event envisioned Rhodes defending the Undisputed WWE Championship against Reigns, repeating the main event lineup from WrestleMania 39 and WrestleMania XL. This setup positioned the match as the final chapter in their ongoing feud, with Roman Reigns intended to regain the championship.
Survivor Series Sets the Stage for Rhodes vs. Reigns III
At the close of Survivor Series, viewers were teased with another confrontation between Cody Rhodes and Roman Reigns, fueling speculation for their third WrestleMania showdown. Reports from wrestling insider Ibou of Self Made indicated the original storyline had Rhodes holding the Undisputed WWE Title until WrestleMania 42, where Reigns would emerge victorious in their rubber match. This plan called for Reigns to reclaim his status as the Undisputed WWE Champion on WWE’s grandest weekend.
I’ll get right to the Cody Rhodes-Mania report now. Here’s the bottom line, the original direction was literally simply Cody is going to hold this deal until Mania and then Roman was going to go to Mania and beat him. That’s what they were gonna do,
Ibou said on Self Made Sessions.
Title Change Alters WrestleMania 42 Main Event Plans
The evolving storyline took an unexpected turn when Drew McIntyre dethroned Cody Rhodes in a Three Stages of Hell match on the January 9 episode of SmackDown, aided by the surprise return of Jacob Fatu. This title switch disrupted the original setup and cast uncertainty over the Rhodes-Reigns rivalry’s place on the WrestleMania 42 card. Although reports suggested that a third Rhodes vs. Reigns match might be off the roster, Ibou revealed that the bout was still on the table as recently as the week prior.
WrestleMania Road Expected to Feature Multiple Title Changes
Ibou explained that the path to WrestleMania would likely involve Roman Reigns overcoming Drew McIntyre to recapture the Undisputed WWE Championship, thereby reigniting his rivalry with Cody Rhodes for the main event slot. However, challenges surrounded Reigns’ part-time status, complicating his ability to consistently carry the championship. WWE creative sought to navigate this by injecting surprises into the build-up and exploring character shifts.
Now here’s the deal, people in WWE are very aware of Roman’s status currently in the sense that he’s like a living legend and he’s so important to WWE, but he’s not a full-time guy and there will be some complications that come with him holding the championship as a part-time babyface. That’s f*cking insane. So they tried to come up with ways to maybe circumvent this, to make it more interesting, to spice up the road to Mania,
Ibou added.
Triple H and Drew McIntyre’s Roles in Storyline Development
Paul Levesque, better known as Triple H, was reportedly aiming to introduce unexpected elements to the WrestleMania narrative, including leveraging Drew McIntyre as an intermediary champion bridging Rhodes and Reigns. McIntyre himself pitched ideas that benefited both his character and WWE’s overall storyline direction, which reportedly found approval within the company.
Triple H wanted to get some surprises in there, and he wanted maybe to throw some monkey wrenches into the road. He wants Cody to win, and so one of the things he devised – Drew McIntyre was the guy who pitched this and Drew was smart because now what he realised is I’m pitching things that can benefit me but I know it’ll go through because it’ll benefit the overall promotion and what they’re trying to do with their big thing… The plan as of last week was Drew McIntyre was gonna be the middle man in this Cody-Roman story,
The idea was gonna be Drew McIntyre was gonna hold the championship. It was going to lead to Cody Rhodes shifting his character ever so slightly. They were going to play around with the idea that did he attack Jacob Fatu? Did he not? Is Cody turning heel? Is he not? They’re gonna play around with this without actually doing it. Jacob Fatu is going to be a tweener on the show. If you’re noticing, you’re not hearing a lot of Roman Reigns. It’s because he wasn’t going to be on TV for a lot of this sh*t. He’s a part-timer. The bottom line is what I believe they were going to do is play around with all these elements, all these moving parts. Roman Reigns was most likely going to challenge Drew McIntyre and beat Drew McIntyre at some point in this process, and then he was going to face a challenging Cody Rhodes at WrestleMania. So we’ll see how that goes…but that’s what Paul Levesque was trying to pull off here.
Legacy and Stakes Ahead of WrestleMania 42
The WrestleMania 42 event promises to continue the high-stakes saga between Rhodes and Reigns, who both hold victories over each other in previous WrestleMania main events. Roman Reigns defeated Cody at WrestleMania 39 to retain the Undisputed WWE Universal Championship, while Cody returned the favor by pinning Reigns at WrestleMania 40 to claim the title himself. Their anticipated third encounter stands to settle bragging rights in what has become one of WWE’s defining rivalries.
