Cody Rhodes Says WWE WrestleMania Main Event With Roman Reigns Is His Favorite Match

WWE star Cody Rhodes has detailed why his first world title match against Roman Reigns at WrestleMania 39 is his favorite match of all time, despite losing it.

Rhodes tried to "finish his story" at "The Show of Shows" in 2023, when he came face-to-face with Reigns, who was on a record-breaking run with the world title. In a recent appearance on "The Bill Simmons Podcast," he explained why that match meant a lot to him.

"I probably would have been pumped to win, certainly. But there's something about that night where things were happening in the arena or the stadium that had never happened to me," Rhodes said.  

He recalled being in Reigns' guillotine choke, when the crowd slowly got behind him, which made him feel grateful for the position that he was in.

"He's got me in the guillotine choke, and you hear these old-timers and — god bless them, I love them talk about, you know, [who say] just stay right there and the people will react. When you've seen the amount of cool flips and awesome stuff, sometimes that seems like, I don't know, maybe that's not real anymore. And then in that moment, I remember I'm just slowly wiggling my head out, and I can hear an entire stadium where the sound goes up, start to move, and I thought, 'Oh man, they're into this. How blessed am I that they're into this?' And it just — when it's that good, it feels completely real. Everything seems real. Roman is the greatest enemy of my life, and I'm trying to climb a mountain that's impossible to climb, and that just acoustic moment, for me, made it my favorite match of all time."

Rhodes admitted that he couldn't tell everyone that the match was his favorite match because it had a sad ending. "The American Nightmare," however, reached the pinnacle of WWE the following year, this time getting the better of Reigns to begin his first reign as WWE World Champion.