Bully Ray Explains How WWE Should Follow Up On Cody Rhodes' SNME Loss To Randy Orton

It is often said it's not whether you lose but how you lose. And on Sunday Night's Main Event, Cody Rhodes lost to Randy Orton in a way that left many people scratching their heads, as Rhodes went from bloodying up Orton to having a crisis of fatih when going to deliver Orton's punt kick. Bully Ray is one of those people wondering what exactly Rhodes, and WWE, were doing, and on Tuesday's "Busted Open Radio," he pondered whether this was a sign that Rhodes' babyface character could be on its last legs.

"The white meat babyface that Cody is portraying is starting to get a little bit old with people," Bully said. "You want to wear that suit? You want to use four syllable words? Go right ahead. But when you have the opportunity to kick Randy Orton in the head and make things right after he talked about your mother and your wife, and your wife had the balls to throw a beer in his face, but you didn't have the balls to kick him in it, there's something wrong."

With the feud set to continue, Bully turned to how Rhodes and WWE could salvage things, Bully proposed everything from Orton mocking Rhodes and the latter getting fired up, to Rhodes' mother and wife, Brandi, even having doubts about him. But before any of that, Bully believes that Rhodes needs to admit wrongdoing, and apologize to the audience for not going the extra mile.

"If he's going to save himself from this, he better come to the ring, and say, in layman's terms, not in big Cody words, 'I blame myself,'" Bully said. "'I'm sorry if I let you down, because I let myself down, and I let my mother down, and I let my wife down, and I let my dog down. He better get in, get on, get off, get out. 'I am sorry. I'm not wasting anybody else's time. I'm letting you know that I screwed up. I had that moment when I could've took the shot. I didn't take the shot. It's on me."

If you use any of the quotes in this article, please credit "Busted Open Radio" and provide a h/t to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription

Once again, I must sit here and say that Bully Ray has gotten this one wrong. Only this time it's not because his suggestions for rehabbing Cody Rhodes are bad. No, the actual problem is that it's a little too late for those suggestions. I'm not saying that Rhodes will suddenly cease to be a star or will fall off the face of the earth. What I am going to say, however, is that the damage is done, and no matter what WWE does, there's going to be a feel to babyface Rhodes that most people just won't be able to shake. And no, it's not just because the finish to Rhodes vs. Randy Orton as awful (it was) or because Rhodes went full "why am I so violent?" and refused to kick Orton's head in all because Orton put his hands up. No, this moment leaves a sour taste in the mouth particularly because we've all been here before.

It's easy to forget in a wrestling world where a million things are happening at once, but it's now been a year and a half since WWE did this exact same angle with Rhodes, only this time he was standing across the ring from John Cena at WrestleMania 41. That situation didn't involve a punt, but it didn't involve Rhodes having a chance to put Cena down with a weapon shot, only for him to hesitate, get low blowed (much like Orton did) and get beat. It was a silly finish back then that made Rhodes look bad, and its even worse now given that WWE saw how poorly it worked the first time and still tried it again anyway. Again, it doesn't mean the end of Rhodes' career; he will continue to main event and be in high profile matches, much like he was after the Cena match. But much like that Cena match, he's never going to be quite the same. You can only tell the audience so many times "this guy is a gutless dolt" before they believe it. By my eye, it seems the WWE audience has already started to believe that about babyface Rhodes, and Sunday Night's Main Event won't help.