Cody Rhodes defeats current champion again after SmackDown goes off the air

Cody Rhodes wrestled in the dark match of the first SmackDown of December. He picked up a big win as expected, against a current champion whom he has faced before.

Although Cody is a RAW star, he was put up against The Judgment Day's Dominik Mysterio. Cody Rhodes first faced the reigning NXT North American Champion at Money in the Bank 2023. Cody won on that occasion as well.

They have since gone on to have plenty of matches against each other - mostly in dark matches and Live Events. It was once again a post-SmackDown dark match as Cody Rhodes picked up the win over Dominik Mysterio to send the crowd in Brooklyn home happy.

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The episode of SmackDown itself saw Randy Orton signing his contract for the blue brand, and making it clear that he is targeting Undisputed WWE Universal Champion Roman Reigns.

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Cody Rhodes has an unexpected new challenger on RAW

As for Randy Orton's former protege Cody, he has a different challenge ahead of him as 2023 comes to a close. This year's Royal Rumble winner was the recipient of an unexpected attack by Shinsuke Nakamura - who revealed that the person he was teasing a feud with all along was The American Nightmare.

He spat red mist on his face in what has become a popular tribute to The Great Muta by Japanese stars in WWE, namely Tajiri and Asuka.

This looks like it will be the final feud for The American Nightmare in 2023 as he gets set to participate in the Men's Royal Rumble Match. He declared that he was participating once again this year, and became the first person on the roster to do so - two months in advance.

It's going to be interesting to see how things play out at the Rumble, and whether Cody can pull off back-to-back wins for the first time since Stone Cold Steve Austin in 1998.

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