Cody Rhodes defeats Roman Reigns in Wrestlemania 40 main event

It’s over. It’s finally over. There is a new top dog in the WWE.

Cody Rhodes defeated Roman Reigns in the main event of Wrestlemania 40 on Sunday to become the new undisputed WWE Universal Champion. This officially ends Reigns’ Universal Championship reign at 1,316 days, the fourth-longest world title run in WWE history and the longest since Hulk Hogan’s first title reign in the mid-1980’s.

Rhodes was able to win despite this match being “Bloodline Rules”, a result of Reigns and The Rock defeating Rhodes and Seth Rollins in Saturday’s main event. This match was absolutely mental, as we got a parade of people hitting the ring. John Cena, Seth Rollins, Undertaker, The Rock, all of them showed up and got involved in some capacity. And in the end, Rhodes put Reigns down with three Cross Rhodes to become the new champ.

This completes the ultimate redemption arc for Rhodes, who came up short in this same exact spot against Reigns one year ago at last year’s Wrestlemania. He had to work his way back to this spot and earned this opportunity by winning the Royal Rumble for a second straight year this past January. The WWE was initially going to push him to the side to do The Rock vs. Roman Reigns at Wrestlemania, but pivoted back to Rhodes after intense fan backlash.

As for Reigns, his legendary run officially comes to an end. He first won the Universal Championship at Payback in August of 2020 and has since been THE dominant force of the entire WWE since. To put into perspective, his reign basically lasted as long as the entire Attitude Era. For three-and-a-half years, the “Tribal Chief” was the centerpiece of the entire company and he used his status to elevate his cousins The Usos and Solo Sikoa to stardom. As a result, nearly every star on the entire WWE roster got involved with the Bloodline storyline in some capacity. Kevin Owens, Daniel Bryan, Edge, Brock Lesnar, Goldberg, Sami Zayn, John Cena, and even Logan Paul were among the list of stars that tried and failed to end his reign. Rhodes was part of that list too, but he was actually able to slay the dragon.

This officially marks the end of one era in the WWE and the beginning of a new one as Rhodes is now the face of the entire company. He’s had a strong connection with the crowd since he returned to the WWE two years ago and Sunday served as an official coronation. We’ll see what the new champ has to say on Monday’s episode of Raw and who will be the first in line to try to challenge him for the belt.