Is the Cody Rhodes backlash real? WWE's QB1 dilemma has become impossible to ignore

Ever since he made his return at the 2024 Royal Rumble, Cody Rhodes has only missed three WWE PLEs — and typically with good reason. (He skipped one last year due to the birth of his second daughter. ) Now it looks like we're about to get a fourth PLE on that list, given the champion isn't booked for this weekend's Backlash show.

He was originally meant to be there. If the reports are to be believed, the initial idea was to have Rhodes teaming with Jelly Roll to take on the now-aborted TKO alliance of Randy Orton and Pat McAfee. Then came the massive fan blowback to the idea of McAfee as wrestling's big supervillain, and WWE wisely dropped the whole storyline like a stone.

That all makes sense. But it wouldn't explain why WWE hasn't pivoted to a replacement match for Rhodes, the current Undisputed WWE Champion. Add to that the fact that this all comes just after the champ received an unexpected booing from the fans in Las Vegas, and my Spidey sense starts tingling — is WWE worried that fans are going to sour on its babyface champion?

Steady on now — no one is suggesting Triple H is ever going to bench his QB1 entirely. But it couldn’t have gone unnoticed in Stamford, Connecticut, that this is the second ‘Mania where the biggest babyface in the company — and the man entering as Undisputed Champion — has received a frosty reception from the stadium crowd. This being ‘Mania, there are some big caveats.