Cody Rhodes dropped his Undisputed WWE Championship at Night of Champions 2026 in a Triple Threat match featuring GUNTHER and Sami Zayn. It was Zayn who became the new titleholder.
Speaking on his “83 Weeks” podcast, Eric Bischoff claimed that Rhodes must turn heel after Night of Champions. The WWE Hall of Famer said,
“I think Cody has to turn heel. I mean, I feel that strongly about it because he’s done—he’s played this character out and you’ve squeezed every. No, you haven’t. You’ve still got some juice left in that lemon. Let it go while there’s still juice in it because you can come back to it at some point. So, don’t kill it. But he needs that. WWE needs that.”
“WWE needs a vicious heel, like a lie, cheat, you know, cheating kind of heel, not a badass heel. Badass heels aren’t really heels. Those big larger-than-life just monsters that look like they could just rip the head off anybody that steps in the ring with them. Yeah, those are really cool, but they’re not heels. He needs somebody slippery, somebody greasy, somebody that’s credible physically, you know, he can, but prefer the greasy way out.”
Bischoff Claims Rhodes’ Heel Turn Could Be One Of The Best Of Our Generation
Furthermore, Bischoff predicted that Cody Rhodes’ character change would be one of the best heel turns of this generation. The veteran continued,
“That’s simple stuff. It’s basic. It’s crayons and stick figure character development and storytelling, but it always works. Particularly when you’ve got a really, really, really great performer like Cody Rhodes. If he were to embrace it, if he were to embrace it, I would predict he would be one of the best heels of our generation.”
“We know he’s a top seller, but what has the trend been? Even though it’s a top seller, it could be number one, but is it number one by a mile like it was last year at this time, or is it number one by 100 yards? What’s the trend? Because I don’t think you want to ride it into the dirt.”
“Dusty Rhodes used to talk about it in terms of the lightning bolt, baby. You ride that lightning bolt right before it hits the ground, you jump on another lightning bolt. You don’t ride the lightning bolt into the ground. That’s a Dusty Rhodes-ism.”
