It took Cody Rhodes more than 15 years of struggle to capture the WWE Championship that's considered to be the most prestigious prize in the professional wrestling genre. According to earlier reports, this title reign was supposed to continue for at least a year.

Cody Rhodes essentially featured in the biggest match of his career at WrestleMania 40 Sunday as he ended up dethroning Roman Reigns from the longest-reigning Undisputed WWE Championship run and starting his own run that was supposed to be safe until The Rock’s return to WWE programming.

The last time we saw The People’s Champion was during the post-WrestleMania episode of Raw in a promo segment with Rhodes to indicate a future feud with him, possibly with the top title on the line.

Interestingly, The Rock also used The People’s Title throughout the latter part of his WWE run in 2024, especially at WrestleMania XL. On Wrestling Observer Radio, Dave Meltzer reports that this belt appeared to be a contingency plan as Cody’s one-year run wasn’t guaranteed.

Meltzer noted in his report that WWE had to set up an alternative angle if Cody’s run with the top title didn’t extend up to WrestleMania 41. In case that happens then The People’s Championship could be utilized as the coveted prize,

“It was not a lock that Cody would have a one-year run. He could but one of the things I was pretty much told is the reason for the People’s Title was a back up for Cody not to go a year.” (quotes courtesy Ringside News)

Most recently, Cody Rhodes successfully defended his WWE Championship against Solo Sikoa of The Bloodline on the September 13 episode of SmackDown. He will team up with Roman Reigns to compete against Sikoa and Jacob Fatu at Bad Blood.

As for The Rock, he should continue his beef with Cody Rhodes upon his return to WWE programming, possibly in early 2025, and this might straight lead to the expected match at WrestleMania 41 in Las Vegas, Nevada.