Peter Klein reviews WWE Night of Champions: Cody Rhodes’ suspicious win, Rhea Ripley’s brutal Razor’s Edge spot, and why Solo Sikoa’s U.S. Title run could save him.
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00:00It will be Cody Rhodes against John Cena again at Summerslam, but WWE, does they have, sorry, do they have something bigger at play for one of their biggest stars and the final boss?
00:13I'll explain as we get to our WWE Night of Champions recap.
00:30So, WWE Night of Champions is now in the books, and I think there's a few intriguing ways we can go coming out of this.
00:36Let's start at the top.
00:37By the way, already broke down the main event.
00:39John Cena against CM Punk, if you're looking for that breakdown, just watch.
00:43Watch this one first, and then it'll probably pop up in a playlist.
00:45Just, and next video, right on, right there.
00:49But yeah, a lot of good stuff here for wrestling fans on Couch Potato Diary and on, yeah, on YouTube.
00:57So, Cody, Randy Orton, great match.
00:59It felt like one of those matches where it's you and your buddies, you just got home from a night out, we've got pizza ordered, we have maybe a few too many snacks, and a lot too many drinks.
01:09Let's, WWE 2K25, let's go.
01:11And you know what?
01:12Because we're in a fighting mood tonight, unlimited finishers for everybody.
01:16That is what the first and last match really, really felt like.
01:18We got into the new, near falls very quickly.
01:21And you start to see Randy Orton having a few of those heel tendencies as he goes for the punt.
01:28But, almost immediately after, the crowd is booing Cody again.
01:33And he gets the boo portion of the, yeah, boo, on the back and forth with the punches and everything like that.
01:40I thought it was, I was pretty surprised that he got that reaction in Saudi.
01:45I have never been just a full-on Cody hater, especially in WWE.
01:49I think he fits this product perfectly.
01:51I am a little bit surprised that the crowd is reacting in these ways to Cody Rhodes.
01:57A great near fall with a springboard from Cody into an RKO.
02:01I was very confident that Cody was going to win this match.
02:05That near fall still got me.
02:07And that's all you want from one of these matches.
02:08Make me believe that the guy who I assume is going to win isn't going to win for two seconds.
02:14And you got me.
02:15And they did.
02:15Excellent work there with that.
02:18Randy gets the crowd back behind Cody as he takes the turnbuckle off.
02:23And then Cody shows what he didn't against John Cena.
02:28And that's where I think a little bit of the intrigue comes.
02:31Because against Cena at WrestleMania, he had a chance to use the belt, and he didn't.
02:35And then Cena, ba-boom, and one, two, three, we got a new champion in one of the more underwhelming
02:39WrestleManias of all time.
02:40Fast forward now to this, and Cody Rhodes is like, fuck your feelings.
02:44And throws this dude right into that exposed turnbuckle that has been presented to him.
02:49He then hits a ba-boom, and look at that.
02:51We have a new number one contender and a new king in the WWE.
02:56And his name is Cody.
02:58So, I think it is an interesting match, and I think we have a very interesting direction
03:06that we can go with now with this.
03:08I think that they have done a pretty good job of addressing Cody, beating fan favorites,
03:17doing all these things, and maybe having people go against him.
03:21And he's kind of justifying the boos in that way.
03:23But I still go back to when he was doing the, are you my friend, with CM Punk thing, and
03:31talking about the weight of the championship, and all his friends stabbing him in the back.
03:35And then he lost the championship.
03:38And who has been there for him?
03:40Jay, I guess.
03:40But he had to beat all of his friends to get back to the number one contender spot.
03:45All these guys were trying to stand in his way and take this thing from him.
03:49This thing that meant so much to him.
03:52So, why would I have friends?
03:54Why wouldn't I now sell my soul to The Rock and go get my championship back?
04:01So, I think he's selling his soul at SummerSlam.
04:04I think we get the double turn.
04:05I think, look, it's kind of happening anyway, just organically.
04:08People are booing him and cheering Cena.
04:11So, it's happening already.
04:13And so, I think, why not roll with it?
04:16Do the double turn at SummerSlam.
04:18Let the fans who want to boo Cody, boo Cody.
04:21Let the fans who want to cheer Cena in the last half of his return, cheer.
04:26And we can do the, and he's going to have the big lights and everything like that.
04:30And it's all going to be fun.
04:32Let's do it.
04:33Let's have this switch at SummerSlam.
04:35Cody aligns with the final boss, The Rock.
04:37We actually get some story out of this damn thing.
04:40And we move forward with that.
04:42Cena turns into the ultimate babyface.
04:44And we progress in some way, shape, or form.
04:46I just, I think it is right there.
04:47And I think it makes a lot of sense.
04:49And I think it's going to make a lot more sense as we go along.
04:52Kind of running out of battery power, actually, on this today.
04:55And I can see that we're lagging.
04:56So, going to kind of rapid fire through a few more things on the show.
05:00Raquel Rodriguez against Rhea Ripley in a street fight.
05:02I thought that, like, these two have very good chemistry.
05:05And I think, like, they have a history that you can just, boom, quickly build into a forever rivalry right away.
05:13It's forever rivals with good chemistry.
05:15I love that.
05:15Quick note, having Raquel be Big Mommy Cool, awesome.
05:19Love the nickname.
05:2010 out of 10.
05:21No notes.
05:22I thought a really creative night of offense for both competitors in this one.
05:30I think, like, to see, like, oh, Rhea's hung up in the ropes, a la Andre the Giant, and it's just, ba-boom, ba-boom, ba-boom, with Kendo Stick, Kendo Stick, Kendo Stick.
05:38I thought that was interesting.
05:40I think to keep the steps up on the thing a couple of times and have a big move out of those, I thought was, again, very creative with all of that.
05:48And then you have Rhea using the Razor's Edge, a nice little callback to the Terror Twins.
05:53Awful name.
05:54Really fun team.
05:55So happy to see that we kind of had that.
05:57You have Roxy come out to help.
05:58Hope, I think that was good.
06:01I think it really ties into the story, and we get the progression, I guess, of that on Monday Night Raw.
06:08So overall, you get a big finish with Rhea hitting the Riptide off of the table platform and the win.
06:13I just thought this was a really creative street fight with a lot of very fun moments in it.
06:18For more pro wrestling talk, subscribe to Living Room Lariat, the new wrestling podcast from Couch Potato Diary.
06:24If this wrestling talk isn't enough for you, there's a lot on that one.
06:27We have all the wrestling from Couch Potato Diary in one spot.
06:32So if you don't want to sit through the other sports stuff, not a lot of wrestling fans do.
06:36I get it.
06:37That is fine.
06:38So it's all going to be in one spot every Friday for you with some podcast exclusive that you won't get on the flagship Couch Potato Diary.
06:47So make sure you check that out.
06:49Pretty sure it's available where most podcasts are now.
06:51You can go get Living Room Lariat.
06:54Karrion Kross against Sami Zayn.
06:55The crowd not into this one at all.
06:58I think this was a bit of a back down to earth for a lot of people as Karrion Kross, he has a style in the ring.
07:05And I don't think this match really met what the storyline was, what a lot of the hype was around Karrion Kross or anything like that.
07:12So I said before, I want some storyline progression out of this damn thing.
07:17I didn't get it at all.
07:19This felt like it could have been a match on Raw, maybe should have been a match on Raw, if not for just getting Sami Zayn in front of a crowd that loves him.
07:25So I just, I thought this was a miss.
07:28All around a miss.
07:29Solo Sokola against Jacob Fatu for the United States Championship.
07:33I thought this was a hit.
07:34Um, I, like, again, people know what a Bloodline match is going to be, so they're not really into the stuff before we get the run-ins and everything.
07:42But Solo's getting that vibe back that he had when he was the muscle before, and people like me thought that there was actually some potential in him, like, actually turning into a bit of a superstar.
07:52We're getting that back again.
07:53We're getting a little bit more personality out of him, but we're getting that, like, serious muscle guy now.
07:58And now he's the United States Champion, and he has his muscle back.
08:01Um, Tonga Loa coming back in, it is what it is.
08:05Um, I didn't think I would get to a point where the Gorillas of Destiny would make another return on WWE, and I would just be like, eh.
08:11But then we get the big one, figuratively and literally, as Hikaleo comes out.
08:16And it was a little clunky because Cole, obviously they're not going to call him Hikaleo.
08:21Um, Tala Toa or whatever the one name that they copyrighted is, that might be it.
08:27But, it was, Cole stumbled over the, that's Tama Tonga and Tonga Loa's brother, who hits a chokeslam!
08:34They, like, he obviously knew the name, didn't want to say the name, they didn't want him to say the name.
08:39Um, so we just didn't get any of that.
08:41So, it was a little bit clunky, but in terms of execution for, like, the live audience, I thought they nailed it.
08:46Um, and I think this is a very good piece to have as backup now for Solo Sokoa.
08:52Um, and then Jade Carkill is the Queen of the Ring.
08:55This match, it didn't live up to the match with Roxy.
08:59It is not going to quiet down any people who say that she is not ready for championship contention, or anything like that.
09:05Um, because it wasn't very good.
09:07The crowd was not into it at all.
09:08The finish was a little flat.
09:10So, all in all, it was just, it was disappointing.
09:14And she gives this inspirational message after, and that's great.
09:17The crowd didn't really seem to care for it, either.
09:19So, they have some work to do with Jade Carkill, and I don't know if that work is going to be as a babyface.
