The ending of WrestleMania 39 marked one of the biggest storyline disappointments in recent WWE memory. Cody Rhodes won the Royal Rumble and had a groundswell of fan support behind him as the incumbent top babyface and world champion. However, his main event match with Roman Reigns ended in all too familiar fashion, with The Bloodline offering outside interference and snatching The American Nightmare’s big win from him at the last moment.
One year later, Rhodes has accomplished the unlikely in maintaining his momentum as the top babyface in the company, only to win another Royal Rumble and presumably set up a WrestleMania main event rematch. The history of how back-to-back Rumble winners have fared at ‘Mania suggests Rhodes has a major victory on the way.
Every Man To Win The Royal Rumble In Back-To-Back Years Lost At WrestleMania After The First Win And Won At WrestleMania After The Second
In the years 1990 and 1991, Hulk Hogan became the first person to ever win back-to-back Royal Rumbles. This was before WWE instated any formal WrestleMania or title ramifications for winning the Rumble. Nonetheless, Hogan went on to main event ‘Mania both of those years.
In 1990, Hogan went into both the Rumble and ‘Mania as the reigning WWE Champion, but wound up losing his title to The Ultimate Warrior in the Toronto SkyDome. In 1991, Hogan won the Rumble and went on to successfully challenge WWE Champion Sgt. Slaughter at WrestleMania.
In 1995 and 1996, Shawn Michaels won back-to-back Rumbles. By that point winning the Rumble did, most years, mean challenging for the WWE Championship at WrestleMania. HBK came up short in challenging Diesel at WrestleMania 11, but the next year beat Bret Hart in an Iron Man Match to win his first world title.
1997 and 1998 saw Steve Austin win back-to-back Royal Rumbles. 1997’s Rumble had a chaotic finish to kick off a chaotic Road to WrestleMania.
First, Austin was eliminated from the Rumble, but while referees were distracted, allowing him to sneak back into the match and oust Bret Hart for the win. Austin not only didn’t end up getting a title shot at WrestleMania, but lost to The Hitman at that event. One year later, things were more straightforward as Stone Cold won the Rumble then took the title off Shawn Michaels at WrestleMania 14.
Cody Rhodes has now joined elite class of two-time Rumble winners. Like his predecessors, he lost in his first world title match at WrestleMania. History suggests that the second time will play out differently.
Similarities Between The Stories Of Cody Rhodes, Shawn Michaels, And Steve Austin
Like Shawn Michaels and Steve Austin after they won their second Royal Rumbles, Cody Rhodes embarks on this Road to WrestleMania as arguably the top babyface in the company and a man who has never won a world title before.
Also, similar to HBK and Stone Cold, The American Nightmare enters WrestleMania 40 as the presumptive champion-in-waiting. Michaels had, by 1996, solidified his place as one of the greatest workers in the world, not to mention a strong talker.
On a similar note, while Austin had a lot of momentum in early 1997, by 1998 there was little question he was the most over wrestler in WWE. Rhodes occupies a similar space a popular star with both the in-ring and promo skills to make him a viable choice to end Roman Reigns’s historic title run.
Rhodes also enjoys some overlap with Austin as a talent who was arguably underappreciated in another national promotion before proving himself in WWE. Austin had been a tag team and mid-card act in WCW for years whom the promotion never really gave a shot on top, only to reinvent himself in WWE and arrive as “the guy.”
Similarly, there’s a sense that AEW took Rhodes for granted, excluding him from the main event picture, only to prove himself as a legit top-level star after he returned to WWE.
Differences Between Cody Rhodes And Other Back-To-Back Royal Rumble Winners
For all the similarities between Cody Rhodes and previous back-to-back Royal Rumble winners, and the suggestion of a pattern that favors him winning at WrestleMania, there are some differences worth paying attention to as well.
Hulk Hogan had the most differences from Rhodes. It wasn’t so much the case that the Royal Rumble legitimized The Hulkster, but rather that Hogan legitimized the Rumble. After Jim Duggan and Big John Studd won the first two iterations of the match, Hogan solidified as an event with main event implications.
By 2023, the Royal Rumble was solidified for decades as one of the most important matches in wrestling, and as such winning the 2023 edition shored up Rhodes as a top guy in a way he arguably wasn’t previously. Moreover, Hogan’s win at WrestleMania 7 marked his third time as WWE Champion, while Rhodes is chasing his first reign.
Both Shawn Michaels and Steve Austin won their first Royal Rumbles as heels and walked into the WrestleMania to follow as underdogs—WWE not ready to supplant Diesel as the new face of the company, while Austin was going up against an ultra-credible Bret Hart. Most fans actually did favor The American Nightmare to “pull the sword from the stone” at WrestleMania 39 and end Roman Reigns’s already-long title run. It was a major disappointment when that didn’t come together, but that only fuels the idea that Rhodes will “finish the story” this year.
If recent years have taught wrestling fans anything, it’s not to take any outcome for granted, as anything may well happen. Nonetheless, Cody Rhodes—the son of the great Dusty Rhodes, whose persona is steeped in wrestling history—has WWE history on his side this year as he broaches his second WrestleMania main event.