Cody Rhodes nearly had a completely different look for his return to WWE television. The appearance followed his loss of the Undisputed WWE Championship to John Cena at WrestleMania 41.
The May 24, 2025, edition of Saturday Night’s Main Event marked Rhodes’ return. He stopped Cena’s interference in Jey Uso’s match against Logan Paul, helping Uso retain the World Heavyweight Championship.
Rhodes also challenged Cena and Paul that night to face him and Uso at Money in the Bank. Rhodes and Uso won that match on June 7.
Rhodes had planned to wear all black, complete with a black cowboy hat, for the return. He discussed the idea during a recent episode of What Do You Wanna Talk About? with Simone Johnson.
“How would you feel about my character with a cowboy hat**?”
“I was coming back at a show, I believe it was Logan Paul and John Cena in the ring, and I was jumping them after I had been away. I thought about wearing all black with a black cowboy hat. My logic in it was my dad quarter-horsed; they are from Austin. I read this dumb horse book as a kid. I’m from Georgia. I have some ownership of it. Three out of the four guys that I speak to about everything gave me a thumbs up. It was just one who said, ‘I don’t think that’s going to work. I think that’s going to be distracting.’ The one who told me that it was going to be distracting and made the decision ultimately was Bruce Prichard.”
