What's Next for Cody Rhodes After Winning WWE Men's Royal Rumble 2023 Match?

Cody Rhodes took his biggest step ever toward realizing his dream of becoming world champion by winning the 2023 men's Royal Rumble match Saturday, meaning he will get his title shot at WrestleMania 39 come April 1-2.

But with two months to go until WrestleMania Goes Hollywood and no fast-forward button to skip straight to SoFi Stadium, what will Rhodes do in the meantime?

As evidenced by his quick call to action on WWE Raw when he fought Finn Bálor, The American Nightmare isn't going to just sit on his hands and watch the clock tick by.

However, it isn't likely he will continue to cross paths with The Judgment Day.

After all, they're firmly still feuding with Edge and Beth Phoenix, who seem to be the likely opponents for Bálor and Rhea Ripley at Elimination Chamber on February 18.

Ripley will be busy with Charlotte Flair at WrestleMania, so it has to happen before then.

Meanwhile, Damian Priest has a qualifying match next week to settle whether he will be in the United States Championship match, which would rule him out of wrestling Rhodes beyond Raw.

Instead, the former All Elite Wrestling vice president needs to look elsewhere for another dance partner to fill the void.

Technically, he could have a mini-feud with almost anyone rather easily. Someone like Baron Corbin could pick a fight, mad that he won the Royal Rumble, and with one promo be set up for a match for Elimination Chamber.

An even likelier scenario is that when Roman Reigns addresses his own Road to WrestleMania on this Friday's episode of SmackDown, he'll reveal how he's going to handle Rhodes, Sami Zayn and Jey Uso.

Elimination Chamber will be in Montreal. With Zayn on the posters, too, all signs point to him having a match with The Tribal Chief, who will want to personally take him out and score some more revenge after his betrayal at the Royal Rumble.

With regards to Jey, The Usos still have to defend their SmackDown tag team titles against whichever team wins that contender's tournament. Since Jimmy and Jey aren't exactly on the same page at the moment, when that will happen is up in the air.

Despite their tension, though, it is extremely unlikely they'll lose those belts before WrestleMania. The money match is The Usos against Zayn and Kevin Owens.

There's a chance Jimmy has a match with Rhodes, but there's an even more obvious candidate: Solo Sikoa.

The Street Champion has been utilized as Reigns' attack dog since Clash at the Castle. If he needs someone to be taken out, he frequently points Sikoa in their direction.

If Reigns has his way, he'd surely rather not fight Rhodes at all—or, at least, not a 100 percent healthy challenger. Therefore, it will be Sikoa's mission to nail him with a Samoan Spike, if not worse.

Once Jey fully re-embraces The Bloodline and is back in sync with his brother, we're likely to see Rhodes, Zayn and Owens in some sort of six-man tag team match against Sikoa and The Usos on Raw or SmackDown sometime in March as the momentum builds toward WrestleMania.

A few beatdown segments and brawls accompanied by promos, and maybe even some singles bouts with Rhodes against Jimmy and/or Jey, and that's an easy way to book the next few months while keeping Reigns away from his future opponent as much as possible.

But it all starts with the next step, which is Rhodes having to deal with Sikoa acting as a roadblock to WrestleMania.

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Anthony Mango is the owner of the wrestling website Smark Out Moment and the host of the podcast show Smack Talk on YouTube, Spotify and everywhere you find podcasts. You can follow him on Facebook and elsewhere for more.