Cody Rhodes Says His Favorite Match Was Losing to Roman Reigns at WWE WrestleMania 39

Cody Rhodes revealed during an interview with The Ringer's Bill Simmons that his favorite match took place at WrestleMania 39 in April 2023, when he lost to Roman Reigns in a battle for the Undisputed WWE Universal Championship.

"My favorite match is WrestleMania 39, which is the one where it doesn't happen. I probably would have been pumped to win, but there's something about that night where things were happening in the arena (Los Angeles' SoFi Stadium) or the stadium that had never happened to me. He's got me in a guillotine choke, and you hear these old-timers—God bless them, I love them—talk about, you know, just stay right there and the people will react.

"When you've seen the amount of cool flips and awesome stuff...sometimes that's, that seems like, I don't know, that's not real anymore. And then in that moment, I remember I'm just slowly wiggling my head out, and I can hear an entire stadium where the sound goes up, start to move.

"And I thought, 'Oh man, they're into this. How blessed am I that they're into this?'

"And it just, when it's that good, it feels completely real. Everything seems real. Roman is the greatest enemy of my life, and I'm trying to climb a mountain that's impossible to climb. And that just acoustic moment for me, that made it my favorite match."

The referenced guillotine occurred in the back half of the match (30:30 mark in the video).

Reigns locked Rhodes into a guillotine and then applied a leg lock for good measure soon after. Rhodes was trapped for well over a minute before he slowly wiggled his head out and then wailed on Reigns with a host of punches. The SoFi Stadium crowed erupted in that moment in hopes that Rhodes would come away victorious.

That did not happen, as Reigns won after Solo Sikoa interfered, allowing the Tribal Chief to land a spear and get the pin and the win. However, Rhodes won the belt one year later at WrestleMania XL in Philadelphia, beating Reigns, finishing his story and beginning a title stint that lasted until this year's WrestleMania, when he dropped the belt to John Cena.

Rhodes will look to win the championship back this Sunday in New Jersey's MetLife Stadium, where he'll take on Cena in a Street Fight for the title.

Reigns will team up with Jey Uso to take on Bron Breakker and Bronson Reed (accompanied by Paul Heyman) the night before in a tag team match.