WWE ratings have dipped after Cody Rhodes became champion, feels wrestling veteran

Veteran manager Dutch Mantell recently spoke about Cody Rhodes' reign as Undisputed WWE Champion.

Cody Rhodes put on a brave fight at WrestleMania XL against all odds. The American Nightmare faced the combined might of The Bloodline in the main event and prevailed against them. He also had some help in the form of run-ins from Jey Uso, John Cena, The Undertaker, and Seth Rollins.

During this week's episode of Story Time with Dutch Mantell, the veteran felt that Cody Rhodes' story finished at WrestleMania. He detailed that some of the major stars, such as The Rock and Roman Reigns, were off TV while others, such as Rhea Ripley and CM Punk, were out with injuries. Mantell felt this was impacting the current TV ratings.

"What was Cody saying? He wants to finish the story. So he finished the story. The chapter ended. Then, all of a sudden, you don't have Roman there. You don't have The Rock there; you're missing a lot of people. They're all hurt or gone. So the people are gonna wait till they get that story kinda reheated with The Rock and somebody," he said. [From 1:30:05 -1:30:42]

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Cody Rhodes is set for his first title defense!

WWE will be in France this weekend as they gear up for Backlash France. The premium live event will kick off the company's string of international premium live events this year.

Cody Rhodes is set to defend the Undisputed WWE Championship against AJ Styles in France this weekend. The Phenomenal One earned the title shot by defeating Rey Mysterio and Kevin Owens in a Triple Threat Match before beating his bitter rival LA Knight on SmackDown last month.

This will be the first time in WWE that these two stars will square off inside the squared circle.

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If you use the quotes from this article, please credit Story Time with Dutch Mantell and add an H/T to Sportskeeda for the transcript.