Cody Rhodes to be replaced by 22-year veteran on WWE RAW if he moves to SmackDown? Exploring the possibility

Cody Rhodes' Road to WrestleMania has been hazy recently, and it's still a debate whether his opponent will be on WWE SmackDown or RAW. However, if his opponent at The Grandest Stage of Them All ends up being on the Friday show, another star major star could take his spot on Mondays.

Cody Rhodes became the first WWE star in over two decades to win back-to-back Royal Rumble matches. Many expected him to challenge Roman Reigns for the Undisputed WWE Universal Championship at WrestleMania 40 to have a chance to finally finish his story, which is why fans were outraged when The Rock teased a match with The Tribal Chief instead. With the outrage reaching mainstream attention, the company might consider having Rhodes face Reigns again.

If The American Nightmare ends up having to face Roman at WrestleMania, he will likely appear on SmackDown more and possibly even stay there if he ends up winning the title. The star who could take his place on RAW could be LA Knight.

Knight has experienced significant growth in fan support and popularity since last year and has shared the ring with several top stars, including Roman Reigns and John Cena, to name a few. Not only that, he has also challenged for the Undisputed Universal Title a couple of times. With this in mind, it's quite evident that the company views him as one of the top stars, possibly not far from Cody's status.

The Monday Night roster could also be a fresh new set of challengers of Knight now that his storyline with the title is finished. He could face Gunther for the Intercontinental title, target a member of The Judgment Day, or even be one of the contenders for Seth Rollins' Heavyweight title.

Does LA Knight deserve the same WWE run as Cody Rhodes?

Cody Rhodes won against LA Knight when they faced in March 2023

Like Cody Rhodes, Knight also struggled for a bit on the main roster. After a successful run in NXT, he was rebranded as Max Dupri when he joined the SmackDown brand in 2022. He returned to being The Megastar after Triple H took over creative. However, a wrestling veteran noted more similarities between them.

On a past episode of Sportskeeda Wrestling's Smack Talk, Dutch Mantell noted that Knight also had a hard times story like Cody. The veteran shared that Knight went to different promotions before joining NXT, and when he finally joined the main roster, he was mainly beaten up as Max. Still, he managed to rise and connect with the crowd easily.

Does LA Knight have WrestleMania 40 plans already?

While Rhodes already has a guaranteed spot at The Grandest Stage of Them All, the same can't be said about Knight. However, there is some speculation that he will end up feuding with Logan Paul at WrestleMania for the United States Championship.

It would be interesting to see what will happen with Cody Rhodes and LA Knight as WrestleMania grows closer.