Cody Rhodes makes public appearance sporting obvious injury from Kevin Owens' attack

Cody Rhodes made his first public appearance today following the heinous attack by Kevin Owens at WWE Saturday Night's Main Event. The Prizefighter hit Rhodes with a Package Piledriver after their match on December 14.

The American Nightmare defeated Owens at SNME to retain the Undisputed WWE Championship and went to address the crowd after the special went off the air. Owens took this as an opportunity to attack Rhodes from behind and sent the SmackDown star out of the Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum in an ambulance. The 40-year-old also got into an altercation with Triple H on the entrance ramp in the aftermath of his antics.

Ahead of tonight's SmackDown, Rhodes made a public appearance and was spotted wearing a neck brace. You can check it out in the photographs in the post below.

Kevin Owens invaded the company's headquarters earlier this week as the promotion held an event to promote RAW's upcoming debut episode on Netflix next month. Owens had the Winged Eagle title with him and pasted a picture of himself over Rhodes' face in a poster before he was escorted out of the building.

---

Former WWE writer claims Cody Rhodes is directionless

Wrestling legend Vince Russo recently stated that Cody Rhodes was directionless as the Undisputed WWE Champion.

Owens connected with a Stunner at Saturday Night's Main Event but referee Charles Robinson had been inadvertently knocked out of the ring. Eddie Orengo rushed the ring but walked right into a Cody Cutter by mistake. Owens attempted to capitalize by bringing a steel chair into the ring, but the champion connected with a Cross Rhodes on top of the chair to retain the title.

Speaking on Vince Russo's The Brand, the former WWE head writer claimed that Rhodes was stale as champion. Russo suggested that the company didn't have an interesting storyline for the 39-year-old on SmackDown.

"He's getting stale as a character because they're not doing anything with him. Nothing. There's no story, there's nothing. He's just going out there and wrestling," Russo said. [From 14:25 - 14:35]

You can check out the video below for his comments:

Cody Rhodes has held the Undisputed WWE Championship for 256 days now. It will be interesting to see what the company has planned for the rivalry between The American Nightmare and Kevin Owens following Saturday Night's Main Event.