Cody Rhodes seemingly breaks character after retaining the WWE Championship at the Royal Rumble 2025

Cody Rhodes appeared to momentarily break character while simultaneously maintaining it at the Royal Rumble. This was right after he retained the Undisputed WWE Championship against Kevin Owens.

It was a brutal affair for The American Nightmare in his biggest defense of the Undisputed WWE Title since winning it at WrestleMania 40 last year. It was a Ladder match for the title and Kevin Owens came close to ending the reign of The American Nightmare.

Rhodes managed to claim victory and put Owens through a ladder via an Alabama Slam. The latter was caught in the ladder and seemed to have been broken in half. KO was also busted open in what turned out to be a vicious encounter.

Kevin Owens was completely brutalized and Cody Rhodes momentarily broke character to check in on him. He also put himself in a position to be in the shot above a bloodied KO. It seems that Rhodes broke character for a split second to rub the loss in Owens' face and further add salt to his injury. The American Nightmare showed a vicious side to himself during the match and showed no mercy for his former friend.

You can see the photo right here.

It's going to be interesting to see what lies ahead for both men. It looks like all signs point to Cody heading into WrestleMania 41 with the WWE Title around his waist, which shouldn't be too surprising.

However, Kevin Owens is going to have some harsh words and the target of that might just be Sami Zayn, who appeared at ringside once it looked like the match was going to get stopped.

It was an incredible end to a very messy rivalry on SmackDown.