Randy Orton's replacement to attack Cody Rhodes; shock heel turn after 2 years? 3 stars who can challenge for the Undisputed WWE Title next

This past weekend at SummerSlam, Cody Rhodes retained the Undisputed WWE Championship in a hard-fought contest against Solo Sikoa. The closing stages of the matchup saw a return from the man who Rhodes beat for the title, Roman Reigns.

Despite the Head of the Table having lost the gold to The American Nightmare, Roman has his sights currently set on his cousin Solo Sikoa, who has recently labeled himself as the new Tribal Chief and leader of The Bloodline.

With Roman Reigns currently dealing with Solo Sikoa, Rhodes' next challenger is not yet clear. Therefore, we are going to take a look at three WWE Superstars who could emerge as the next challenger for The American Nightmare's title.

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#3. A Hall of Famer is traded for a Legend Killer

This past Monday on RAW, SmackDown's Randy Orton appeared on the red brand as he challenged the new World Heavyweight Champion Gunther, for a title match at Bash in Berlin on August 31, 2024.

With a SmackDown star battling for RAW's biggest prize, many fans are expecting the blue brand to get one of Monday Night RAW's top names in the coming weeks to potentially face Rhodes in the German capital.

One person who fans would love to see go one-on-one with The American Nightmare is Hall of Famer Rey Mysterio.

The iconic luchador has been out of the world title scene for quite some time, and although he may not be expected to win against Rhodes, it would certainly be a great legacy match for the two stars as well as for the fans watching.

During an interview with Sports Illustrated, Cody Rhodes, who faced Rey Mysterio at WrestleMania in 2011, praised the Hall of Famer for helping him early in his career.

"There are people I give a lot of credit for helping me build my career, and they’re not always the obvious ones. Dusty and Dustin, of course they were involved, but they’re family. Rey Mysterio, I don’t even know if he remembers, but he changed my whole career. Rey, Randy Orton and Big Show are three people that put a great deal of work into carving out my skills as a wrestler."

Rey Mysterio currently performs on the RAW brand. It remains to be seen if he will challenge Rhodes for the Undisputed WWE title going forward.

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#2. An ally of Cody Rhodes turns on him

While Cody Rhodes has had his fair share of issues with The Bloodline for the past year or so, it could be argued that nobody has been a bigger thwart to the Anoa'i family than Kevin Owens.

The former Universal Champion has gone toe-to-toe with Roman Reigns and other members of the family for almost four years now.

With Owens having proved unsuccessful in taking down the Bloodline compared to Cody Rhodes, Kevin Owens may resort to his old ways and turn on an ally once again. Thus showcasing a shocking heel turn after two years.

Speaking to After The Bell in 2022, Kevin Owens spoke about his friendship with Rhodes both in and out of the ring.

"I’m so proud of Cody. When he was here, he and I got close pretty quickly. Then he left and that really sucked for me. I have people in this business that are really more like brothers to me than friends. It’s not everybody, but there’s a few people out there that I consider more like family. Cody’s one of them."

Despite his respect for The American Nightmare as a person, Owens' desire to win the big one may trump the friendship he has with Rhodes.

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#1. Cody Rhodes' old teammate looks to win the big one

If Rey Mysterio is not the RAW star sent to SmackDown, then one name that fans would like to see in the Bloodline drama once again is Jey Uso.

Uso and Rhodes have formed a close bond over the past year, with the duo even winning tag team gold at Fastlane in 2023.

Following their triumph at the PLE last year, Cody Rhodes and Jey Uso participated in a post-show press conference where a potentially and slightly inebriated Uso stole the show.

During a recent interview with WWE Die Woche, Cody Rhodes looked back on his and Jey's memorable Fastlane press event.

"Well, afterwards, I told Jey, 'That might have been a top ten moment of my career.' One of the things you can't see in the press conference is that the media wasn't really asking...they were just kind of oogling us, and they're normally a little bit quicker with the questions. A lot of the humor and what was happening, we were just lingering on it. You've seen the video, I have no defense for the video other than we were having a very great time."

With many fans wanting Uso to eventually get involved in the new Bloodline saga involving Roman Reigns and Solo Sikoa, a move over to SmackDown to face Cody Rhodes could be the perfect way to start the build of a new Bloodline civil war.