“caption”:”SALT LAKE CITY, UTAH – OCTOBER 31: Drew McIntyre holds up the Undisputed WWE Champion Title during SmackDown at Delta Center on October 31, 2025 in Salt Lake City, Utah. (Photo by Mike Owens\/WWE via Getty Images.)”,”altText”:”SALT LAKE CITY, UTAH – OCTOBER 31: Drew McIntyre holds up the Undisputed WWE Champion Title during SmackDown at Delta Center on October 31, 2025 in Salt Lake City, Utah. (Photo by Mike Owens\/WWE via Getty Images.)”,”src”:”https:\/\/s.yimg.com\/os\/creatr-uploaded-images\/2026-01\/4707a160-ee42-11f0-b3af-7e784351dd85″,”width”:8640,”height”:5760,”credit”:”WWE via Getty Images”,”id”:”c575246a-f331-344e-913b-da40468a7723″,”dataEngBreakoutId”:”fc582894b3c54d40b5e8f68aedd159a5″,”crop”:{“x”:0,”y”:442,”width”:8640,”height”:4856},”dataCropOrigSrc”:”https:\/\/s.yimg.com\/os\/creatr-uploaded-images\/2026-01\/6beb0400-edab-11f0-beef-b26b198336da”}<\/p>\n
Drew McIntyre’s stunning upset of Cody Rhodes broke new ground for WWE’s Triple H era.<\/p>\n
Hats off to WWE. After a year of obsessively attempting to come up with contrived \u201cBet you didn\u2019t see that coming?!\u201d<\/em> twists, they actually managed to wrong-foot just about everyone \u2014 and in a way that actually counts for something. With Drew McIntyre beating Cody Rhodes<\/a> for the WWE Undisputed Championship on Friday night’s “SmackDown,” the latter\u2019s title reign suddenly meets its end at 159 days.<\/p>\n As for how big a shock it was, you can choose your metric. But how about the fact that neither of the two belts that make up the Undisputed Championship have changed hands on a WWE weekly show like \u201cSmackDown”\u201d since 2021? In fact, ever since Triple H took over, the big prize has only been won at WrestleManias or SummerSlams, with even standard PLEs being considered unworthy of title changes.<\/p>\n The idea that golden boy Cody Rhodes could lose his gold on a random episode of \u201cSmackDown\u201d would’ve been fanciful just a week ago. But for it to happen on one of the European shows that are broadcast six hours behind schedule in the U.S.? That was pretty unthinkable. Particularly in an era when WWE is so obsessed with social media and knew the result would be \u2014 and very much was<\/a> \u2014 leaked immediately.<\/p>\n Even when the big twist came, I wasn\u2019t sure it was real. I spent the next two minutes genuinely expecting we\u2019d see “SmackDown” general manager Nick Aldis come charging down the ramp to announce there’d be an extra bout added to the match, or a rematch declared next week. I know it sounds preposterous, but so did the idea of McIntyre winning the Undisputed Championship by tumbling out of the cage.<\/p>\n AND NEW!!@DMcIntyreWWE<\/a> DID IT!! \ud83c\udfc6 pic.twitter.com\/A4YJhIbtkG<\/a><\/p>\n \u2014 WWE (@WWE) January 10, 2026<\/a><\/div>\n Should Friday’s upset have come as such a surprise? It isn\u2019t as if WWE hasn\u2019t invested in building up McIntyre as a legitimate threat to Rhodes. I wrote last year how welcome it was that WWE was finally treating one of its most charismatic heels as a suitably serious prospect<\/a>. Nothing has changed since then, thankfully, as the company has continued to push McIntyre as a viable No. 1 contender into 2026.<\/p>\n We knew as well that a big deal was being made of the \u201cThree Stages of Hell\u201d stipulation. But there\u2019s a big difference between having a suitably pugilistic match to finish off a feud \u2014 i.e., the Rhodes vs. Owens ladder match at last year’s Royal Rumble \u2014 and one that upends the fundamental gravity of the WWE hierarchy.<\/p>\n So what does McIntyre’s win mean for the future? For a start, it wipes the slate clean for WrestleMania 42. Going into Friday night, most of us were working from the assumption<\/a> that WWE\u2019s QB1 was cruising into Las Vegas this April as champion, with the only question being who he’d face when he gets there. I don\u2019t remember anyone suggesting it might be Drew McIntyre.<\/p>\n Barring another twist, then, we\u2019re on the road to having a heel champion come ‘Mania. Particularly if WWE takes the logical step of having McIntyre crush Sami Zayn on Jan. 31 at the Royal Rumble. The fact that this year\u2019s Rumble takes place in Saudi Arabia \u2014 where Zayn\u2019s popularity is verging on Montreal proportions \u2014 gives Triple H and company the perfect opportunity to grant McIntyre his Gunther moment.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n As for what comes after that, speculation appears to already be swirling that we may finally get McIntyre vs. Roman Reigns 2, potentially at WrestleMania. Except this time, of course, the roles would be reversed: McIntyre would not just be the bad guy, but the reigning champion too. That has to make for a solid main event, even if it lacks the casual name recognition of last year’s John Cena coronation.<\/p>\n Whatever happens at ‘Mania, Friday’s decision also gives McIntyre some well-deserved time in the spotlight. Take fault with some of WWE’s booking decisions all you like, but you can\u2019t deny the man himself has consistently answered the call over the past four years. Not just his cerebral feud against CM Punk from 2024, but also turning a hastily assembled tag match with Jelly Roll into one of the best bouts from last year\u2019s SummerSlam<\/a>.<\/p>\n As for the wider WWE landscape, the big lesson coming out of the weekend is all those tried-and-tested assumptions about Triple H\u2019s booking may not be as firm as we once thought. I\u2019ve already mentioned the much-cited rule that big titles only change hands at stadium shows; if that can finally be tossed out of the window at a moment’s notice, who knows what the next shibboleth on the chopping block will be?<\/p>\n This doesn\u2019t fix everything. Twist or not, there\u2019s no getting away from the fact that WWE’s weekly shows, in particular, have felt stale for months now. What Friday’s decision does demonstrate, though, is that the current regime isn\u2019t afraid to shake things up from time to time, and that they\u2019re not as wedded to the old rules as we previously thought.<\/p>\n In terms of WWE’s upper card, this genuinely felt like a shake-up of gargantuan proportions. Just think: John Cena hasn\u2019t even been gone a month, and already the bad guys are back on top. And the man who Cena ended up congratulating back at SummerSlam has been dethroned once more \u2014 this time without the involvement of Travis Scott.<\/p>\n