Stretchers, steel chairs, and unconscious referees. Here’s everything you need to know about the Cody Rhodes vs. Kevin Owens match at Nassau Coliseum.
On Saturday, December 15, Cody Rhodes went up against Kevin Owens to defend his Undisputed WWE Champion title. This match headlined WWE’s first Saturday Night’s Main Event since 2008. From 1985 to 1992, this event was reserved for special occasions.
Saturday Night’s Rhodes vs. Owens match at Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum ended up being a memorable occasion, though not in a way anyone predicted.
The match itself went smoothly- if one can call several referees getting knocked down and a steel chair being brought into the ring “smooth.” Rhodes defeated Owens with a Cross Rhodes finishing shot, ensuring that his reign as the Undisputed WWE Champion would continue.
But, as Fox News puts it, “the fireworks really started after the match was over” and the event had gone off-air.
As The American Nightmare celebrated his victory, Owens returned to the ring for revenge. His “revenge” came in the form of “a devastating pile driver.” This piledriver left Cody Rhodes motionless as he was loaded onto a stretcher by medical personnel. Owens’ revenge wasn’t over.
As Rhodes lay on the stretcher, motionless and in agony, Owens stood right where Rhodes could see him and held Rhodes’ iconic Winged Eagle Belt above his head.
After Rhodes was wheeled to the ambulance, a “furious and concerned” Paul “Triple H” Levesque confronted Owens. Owens and Levesque “squared up and pushed each other”, but referees broke things up before the confrontation turned into a full-on brawl.
Later Saturday night, WWE updated fans about Cody Rhodes’ condition. They said that while X-rays (thankfully) revealed that there is no fracture, Rhodes has been diagnosed with “axial compression of the cervical spine” and “a cervical strain with spasm.” Rhodes was kept overnight in the hospital for observation.
As shocking and devastating as Rhodes’ hospitalization is, this is not where the story ends.
This is not the first time Owens has hospitalized an opponent. In November, Owens sent his friend-turned-enemy Randy Orton to the hospital with the same banned piledriver he used on Rhodes.
The piledriver has been banned in WWE since the early 2000s because of the life-threatening injuries it can cause to the person on the receiving end. At SummerSlam 1997, Owen Hart performed a piledriver on Steve Austin. Unfortunately, Austin “slipped a few inches in Owen’s grip before he hit the piledriver.” This resulted in Austin’s head being positioned incorrectly for the maneuver. When Hart hit the piledriver, Austin’s head collided with the mat.
According to SportsKeeda, “Austin’s vertebrae was compacted with what is referred to in the sports world as a ‘stunner’, and suffered immediate pain and partial paralysis.”
Many wrestling fans believe that Kevin Owens was the real winner of the match.
At the beginning of the match, Owens was in the lead. The referee, Charles Robinson, got caught in the crossfire and was knocked unconscious.
Owens pinned Rhodes down, but there was no one to call it because the referee was unconscious. By the time a second referee entered the ring, Rhodes had escaped the pin.
According to ProWrestling, a pinfall (or pin) is “a victory condition… that is met by holding an opponent’s shoulders on the wrestling mat for a prescribed period of time.” In Professional Wrestling, “a pinfall must be held for a count of three by the referee.”
SportsTalkOnline reports that Owens pinned Rhodes twice during the match, but those pins became “invalid” because there was no referee to make the count.
Some fans believe that, because of this, Kevin Owens was “robbed” of the title that he had rightfully earned.
The New York Post even wrote that “Owens had the championship won”, but “there was no one to count to three while he delivered a Stunner to Rhodes.”
The move that Cody Rhodes used to win the match was quite controversial. After the referee snafu allowed Rhodes to escape his pinfall, a frustrated Owens “went into the ring post and went to the outside and brought a chair into the ring.”
Rhodes used this chair to win the match by “rolling his opponent onto the chair with a Cross Rhodes.”
Jesse “The Body” Ventura, who was doing the commentary for this match, called Rhodes “a cheat” for using the chair and claimed that he “did Kevin Owens dirty.”
Many wrestling fans agree with Ventura and believe that Rhodes cheated and does not deserve to keep his title.
Other fans point out that “cheating” by using objects from outside of the ring is nothing new in WWE. They believe that if Cody Rhodes using a chair is “cheating,” then technically everyone has “cheated” at least once.
Others point out that Owens is the one who brought the chair into the ring in the first place. They also argue that it was Cody Rhodes, not Owens, who landed on the chair during the Cross Rhodes.
Regardless of whether they’re Team Rhodes or Team Owens, all wrestling fans wish Cody Rhodes a quick recovery and look forward to seeing him back in the ring.
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