Cody Rhodes is reminding WWE fans to take every rumor they hear with a grain of salt, because some of the stories floating around on the internet are "wildly made up."

The American Nightmare began his second reign as WWE Champion after he defeated John Cena at SummerSlam 2025, and he immediately entered into a program with Drew McIntyre. This was right around the time that Rhodes began filming for Street Fighter, and following their match at Wrestlepalooza, a report surfaced that both competitors pitched for Cody to lose his first title defense.

Rhodes ultimately won the match straight up in front of the fans in Indianapolis, but the reported pitch would have seen Randy Orton emerge to cost Cody the title and kick-start their rivalry, which is just now set to conclude at Saturday's Crown Jewel Premium Live Event.

Rhodes denies pitching to lose the title to Drew McIntyre

During an appearance on the Double Coverage Podcast, Rhodes brought up that story in particular when the conversation steered toward the differences between internet wrestling fans and those who attend shows in person.

“I don’t want to dismiss a fan and their opinion. If they hate you, they hate you. If they think you’re fat, they think you’re fat. If they think you suck... There’s no wrong way to be a fan. But what I can say is the conversations that take place on, say X specifically, they only take place there," Rhodes said before diving into the aforementioned rumored pitch.

"Here’s how I knew it had gotten crazy. It was a story that I had pitched to lose the title. Now I saw somebody referencing, this is like eight months ago, ‘Well, don’t forget when he pitched it.’ If you ever hear a story of a wrestler pitching to lose a title, you should know right out of the gate, they’re lying... There’s a difference between an old man figuring out who his last opponent is, but no wrestler has ever said, ‘Yeah, I want to, I need to lose the title.’ My gosh, that’s the meal ticket. You want somebody to take it from you. You don’t pitch it. I saw that being talked about as if it was actual evidence."

Cody Rhodes did eventually lose the WWE Title to McIntyre in a Three Stages of Hell Match back in January, but he won the belt back in time to successfully defend it against Randy Orton at WrestleMania 42.

His third reign as champion would last until Night of Champions, where he shockingly lost the title to Sami Zayn in a triple threat match with Gunther.