Nick Aldis made it official: Cody Rhodes will face Randy Orton at the first Sunday Night Main Event on Sunday, September the 6th in Atlanta, Georgia. The match turns a simmering rivalry into the centerpiece of WWE’s new event, and it comes less than 24 hours after Orton left Rhodes lying on SmackDown.
The announcement landed while fans were still waiting to see whether Rhodes would get back to the championship path he lost earlier this month. Rhodes left Las Vegas in April with the WWE Championship around his waist, then watched that road narrow at SummerSlam in Minneapolis, Minnesota, when Orton intervened, dropped him with an RKO and CM Punk kept the title with a GTS. Punk told Rhodes he could have a rematch whenever he wanted one, but Rhodes said he had other business to handle first.
That business got derailed on Friday night in Boston, Massachusetts. Rhodes was scheduled to wrestle Sami Zayn in the main event of SmackDown, but Orton attacked from behind before the match ever got underway. It was the latest turn in a feud that had already been building for weeks, with Orton pressing Rhodes at the exact moment Rhodes seemed to be moving back toward the title.
Aldis said he was following through on the promise he made to Rhodes on SmackDown and that he had made the match happen for Sunday, September the 6th. He did not spell out a special stipulation, and that leaves the most important detail still open: whether Rhodes and Orton will settle it straight up, or whether the first Sunday Night Main Event will add one more layer to a rivalry that has already moved from interference to official.
What is certain is the timing. The show is a little over three weeks away, and WWE has now given its first edition of Sunday Night Main Event a match that feels big enough to carry it.
