During the August 9, 2024, SmackDown episode held at the BOK Center in Tulsa, Oklahoma, Cody Rhodes opened the show to discuss the happenings of SummerSlam and his next challenger for Bash in Berlin. Rhodes, who successfully defended his Undisputed WWE Championship against Solo Sikoa at SummerSlam, was interrupted by The Bloodline star himself.

The new Tribal Chief demanded a rematch for the title, but the American Nightmare declined. The situation escalated with The Bloodline approaching the ring. However, Kevin Owens stepped in with a chair to balance the situation. After The Bloodline departed from the ringside, the former AEW star surprised everyone by offering Owens a shot at the Undisputed WWE Championship at Bash in Berlin. Initially, the Canadian star hesitated, stating that he did not deserve the chance, but the fight was later confirmed.

This segment was truly unexpected as no one saw it coming. Kevin Owens was nowhere near the title picture and now he would be going against Cody Rhodes for the Undisputed WWE Championship. This segment truly attracted a lot of attention so it was no surprise when it was announced that Rhodes’ opening had the highest viewership on the latest edition of Blue Brand.

The new face of the WWE received a spectacular audience reception as his segment became the highest viewed of the night. Even overshadowing the presence of the Original Tribal Chief Roman Reigns as he came in to attack Solo Sikoa, Tama Tonga, and Tonga Loa, destroying the latter two while Sikoa managed to escape with the Ula Fala.

However, fans are not satisfied with the big revelation. They believe that Roman Reigns has been wronged and there was no way that The American Nightmare got the highest viewership out of the entire episode. So taking to social media, they let their thoughts known.

Fans call out the figures for their wrong interpretation

Taking to X, several fans rallied against the fact that Cody Rhodes received the highest viewership over a returning Roman Reigns who had his first SmackDown appearance in months. So many fans revealed that the reason Rhodes had such high viewership was because they thought the Orignal Tribal Chief was going to be the one to open the show.

After an explosive end to SummerSlam, the WWE Universe awaited with bated breath for the Orignal Tribal Chief to open the show. However, they didn’t get exactly what they wanted. Despite Reigns appearing in a satisfying segment later on, the limelight was on the WWE Universal title scene. This propelled fans to suggest that WWE cleverly manipulated the masses to grant Rhodes the highest viewed segment of the show.

Some fans believed that Rhodes couldn’t be the one with the highest viewership because his promos have gotten stale and no longer provide the same adrenaline rush as they used to before.

Well, it surely looks like The American Nightmare is going through the WWE babyface curse. As top babyfaces such as Hulk Hogan, John Cena, and even Roman Reigns were called boring for being plain vanilla babyface. So surely the WWE has to try and book an interesting feud for Rhodes. What do you think? What can the WWE do? Let us know in the comments.