WWE’s 2025 Drew McIntyre Disaster Deepens With Cody Rhodes Loss
Few heels command respect like Drew McIntyre. Love or loathe his ring work, everyone agrees on the grind and determination that have made him one of WWE’s most relentless forces.
If you feel like Drew McIntyre has been fighting uphill all year, you are not imagining it. The guy is widely respected as a top-tier heel, nobody questions his work rate, and there has been a real groundswell to see him finally grab the undisputed WWE Championship. And yet, 2025 keeps finding new ways to kick him in the shins. The latest sting: another loss to Cody Rhodes at Saturday Night's Main Event.
How we got here
Coming out of a heated 2024 program with CM Punk, McIntyre looked primed to hit that pandemic-era peak again. The matches with the Second City Saint were promising, the momentum felt real, and the expectation was that creative would pull the trigger.
Instead, the booking this year has felt like a slow bleed. It has fans wondering if WWE has quietly boxed him out of title glory and undercut him in the stories he has been given. Harsh? Maybe. But the results keep backing it up.
McIntyre's 2025: the hits that keep not hitting
- WrestlePalooza 2025: Another high-profile loss to Cody Rhodes, with a heated finish that had people side-eyeing how the champ got it done.
- SummerSlam 2025: A wild brawl involving Randy Orton and Jelly Roll ends with Orton and Roll shutting down the team of McIntyre and Logan Paul.
- Short feud with Jimmy Uso: McIntyre actually gets the W... only for Rhodes to swoop in and rain on the celebration.
- Saturday Night's Main Event, Nov 1, 2025, Delta Center in Salt Lake City: The ref goes down, Rhodes plants McIntyre with a DDT on the championship belt, then hits Cross Rhodes for the pin. With the official out cold, using the belt was technically allowed in the moment, but it was not exactly the spirit of fair play. Worth noting: this match reportedly did not have the usual champion's advantage, meaning the title could change hands on a DQ or countout, and Rhodes still found a way to turn chaos into a retention.
Was that a heel move or just a champ surviving?
Fans are split. Some see Rhodes drifting into shadier territory after multiple eyebrow-raising finishes against McIntyre this year. Others chalk it up to a champion doing whatever it takes when the situation goes sideways. Either way, the SNME ending re-ignited tensions and left McIntyre — and a lot of the audience — looking for answers.
The bigger picture: is WWE wasting a layup?
McIntyre keeps delivering, but the stories keep undercutting the payoff. Between the near-misses, the run-ins, and the 'technically legal' shortcuts, it is starting to feel like the company is systematically keeping him just short of the prize. That is a risky way to use a guy who is this credible, this over, and this ready.
So what is left for the rest of 2025? Either you give him a clean, decisive program that rebuilds the path back to the undisputed title picture, or you risk letting one of your most reliable main-eventers drift into no-man's-land. The window is still open. It just will not stay open forever.