The Undisputed WWE Championship picture became far more complicated after Elimination Chamber, and according to WWE Hall of Famer Bully Ray, the chaos could ultimately reshape the WrestleMania main event.
At the premium live event, Drew McIntyre stormed the Elimination Chamber match and attacked Cody Rhodes, costing him a potential victory and allowing Randy Orton to secure the win. The interference immediately sparked tensions on “WWE SmackDown,” where General Manager Nick Aldis responded by booking Rhodes against McIntyre in a championship match for the following week.
Speaking on Busted Open Radio, Bully Ray said the confrontation between Aldis and McIntyre initially made him think WWE could be setting up something unexpected.
“When Nick said, ‘I need Drew, all attention on me,’ I immediately went, ‘Oh, they’re gonna do it,'” Bully Ray explained. “I thought for a second we were going to get Nick and Drew. We still might have an opportunity for that.”
While an Aldis versus McIntyre match could carry strong storyline tension, Bully Ray ultimately believes the company is heading toward a more traditional WrestleMania title scenario.
“What I’m anticipating, we’re going to get Cody and Drew,” he continued.
Bully Ray also pointed to another wildcard in the situation: Jacob Fatu. With unresolved issues between Fatu and McIntyre on the SmackDown side, the Hall of Famer predicted that Fatu could interfere in the Rhodes vs. McIntyre title match and cost McIntyre the championship. That outcome, in Bully Ray’s view, would set the stage for a WrestleMania main event between Rhodes and Orton.
Such a direction would allow WWE to pivot toward a major singles showdown while also spinning off another feud.
Bully Ray said he would prefer to see two separate singles matches at WrestleMania rather than a multi-man title match. In his ideal scenario, Rhodes would defend the championship against Orton, while McIntyre would face Fatu in a separate match.
Still, he acknowledged that WWE could go in a different direction if creative decides to add more competitors to the title match.
A multi-man championship bout featuring McIntyre, Rhodes, Orton, and Fatu would create another possibility: Orton capturing his 15th world championship by pinning someone other than the champion, protecting McIntyre in the process. In that case, Bully Ray suggested WWE could revisit Rhodes vs. Orton as a singles match later in the year, potentially at SummerSlam.
For now, however, the Hall of Famer is firmly in favor of a simpler WrestleMania structure built around major one-on-one matches.
“Give me Randy Orton and Cody Rhodes all day long,” Bully Ray said, adding that a strong build between the two could easily stand alongside other top WrestleMania programs.
