Yet another update has surfaced regarding the WWE Championship match at WrestleMania 42.
As previously reported, two major matches are official for WrestleMania 42, which are CM Punk vs. Roman Reigns for the World Heavyweight Championship and Stephanie Vaquer vs. Liv Morgan for the Women’s World Championship.
That leaves Drew McIntyre’s WWE Championship defense as one of the biggest remaining questions heading into the show.
According to Dave Meltzer in the latest issue of the Wrestling Observer Newsletter released on February 27 via F4WOnline.com, Cody Rhodes challenging for the title is considered a “virtual lock.” However, there has reportedly been internal frustration within WWE regarding the idea of running McIntyre vs. Rhodes as a straight singles match.
The concern?
It may feel too predictable.
And too familiar.
McIntyre and Rhodes have already wrestled three singles matches, including two on recent WWE premium live events. That repetition has led to some hesitation behind the scenes about simply running it back on the grandest stage of them all.
Meltzer noted that if the match were to expand beyond a singles bout, Jacob Fatu would be the most likely addition.
“The other talk regards McIntyre’s WWE title match,” Meltzer wrote. “It’s a virtual lock Rhodes would be involved in that. Whether it’s a singles match or a three-way with Jacob Fatu, or even more that would involve Randy Orton, Sami Zayn or others is unclear, and may not even be finalized.”
Meltzer added, “What we have been told is that a match involving more than three people is not being talked about right now.”
So while a triple threat scenario is possible, anything beyond that does not appear to be under serious consideration at this time.
Meltzer also indicated that, despite ongoing rewrites affecting other portions of the WrestleMania card, the WWE Championship match itself may already be locked in creatively.
“My impression is that this has already been decided even though plans for the rest of the show are being rewritten,” he noted. “There has been frustration that the original plans were ditched and the idea of McIntyre vs. Rhodes has been questioned as a single because it’s too predictable and is what people expect.”
In the meantime, Rhodes has a major opportunity ahead of him. He is set to compete in the Men’s Elimination Chamber match this Saturday at the United Center in Chicago. Fatu, notably, did not qualify for the bout.
WrestleMania 42 is scheduled to take place on Saturday, April 18, and Sunday, April 19, 2026, live from Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas, NV.
