During the WWE WrestleMania 41 night two main event, rapper Travis Scott interfered by pulling the referee out of the ring, stopping Cody Rhodes from pinning John Cena. Rhodes responded by hitting Scott with a Cross Rhodes, only to be met with a low blow and a championship belt shot to the head from Cena.
These final moves secured victory for Cena, making him a 17-time world champion. However, former WWE star Matt Hardy believes the Undisputed WWE Championship conclusion could have played out more effectively with a slightly revised sequence.
“What I would have personally liked to have seen is something where they end up doing the spot where once again Cody had already had a visual pinfall and now there’s another one,” Hardy said on “The Extreme Life Of Matt Hardy.”
“There’s another pinfall after Cross Rhodes [on Cena] and there’s a one, two [count] and Travis Scott pulls out the ref, which is a spot that did happen in the match. [He] pulls out the ref and the ref is supposedly knocked out.
“Maybe [Scott] gets up on the apron like he’s going to come [in the ring]. Cody goes after him, then he chases him around the ring. [Cody] comes back in and now John has gotten back up and John has the title. Now John swings [the title], Cody catches it, and they’re fighting back and forth back.”
In the match’s actual conclusion, Rhodes appeared poised to strike Cena with the championship belt but ultimately refrained, allowing Cena to land the low blow that led to the finish. Rather than having Rhodes show “sympathy” toward a heel Cena, Hardy suggested a slightly different approach.
He envisioned Scott hitting Rhodes just enough to make him drop the championship, prompting Rhodes to retaliate with the Cross Rhodes. From there, Hardy believed the title belt strike from Cena would have been a stronger finish to seal the win.