After suffering a black eye and a reportedly busted eardrum at the hands of rapper Travis Scott at WWE Elimination Chamber, Cody Rhodes noted that he was looking to issue a "receipt" to Scott in return. When given the opportunity to do so at WrestleMania 41, however, Rhodes opted to hit an interfering Scott with a wrestling move, specifically his Cross Rhodes, instead.
This decision has caused a mix of reactions amongst the "Busted Open Radio" crew, with WWE Hall of Famer Bully Ray feeling enraged, while Nic Nemeth and Tommy Dreamer felt underwhelmed. At the same time, Nemeth and Dreamer have theorized a possible reason as to why Rhodes refrained from his "receipt."
"There was just something there that was like, not only was it a little anticlimactic to so many different people, but I go, 'Oh, I wanted to see [the receipt],'" Nemeth said. "They kept talking about in interviews like, 'Oh, he's got a receipt coming, I'm going to get him back for that.' It was a pretty good smack to the head, then he hit a wrestling move and I go 'Ah, that's cool,' and it looked great.
"Maybe that's the liability, the insurance way to do it, to play it safe because maybe they're like, hey you can't hurt our guy, [Scott] has got music to make or something. But I would have loved to have them set something up and [Rhodes] slaps the hell out of [Scott], maybe knocks him out with a slap, or a back [fist].
When asked for his thoughts on the subject, Dreamer noted that he shared the same philosophy as Nemeth. He also offered up an alternative way that Rhodes could have incorporated his payback, while staying true to his signature moveset as well.
"You slap the crap out of him as the receipt, and then you hit your finish as the exclamation point as the babyface," Dreamer said. "I've been there many times too. I was with his father [Dusty Rhodes] where we got jumped by football players [in ECW], and it was in Louisiana. Two New Orleans Saints, if you want to talk about how bad the Saints were, we actually had the Saints as the heels and Tommy Dreamer and Dusty Rhodes were the babyfaces.
"They aligned with Steve Corino and a young cookie monster named Rhino," Dreamer continued." Dusty [went] jab, jab, jab, elbow, the guy laid there, so that's the receipt for them turning on us. But then Dusty hit his finish and the place went whoosh when he dropped that."
Scott's interference came on night two of WrestleMania 41, specifically in the main event Undisputed WWE Championship match between Rhodes and John Cena. When Rhodes laid out Cena with a Cross Rhodes and covered him, Scott pulled the referee out of the ring. Upon entering the ring, Scott then ate a Cross Rhodes himself. With the referee still down on the outside at this point, Cena shifted momentum into his favor by nailing Rhodes with a low blow and the championship belt a sequence that paved the way for his victory moments later.
If you use any of the quotes in this article, please credit "Busted Open Radio" with a h/t to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription.
