Cody Rhodes Confirms New Five-Year WWE Contract

Cody Rhodes has confirmed he has signed a new five-year contract with WWE, locking in the American Nightmare’s run with the company for the long haul.

The extension comes at a high point for Rhodes, who has spent his return run since 2022 rebuilding himself from a mid-card returnee into a two-time WWE Champion and one of the promotion’s defining top babyfaces. Finishing his story by capturing the WWE Championship was framed as the culmination of his family’s long history with the business, and this new deal suggests WWE sees him as a centerpiece of the roster well into the back half of the decade.

With that chapter closed, the obvious question becomes what’s left for Rhodes to chase. One intriguing possibility floating around the fan and media conversation is a run with the United States Championship. Rhodes already holds wins over most of WWE’s other major titles, and a US Title reign would complete a Grand Slam for him — a nice, tidy achievement to pursue over a contract that could realistically take him to the end of his in-ring career.

There’s also been growing speculation about a potential heel turn. Rhodes’ program with Randy Orton has leaned into more complicated, morally gray territory than his feel-good underdog story of the past few years, and crowd reactions to him have cooled somewhat compared to the white-hot babyface run that carried him to the title. WWE has a deep crop of younger babyfaces it could lean on if it wanted to free Rhodes up to work as a villain, though the company would need a clear long-term plan to make it count rather than treating it as a one-off attention grab.

A heel turn could also open the door to Rhodes forming a new stable. His AEW run included an attempt at building a faction around the Nightmare Factory that never quite caught fire, and his WWE legacy is closely tied to his Legacy stable years with Randy Orton and Ted DiBiase. A heel version of that group, or a new unit built from his Birthright-era allies, would give WWE a fresh storytelling vehicle. On the flip side, if Rhodes stays a babyface, he has plenty of history with other top stars — names like Ricky Saints, Ethan Page and Jade Cargill among them — that could theoretically be pulled together into something resembling an all-star alliance.

None of that is confirmed yet, of course — for now, the real headline is simply that Rhodes isn’t going anywhere. A five-year commitment signals WWE’s confidence in him as a long-term draw, and gives creative plenty of runway to explore whatever direction they choose for one of the company’s biggest stars. Whether that means a US Title chase, a heel turn, a new stable, or some combination of all three, Rhodes’ next chapter is likely to be one of WWE’s most closely watched storylines going forward.