As WWE fans continue to cheer for his WrestleMania 42 opponent, Randy Orton, following his heel turn during a contract signing for their match on “WWE SmackDown,” Undisputed WWE Champion Cody Rhodes revealed on “Busted Open Radio” that he no longer takes negative fan reactions to heart. While Rhodes has been a top babyface in WWE since rejoining the company in 2022, fans are rooting hard for Orton to win the 15th world championship of his career. Rhodes explained he doesn’t take it all personally, though said in his younger years he did.

“Certainly, there’s no absolute in that and I’m sure some things kind of slip through the armor a bit and you feel it,” Rhodes said. “But my thought in terms of fans today, more than ever, is that we are out there and whatever their emotional need is. If they need to cheer for you. If they need to cheer for him. If they need to yell at you. I can’t put a governor on that and I will not. Tully Blanchard rules, in terms, for me, when he’d say, ‘The loudest, the longest.’ I can’t be angry at them.”

Rhodes said even if fans are cheering Orton after everything “The Viper” has done to him, including leaving him bloodied following their official contract signing a few weeks ago, so be it. He explained he’s not going to try and tell anyone how to be a fan, because there’s no wrong way.

“Right now it hasn’t got to me,” he said. “I’ll be honest, sometimes maybe it will, but right now? No.”

If you use any quotes from this article, please credit “Busted Open Radio” and provide a h/t to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription.

All systems go for Eddie Edwards, as he’ll receive his contractual TNA World Championship title match against the two-time champion, Mike Santana, at Rebellion on Saturday, April 11, at the Wolstein Center in Cleveland, Ohio.

BREAKING: @TheEddieEdwards will invoke his Feast or Fired World Title shot briefcase to challenge @Santana_Proud for the TNA World Title at #TNARebellion on April 11 LIVE on PPV and TNA+ from Cleveland, Ohio!

Get tickets HERE: https://t.co/WKEkofxecd pic.twitter.com/MdoJfmOKIK

— TNA Wrestling (@ThisIsTNA) March 30, 2026

Edwards’ opportunity for this upcoming title fight emerged after he won one of the Feast or Fired briefcases on the January 29 episode of “TNA iMPACT.” The System’s new leader is trying to bounce back towards the winning column after taking a loss to his former cohort in the group, Moose, at Sacrifice this past Friday. Moose won the match via a disqualification. Should Edwards emerge victorious at Rebellion, it’ll be the third time in his career that he’s held the World Championship.

As for Santana, “The Realest” was scheduled to defend his championship at Sacrifice against former friend turned foe, Steve Maclin; however, the match was stopped after Maclin took a countered superkick, leaving the former world champion knocked out. While officials were tending to Maclin, Edwards snuck out to the ring and initiated an impromptu brawl with Santana.

This past Saturday, TNA President Carlos Silva awarded Edwards and referee Alice Lane for their team efforts during the main event. Santana also commented on the situation by expressing his gratitude to how the company handled the situation, Lane’s quick thinking, and to his challenger Maclin, who, thankfully, was not diagnosed with a concussion after that near scare.

Needed some time to myself before speaking on this…

Every time I’m getting ready to head out for a match, I always find a corner and take a moment to myself.

I kneel and pray to God to protect me and my opponent. To watch over us as we head out to give the fans an escape and…

— Mike SANTANA🇵🇷 (@Santana_Proud) March 29, 2026

The G1 Climax is New Japan Pro Wrestling’s annual round robin tournament that sees the best that NJPW has to offer compete for a shot at the IWGP Heavyweight Championship. Over the years, stars from different companies have made cameos in the gruelling competition, from Pro Wrestling NOAH, to DDT, to the company’s former arch rival All Japan Pro Wrestling. A number of AEW stars have featured in the G1 in recent years like Eddie Kingston, Lance Archer, and the 2025 winner Konosuke Takeshita, but with the opening night of the 2026 tournament taking place in the United States, AEW could have a larger presence in this year’s tournament.

Dave Meltzer of the Wrestling Observer has reported that a couple of AEW stars are slated to appear in this year’s tournament. AEW stars like Kenny Omega, Bryan Danielson, and Will Ospreay have been use to promote the opening night of the G1 Climax, which takes place on July 11 at the NOW Arena in Chicago, Illinois, and while that does not mean that any of those three men will be in the tournament (Danielson is still retired from full-time action), using some of AEW’s biggest names to promote NJPW’s biggest competition of the year does imply that this year’s tournament will have a heavy AEW influence. Meltzer noted that ticket sales on the day of release were under the 2,000 mark, but the number has since improved in the past week.

The opening night of G1 Climax 36 will mark the first time in seven years that NJPW’s biggest tournament of the year takes place on American soil. The last instance was in 2019 when the 29th tournament kicked off in Dallas, Texas. That night was main evented by another instalment in the iconic rivalry between Kazuchika Okada and Hiroshi Tanahashi, with “The Rainmaker” coming away with the victory. 

Undisputed WWE Champion Cody Rhodes and Randy Orton are set to go one-on-one for the gold at WrestleMania 42, and in the weeks ahead of the event, Orton unleashed his “Viper” persona during a vicious heel turn on his former friend on “WWE SmackDown.” Since the turn, Orton has been seen talking on the phone backstage to who he calls the “voices in his head,” and fans have been wondering who is actually on the other line. On “Busted Open Radio,” Bully Ray said that he thinks the person helping Orton is Triple H, and he could incorporate a callback to an infamous AEW moment.

“Triple H can always turn around and say, ‘I never liked you. I inherited you, and now I’m going to get rid of you,'” he explained. “‘You were Vince [McMahon’s] pick. Randy was my pick from day one.’ Who is the one that singled Randy Orton and Batista out to be a part of Evolution with [Ric] Flair? It was Triple H. ‘Randy has always been my guy. Cody, you were Vince’s guy. Vince is gone. I never wanted you around. Don’t think I forgot about my throne that you [smashed.]'”

Rhodes took a sledgehammer, Triple H’s weapon of choice, to a throne that looked like something “The Game” had previously used during one of his grand entrances during the inaugural Double or Nothing in 2019. In the years following the symbolic moment, Rhodes said he wanted to make a statement about what AEW was doing.

“The American Nightmare” rejoined WWE, while McMahon was still running the show, in 2022. Rhodes returned at WrestleMania 38 to take on Seth Rollins.

If you use any quotes from this article, please credit “Busted Open Radio” and provide a h/t to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription.