Cody Rhodes defeated AJ Styles at Backlash on Saturday to retain the Undisputed WWE Championship in his first title defense since becoming champion at WrestleMania 40.

The American Nightmare prevailed in a physical, back-and-forth affair.

After over a year of pursuing the WWE title, Rhodes finally finished his story at WrestleMania 40, as he beat Roman Reigns in the main event of Night 2 to become world champion for the first time in WWE.

The American Nightmare ended Reigns’ historic title run of over 1,300 days in the process, and he established himself as the face of WWE while The Tribal Chief takes some time away from the company.

Although the ‘Mania win represented Rhodes accomplishing his ultimate goal in wrestling, he didn’t have much time to celebrate.

On the Raw after WrestleMania, Rhodes was interrupted by The Rock, who teamed with Reigns to beat The American Nightmare and Seth Rollins in a tag team match on Night 1 of The Show of Shows.

The Rock made it clear that he intended to get back at Rhodes after taking some time off, but in the meantime, WWE had to determine who would be his first challenger.

A pair of Triple Threat matches were held on SmackDown with LA Knight beating Bobby Lashley and Santos Escobar, followed by Styles defeating Kevin Owens and Rey Mysterio.

That set up a singles match between Styles and Knight for the No. 1 contendership, and it just so happened to be a rematch of their clash at WrestleMania 40, which was won by The Megastar.

The Phenomenal One got revenge on the April 19 episode of SmackDown, beating Knight to earn a shot at the WWE Championship.

Styles entered Backlash as a two-time WWE champion, but it had been nearly six years since he last held it.

While The Phenomenal One was hungry to return to the top of the heap in WWE, Rhodes’ first title defense was a successful one, and his reign is now off and running.

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