By Cody Rhodes (Credits: Fightful)
Cody Rhodes closed out WWE SmackDown with a statement — and Baron Corbin took the brunt of it. On the October 16 show, Rhodes delivered a vicious Punt Kick to Corbin to end a chaotic night of brawling.
The chaos started when Corbin interrupted Rhodes’ promo towards the end of the show. An impromptu match eventually began between the two, with Randy Orton interfering to cause a non-finish. From there, things spilled outside the ring into an all-out brawl before the fight returned to the squared circle.
The Punt Kick Heard Round SmackDown
Orton looked to deliver a Punt Kick to Rhodes, but the American Nightmare escaped and hit a Cody Cutter instead. As Rhodes lined up to punt Orton, Corbin attacked him — only to eat a Super Cutter. Then, with Corbin laid out, Rhodes delivered the Punt Kick to close out the show.
The move carries serious weight in this storyline. Rhodes had previously lost his Saturday Night’s Main Event match against Orton after hesitating to deliver the Punt Kick, while Orton showed no such mercy during their WrestleMania 42 match. This time, there was no hesitation at all.
“Punt It Down The Rhodes”
In a fun behind-the-scenes detail, this week’s SmackDown was internally titled “Punt It Down The Rhodes,” according to Fightful’s Corey Brennan — and Rhodes made sure the show lived up to its name.
With the punt now fully back in Rhodes’ arsenal, the message to Orton was clear: no more hesitation, no more mercy. The rematch between these two is going to be violent.
Source: Fightful — read the full story there.
