Cody Rhodes only has one goal now that he's back in WWE: to win the Universal Championship. At Backlash he showed us he'd cut a corner to do so.

Cody Rhodes defeated Seth Rollins at WWE WrestleMania Backlash but he had to take a bit of a shortcut to do so. The former AEW executive and wrestler returned to WWE at WrestleMania 38, putting on one of the best bouts of the night against The Visionary. Rhodes won that match clean, which lead to Rollins claiming that he wasn't able to adequately prepare for The American Nightmare because he was a surprise opponent selected by Vince McMahon.

That all lead to an epic rematch at Backlash, and once again, the two performers delivered an entertaining fight. The two opened the show and received some of the loudest pops of the evening. Both men kicked out of finishers and high-impact spots, and the finish was a dizzying sequence that saw Rhodes reverse a Rollins pin attempt, getting a fistful of tights as the referee counted to three. This left Rollins insensed as Cody celebrated his win and made his way back up the entrance ramp.

Related: Why Cody Rhodes Returning To WWE Is A Huge Mistake

This finish does a few things for WWE. For one, it ratchets the intensity up as Rollins and Rhodes will likely see a rubber match, perhaps at Hell in a Cell which happens a month from now. The two have gone from cordial opponents to rivals over the last few weeks. Seth in particular, has drug Cody's family name through the mud, telling him that his dad, Dusty Rhodes, wasn't good enough to win a championship title in WWE and neither is he. This could even result in a "Dusty Finish," with Rhodes having his win revoked on the technicality of him holding Rollins' tights during the pinfall.

The biggest angle this sets up, however, goes beyond this particular feud for the Nightmare. By taking this shortcut over Rollins—albeit one that was taken on him first—Rhodes has shown WWE fans that he's willing to do anything to achieve his dream of winning the Univeral Championship. The motives have been made clear all along here. Rollins was sure to remind us that Dusty Rhodes never won the belt and that if he couldn't, Cody certainly couldn't.

It's a remarkably interesting wrinkle to add to a returning babyface's character. It'd be fair to point out that it protects Rollins to some degree, but that man is Teflon when it comes to eating losses or bad finishes, and this was a good one. Look at Hell in a Cell with Bray Wyatt as an example. If he can survive that, he can survive anything. For Rhodes, though, this plants the seed that he's only concerned with the result and not the process that it takes to get there. He wants the championship, no matter what it takes. That sounds an awful lot like how a heel operates. Maybe he simply walks the line of only cheating to level the playing field. That, too, would be refreshing as WWE loves to book faces to look unintelligent, distracted by every theme that plays or manager who jumps on the ring apron. Rhodes could change all that, at least for himself, and we saw the beginning of that phase shift at Backlash.

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