Randy Orton and Cody Rhodes will face off in a Last Man Standing rubber match at Crown Jewel after Rhodes challenged him on WWE SmackDown.
Orton first challenged Rhodes for the WWE Championship at WrestleMania, failing in the bid, before facing Rhodes in a non-title grudge match. Sunday night’s main event and tying the win. Orton resumed striking out after his initial loss to Rhodes, and even though Rhodes wanted to do the same to him in the rematch, he hesitated and thus allowed Orton to pick up the win.
Rhodes finally pulled the trigger and followed up with a pinfall last week, though it wasn’t Orton on the receiving end of it, with Baron Corbin catching the raw end of things instead. That preceded their match in the ring on Friday’s segment.
Orton was first in the segment and said he enjoyed knowing he took it out on Rhodes. But he still didn’t believe he would do it again when he got in the ring with her again. Rhodes then came out, followed immediately by general manager Nick Aldis and the officials.
Aldis interrupted when Rhodes finally called for a fight on the spot, offering to make the match for the Crown Jewel. Just then, Rhodes turned around and issued the Last Man Standing challenge, which was accepted by Orton with the caveat that when all was said and done, he asked for it.