Cody Rhodes vs. Randy Orton 3 Set for Last Man Standing at Crown Jewel

Cody Rhodes vs. Randy Orton is finally a match again. On SmackDown in Ontario, California, Nick Aldis made it official for Crown Jewel on November 7, and Cody added the stipulation himself: Last Man Standing.

I’ve been asking for this for weeks. Not because I was dying for a third match, but because these two kept brawling on SmackDown with no match in sight. Isn’t this a wrestling show? Book the match.

Now they have. The problem is where they booked it. Crown Jewel is in Riyadh, and nobody should feel good about flying into Riyadh right now.

Cody Rhodes vs. Randy Orton 3 Is Official

Here’s how it went down. Orton came out angry about Cody punting Baron Corbin the week before. That’s the thing with Randy: you go after his guy, he takes it personally. The two got face to face, Aldis walked out, and the trilogy match became official, per Khel Now’s SmackDown results.

Cody’s condition was Last Man Standing. That’s a smart call for both of them. Neither guy is losing clean to the other a second time, so you put them in a match where nobody can get rolled up and steal it.

The promo itself was all right. Not great, not bad. Honestly, the best moment of the whole segment wasn’t Cody or Randy. It was the moment Aldis said “Crown Jewel” and the building booed. And they were loud.

Who’s the Babyface Here?

Johnny North noticed something that I think WWE needs to watch. “Randy seems like he’s the babyface,” Johnny said on Wrestling Uncensored, “and Cody got booed a bit.”

Maybe. I’m not ready to say Cody’s turning, but we’ve seen this before. We wrote back in March about why Randy Orton can’t get booed, and nothing has changed. Orton is 46; he’s a legend in the last stretch of his career, and fans want to cheer him. Cody has been the top babyface for years. Familiarity breeds a little contempt.

If the Ontario crowd is booing Cody in a face-to-face with Randy, imagine how Riyadh reacts. That’s a fun wrinkle in a Last Man Standing match, where the crowd’s energy carries the ten counts.

The Trilogy So Far

This feud has been the backbone of SmackDown for most of 2026, and the scorecard is even.

We broke down the second match when Cody Rhodes vs Randy Orton headlined Sunday Night’s Main Event. Orton set up the series exactly this way: one more match, with a stipulation that guarantees a decisive finish.

My Prediction: Orton Gets His Riyadh Moment

Here’s the obvious take first. Cody is the bigger star; he won at WrestleMania, and WWE usually protects its top guy.

But I’m going the other way. Orton wins this. The crowd is already leaning his way, and at this stage of his career, a definitive trilogy win in a Last Man Standing match is the kind of legacy moment WWE gives a legend. Cody doesn’t need the win. He’s Cody. He’ll be fine.

Where could I be wrong? If WWE has bigger plans for Cody heading into WrestleMania 43, it may want him strong going into the new year. If so, Cody wins with a Cross Rhodes onto something hard, Orton beats the count at nine, then doesn’t at ten.

The Real Story Is Riyadh

You know, and I know, the booking is the least problematic thing about Crown Jewel. It’s not the booking. That’s not the problem.

On October 21, the State Department ordered non-emergency US government employees and their families to leave Saudi Arabia, according to the Times of Israel. That came after weeks of Houthi strikes on Saudi airports, which we covered in our piece on WWE’s Saudi Arabia gamble.

And WWE is still going. So is boxing. Because they’re getting paid.

Johnny put it as bluntly as anyone could. “They basically told us now that people’s lives are worth 90 million dollars,” he said. That’s his number for what the show is worth, and whatever the exact figure, the point stands.

Dave Meltzer reported that the final call really sits with the Saudi side, especially Turki Alalshikh, and with TKO’s Ari Emanuel and Mark Shapiro, above Nick Khan and Triple H, according to Wrestling Inc’s summary of the Observer. Turki even posted that “hard times reveal true friends.” That’s not subtle.

I said it last week, and I’ll keep saying it. If it’s safe, the executives get on the plane too. I really hope Ari and Nick Khan are going. I doubt that they will.

Reality Check

The Reality: Cody Rhodes vs Randy Orton 3 is the right match with the right stipulation, and it took WWE far too long to book it. But nobody is going to remember the finish if something goes wrong in Riyadh. WWE built a great main-event feud and then sent it to the one place where the match is the second-biggest story of the night.

We’ll have full Crown Jewel picks before November 7. Wrestling Uncensored is live every Friday at 10 p.m. Eastern, and the Crown Jewel 2026 safety story isn’t going anywhere.

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Cody Rhodes vs. Randy Orton at Crown Jewel 2026: Frequently Asked Questions