Summary

Cody Rhodes said he wanted to lean into the eye injury he suffered against Randy Orton at WrestleMania 42 by wearing an eye patch on WWE television, but Triple H shut the idea down.

The injury became one of the major talking points coming out of the match after Rhodes was shown with a badly bruised face and his left eye swollen shut. That visual had already drawn attention after Rhodes was left with a swollen eye following the WrestleMania 42 main event.

Quote from Cody Rhodes

Rhodes said he had the idea ready before being told it would not be happening:

"We tried a little on the eye, but I think we determined there was no way to cover it up. I'll tell you something funny—I thought I was going to go to TV, go to Monday Night Raw, go to Friday Night SmackDown, and do an eye patch thing. I thought that would be cool. Wrestlers are always looking for something—maybe get a new action figure out of it, 'Eye Patch Cody.'"

Rhodes later went on to say:

"Triple H told me absolutely not. There might even be a shot on 'Unreal' of me throwing that eye patch down backstage, because I had it ready to go. But hey, it comes with the territory more than anything. I had no complaints—it's just a little battle scar."

WrestleMania 42 fallout for Cody Rhodes

Rhodes' comments make it clear he was planning to stay in front of WWE audiences even with the injury still visible. Instead of turning it into a new character beat, WWE appears to have decided the real aftermath of the Orton match was strong enough on its own.

That matters because it keeps the focus on the damage Rhodes took at WrestleMania 42, not on a short-term gimmick built around the eye patch. If Rhodes is continuing to appear on both Raw and SmackDown as he indicated, the injury can still add to the fallout from that match without changing how he is presented.

Sources

Cody Rhodes while speaking with ESPN's SportsCenter