About

Cody Rhodes Hit by A Rubber Chicken refers to a viral moment in Wrestlemania 39 in which an audience member threw a rubber chicken into the ring after Roman Reigns defeated Cody Rhodes to retain the Universal Championship, hitting Rhodes as he lay in the ring. The moment and viral video from the WWE event led to multiple memes involving Rhodes and the rubber chicken, including photoshops and fan art, trending online in early April 2023.

Origin

On April 2nd, 2023, Cody Rhodes, the overwhelming fan favorite, fought Roman Reigns for the Universal Championship at Wrestlemania 39. Reigns ultimately defeated Rhodes, and as a result, many fans were vocally unhappy.^[1] After the match, as Reigns stood triumphantly with WWE's two title belts, a fan threw a rubber chicken into the ring, hitting Rhodes as he lay defeated on the mat. On April 3rd, Twitter user @ShiningPolaris posted the clip, saying that they thought the fan wanted to hit Reigns with the chicken but instead hit Rhodes, receiving over 155,000 views and 800 likes in three days (shown below).

The guy that sat in front of me had the rubber chicken. I couldn’t believe he really ran to the front and I guess tried to throw the chicken at Roman Reigns but hit Cody Rhodes instead… So dumb. Don’t throw shit in the ring. #wwe #Wrestlemania pic.twitter.com/XsjRdlI4Wi

— Christine (@ShiningPolaris) April 3, 2023

Spread

The moment quickly became the subject of memes among the wrestling fandom, particularly because a 2012 tweet by @RickWWESignGuy^[2] showed himself playfully hitting Rhodes with a rubber chicken from the stands. This informed jokes that Rhodes and the rubber chicken had a long-standing rivalry (shown below, left). For example, on April 4th, 2023, Twitter user @Nhathaniel_h^[3] quipped that the 2023 rubber chicken incident was an example of long-term storytelling, gaining over 700 retweets and 5,000 likes in two days (shown below, right).

Others began photoshopping memes and creating fan art joking that Rhodes and the chicken had had a long-time feud. On April 4th, 2023, Twitter user @drainbamager^[4] posted a collage of images suggesting Rhodes and the chicken had been feuding for years, gaining over 140 retweets and 1,400 likes in two days (shown below, left). On April 3rd, user @TwilightPalms^[5] posted art of Cody and the chicken in the Family Guy Death Pose, gaining over 1,700 retweets and 8,600 likes in three days (shown below, right).

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References