WATCH: Mumbai Indians Welcome Their Very Own 'Cody Rhodes' Ahead Of IPL 2025

Not too long ago, in the aftermath of South Africa’s victory over Afghanistan in the Champions Trophy, a video on social media highlighting the eerie similarities between WWE Superstar Cody Rhodes and South Africa’s Ryan Rickleton started doing the rounds.

The video, which claimed that Rickelton was a doppelganger of Cody Rhodes, soon went viral and was all over the internet in a matter of hours. 

Ahead of the 2025 edition of the Indian Premier League (IPL), Mumbai Indians have now jumped on that trend and have themselves branded Rickelton their very own Cody Rhodes. 

MI first introduced Rickelton as the ‘South African Nightmare’ on X (formerly Twitter), making a reference to Cody Rhodes’ nickname ‘American Nightmare’.

Then, in a follow-up tweet, the franchise posted a video of Rickleton playing a WWE game on his console in which he picked Cody Rhodes and took to the ring. Finally, in the same video, Rickelton can be seen holding the WWE Championship, with the player introduction graphic reading, ‘Ryan Rickelton - the Proteas Nightmare’.

Rickelton enters IPL 2025 in red-hot form

The left-handed batter enters IPL 2025 in red-hot form. Apart from smashing a superb ton in the Champions Trophy, Rickelton also had an outstanding SA20 2025, where, representing MI Cape Town, he smashed 336 runs at a strike rate of 178.7. 

Come IPL 2025, Rickelton is expected to open the batting alongside Rohit Sharma.