All weekend following the February 2nd episode of Smackdown, my entire twitter timeline was filled with blocks of text from people raging about the same thing. The final segment of the show, where Cody seemingly gave up his Wrestlemania main event to The Rock. Keyword there, seemingly, as all we have to go off right now is that one segment.
At first, with less of a connection to Roman Reign's reign than most, I found the anger and attempts to retcon the situation quite amusing, but the more I thought about it, the more I related to the sentiments behind these tweets. A few weeks ago when the Rock alluded to the head of the table people seemed to be behind him, but then Cody won the Rumble. I'll get to why timing is important in a bit.
To be fair to all the people involved, the segment didn't exactly help the matter in the way it was produced and presented to us on screen. In a segment which by the way seemed to consist of more entrance time between the Romantaker, Cody and the Rock, than actual dialogue, what we were presented with was not a whole lot of detail. From the looks of things, Cody was on his way to Wrestlemania, actually pointing at Roman upon winning the match, and because he sought council, he is surrendering his shot at Roman. The Rock saying nothing didn't help this. The implication that was created by the Rock was that the sign that you're all pointing at, thats his now.
A lot of people really took against Roman burying Seth Rollins and the World title. The shots at Seth himself I took to be a reaction to all the times Seth has swiped at Roman in promos. I get the sense that those two will continue not to like each other and trade reminders of that in promos until they one day find themselves in the same ring again. His comments about the belt I'll concede were a bit misguided. He was saying the quiet part out loud, the part we all kind of knew but WWE shouldn't admit to, that being that many of the wrestlers who compete for that title have already lost to Roman for his. WWE by allowing these comments to air shot themselves in the foot, because at this point it feels likely that Cody's Wrestlemania match will be against Seth Rollins for that belt. The belt that Roman labelled as inferior. There's a long standing rule in wrestling when doing a promo for a match, that you shouldn't disrespect your opponent's talent or skill too much, because when you eventually beat them, the perception becomes that you beat someone who was already beneath you, and so it means less. That logic can be applied here, and the World title in the end looks like a consolation prize, rather than an alternate but just as credible path. You could argue that of course Roman would have that opinion, and he would, but maybe it didn't need to be said here.
What really made me care enough to comment on it was when I got to thinking about Cody's journey as a whole. When he first held a microphone upon his WWE return nearly two years ago, he told us that he was back because his Dad had failed to become WWE Champion, and his goal was to win it for his family name. You can actually take this back long before this promo, or even before AEW, as for years Cody has for years kept the mantra "wrestling has more than one royal family." Cody even chased and won the NWA World title, a belt his Dad did win, and so it felt appropriate that his next goal should be to chase the title that elluded Dusty.
A key motivation for Cody as a character has been for years to elevate the Rhodes name so it is undeniably on par with the other famous wrestling families that fans think of first like the Harts, and the Anoai's for example. He considers his heritage to be a 'royal family' of wrestling, and wants everyone else to as well. How fitting it was given this context that Cody would win the 2023 Royal Rumble and earn a shot at not just any WWE champion, but the Anoai family's Tribal chief. As we know though, Cody wouldn't finish the story. There was very much a sense of disappointment following that match. A bitter taste for many who thought it was Cody's time.
Cody even won the Royal Rumble for a second time back to back. He was the the fourth ever person to do this since the late 90's when Stone Cold won the 97 and 98 rumbles. Shawn Michaels won in 95 and 96, and Hogan won in 90 and 91. Thats a special group to be part of which probably further convinced fans that he was finally going to be on the level of WWE's elite. See what I did there...
All of that led to was fans becoming utterly convinced that Cody would come back and achieve his dream at Wrestlemania 40. WWE has in a sense whether meaning to or not trained it's viewers to think like that. If we wait long enough, the thing we want will always happen in the end. Wrestlemania 30 was such a feel good moment because of all the bumps in the road Daniel Bryan had to go through, dating back two Summerslam's previous where he beat John Cena and was immediately cashed in on. Ultimately, this is like chasing a carrot on the end of a stick.
Let's look at it from the other side though, because it's not like the Rock did this out of nowhere and without a reason of his own. It's important to note that even though it felt like the Rock walked into Smackdown and planted his flag and screw everyone else, that's not quite accurate. From way back in the Thunderdome days, back when the Bloodline story started with Roman and Jey Uso in late 2020, the seed for this was planted. From the very first time Roman called himself the head of the table, people were connecting the dots. Many of us were convinced that one day the Rock would come back to reclaim his spot at that table, I even made a video early last year about how convinced I was of that ahead of Wrestlemania 39, but the longer it took the less likely it felt.
The main defence that fans of the Rock seems to be using most is his immense star power that even stretches outside wrestling itself. That is, frankly hard to deny, and really boils down where the tension really is. WWE have created a really interesting problem for themselves, where they actively have to choose between two most narratively fulfilling stories, with one serving your active fan base who are there every week and the other having the most mainstream appeal. Essentially, finishing the story or whats best for business. This has also led to fans having debates on which they should care about more. Thats what makes this such a tough problem to solve, and they're inevitably going to piss people off by the way they have done this so far.
As I said at the start, initially I wasn't all that bothered when I saw the Rock appear on Smackdown, but the more I thought about it the more I sided with Cody. Not enough to be angry about it, but enough to want to offer a response. When the Rock hinted at this path we're on now a few weeks ago nobody seemed to be raging against WWE like they are now. The key to that might be that Cody hadn't yet won the Royal Rumble. The problem, is that these two well laid paths are converging at the same time and place. Either one would make a great story well told, but sadly the way things are going, one cancels out the other, at least in the short term. In the end I'd urge people to, and I know people are sick of hearing this, but let it play out.
It's not impossible that WWE might renege on their plans as a response to the backlash, but it is WWE, so not likely. It's also possible that on this weeks Raw, or even the press event later this week or Smackdown, they could even find away to assuage fans. It could also be interesting to see how the fans in the areas react going forwards, as twitter is not always representative of wrestling fandom as a whole, at least I hope not. Where WWE goes next is ultimately up to them, and they're not really ones to back down from their plans.
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