With Wrestlemania right around the corner many Cody Rhodes supporters are still reeling from the American Nightmare’s latest announcement on SmackDown.
All but confirming that he will face Seth Freakin’ Rollins for the Heavyweight title instead of challenging the Universal WWE champion and tribal chief, Roman Reigns at Wrestlemania XL Lincoln Financial Field in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
The shock announcement compounded as Rhodes introduced his replacement, The Rock to a shocked WWE champion. This would lead to an eventual stare down to close the SmackDown show televised live from Birmingham, Alabama.
The Rock is a massive draw everywhere he goes and it would be undeniable that the fans, attitude era or otherwise would be excited to see the people’s champion face off against the current longest reigning WWE champion, a literal member of his own bloodline.
While The Rock made a special New Year’s day appearance on Raw a few weeks back to interrupt the returning former WWE champion Jinder Mahal, his actual reason for his appearance was to tease “sitting at the head of the table.”
The rumor mill was spinning and speculation run rampant surrounding the biggest stars in company and how The Rock’s apparent insertion would affect plans for Wrestlemania XL.
WWE had been setting up two very apparent title matches for down the road. Recently returned CM Punk was speculated to challenge Heavyweight Champion Seth Rollins and Cody Rhodes was expected to finish the story with Roman Reigns.
This was further enforced with the result of the Royal Rumble, where American Nightmare Cody Rhodes managed to eliminate CM Punk in an arduous finish. It should be pointed out that The Rock did not make an appearance at this year’s Royal Rumble.
CM Punk addressed his injury from the Royal Rumble on the January 29th edition of RAW. This effectively removed Punk from performing for the next few months, including at Wrestlemania.
With CM Punk no longer involved in main event plans for the foreseeable future this left Rollins without an opponent. Or at least that is how the WWE saw it.
Despite Rollins being recently involved with Drew McIntyre, probably the best heel on RAW at this current moment, management have revisited Rhodes/Rollins battle for heavyweight gold.
What’s very upsetting to most Cody supporters is that the dream was there. Cody won the Rumble, entitling him to challenge Reigns. This is the story that has yet to see its ending, yet he is stepping aside to allow yet another part timer to take the spotlight.
Reports are flowing in that this was not a spur of the moment decision and The Rock pushed for this outcome, believing that his match with Reigns was a bigger draw for the company. At this point, as it’s unconfirmed, I speculate that injuries sustained by both Punk and Rollins still play a part in the overarching decision.
The decision to place The Rock and Roman Reigns together at Wrestlemania tastes bitter sweet. On one hand, it’s a highly anticipated match up on the biggest stage in professional wrestling and on the other, it ruins the people’s desired outcomes not only for Rhodes but also for the WWE Championship as a meaningful title.
Major complaints regarding Roman Reigns winning his 3-4 title defences each year have been evidence of a slow burn that has aggravated many fans to no end.
Roman Reigns has been performing extremely well most recently but it has caused the value of the title to become stagnant in some fans’ opinion. Up until now it really does feel as though Reigns’ title run is destined to overtake Hulk Hogan’s ‘84 run of 1,464 days.
Which leads us to another question, will they book The Rock, a recently announced TKO board of directors member to win at Wrestlemania. In one’s opinion, no.
If Roman Reigns is a part timer then The Rock is even less. The man goes where his interests take him. We cannot count on The Rock defending the WWE title at future events until there is a confirmation that he’s not engaging Hollywood projects for a decent amount of time.
Given the star power and salary he commands, it does not appear likely that The Rock would come back full time to risk his health at the WWE. This match is simply one last chance to give the fans their dream match up, albeit at the expense of Cody Rhodes.
Most recently the current US Champion and Youtube sensation Logan Paul tweeted in support of Cody Rhodes. The three word phrase “We want Cody” has been embraced across the world with as much as 46,000 posts as of this writing.
Several comments to The Rock regarding what transpired at SmackDown have been getting enormous engagement numbers which reinforces that many feel Cody was unjustly robbed of a title match he fully deserved by winning the Rumble.
While CM Punk’s injury was a setback, management could have easily elevated McIntyre to face Rollins in a rematch for the gold without derailing Cody’s journey. McIntyre could have walked out as the champion and resume his feud with Damian Priest while Seth gets the time he desperately needs to recover from his own injuries.
Instead, I believe Cody will have to be booked to defeat Seth Rollins, adding to his 22-0 win record over the champion. The alternative is frankly too insulting to imagine.
Reigns will be free to occupy the Undisputed WWE championship for the foreseeable future and The Rock finally retires from professional wrestling for good as he enters a more behind the scenes role for TKOn like Paul Levesque. Either way, Cody’s story won’t be finished this year and frankly, that’s a disappointing outcome.
