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Whatever was going to happen at the end of WrestleMania this year has changed due to The Rock interjecting himself into WWE storylines at the last minute on Smackdown last week.
Last year, The Rock (Dwayne Johnson) essentially forced Cody Rhodes out of his WrestleMania main event storyline leading to a match against Roman Reigns only for the outcry of WWE fans to be so loud that The Rock decided to step back and let Cody finish his story at WrestleMania 40: Night 2 as originally planned when he beat Roman Reigns for the Undisputed WWE Championship.
The Raw after WrestleMania last year seemed to set the stage for The Rock vs. Cody Rhodes to take place in the future, presumably at WrestleMania 41. The Rock showed up at the end of Bad Blood when Cody and Roman teamed together to beat The Bloodline in the main event. The Rock made a throat slash gesture towards the ring before the show went off the air with Cody and Roman in the ring.
The Rock next showed up at Raw on Netflix where he was oddly complimentary of Cody during a promo inside the ring. The promo didn’t seem congruent with ongoing storylines. The Rock shared a drink and toast with Cody before leaving the arena in his truck with the bottle of liquor in hand. It was certainly odd to see the image-conscience Dwayne Johnson portray himself in that manner on TV. The following night he appeared on NXT and cut a meandering promo that went nowhere and he didn’t show up again on WWE programming until Smackdown last week.
The Rock can do whatever he wants in WWE. He’s a board member of WWE’s parent company TKO. This was evident when he showed up on Smackdown and once again threw a wrench into WWE’s plans for the main event of WrestleMania for the second year in a row.
The Rock was all over the place during his segment on Smackdown, alternating between face while announcing that WrestleMania would be taking place in New Orleans next year and heel when he interacted with Cody and verbally berated the fans in attendance. Many people had the same reaction on social media when the segment ended, with the conclusion being that it was, well, weird.
During the segment, The Rock told Cody that he doesn’t want his title, but instead he wants his soul. He seemed to indicate to Cody that he could use his vast following on social media and celebrity status to open up new doors for Cody. The Rock wanting Cody’s soul could also be a play on Rock going full circle from being the corporate champion for Vince McMahon when he was an active wrestler to controlling Rhodes and the title using his real life position as a TKO board member as a storytelling device. WWE has phased out the prior incarnation of authority figures in favor of GM’s since Triple H took over and it has been a pleasant change.
Weird is not what you want when it comes to building out the main event of WrestleMania: Night 2 this year, but there’s plenty of time for whatever is going on between Cody and Rock to make sense once it is flushed out. There was one part of the exchange between The Rock and Cody worth examining again from the Raw after WrestleMania last year.
During the segment, Cody said Rock is The Final Boss and also on the board of TKO “so you’re my literal boss.” A short time later, Cody said he won’t dispute that he is their champion, pointing at the fans. “And boss, that means I am your champion.” The “I am your champion” language could be a key point to look at moving forward. During his segment with The Rock, Cody said he is the people’s champion, but stopped short of saying he was The Rock’s champion, so hopefully there’s something to build upon there, as Rock has asked Cody to give him an answer as to whether or not he can have his soul at Elimination Chamber next weekend.
Outside of that one thread, The Rock’s appearances on WWE programming since he became a member of the TKO board have been chaotic to say the least in terms of their impact on big WWE storylines. WWE was able to pivot last year and avoid disaster, but what are they going to do this year to talk The Rock down from an idea that’s bad for business. Rock also put something in Cody’s hand at the Raw after WrestleMania last year and told him not to break his heart again, but it has not been revealed what exactly it was he gave Cody. It is anyone’s guess how or even whether that plays into whatever is going to occur between Rock and Cody at Elimination Chamber next week.
Last year fans wanted to see Cody finish his story, but there’s nothing even close to the magnitude of that angle in the cards for the WrestleMania: Night 2 main event this year. There will be no outcry that will change Rock’s mind for his vision of what he wants his involvement in WrestleMania storylines to be.
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Whatever the plan is for The Rock’s storyline, it appears it won’t necessarily be about a match between Cody and The Rock, as The Rock indicated during his post-show press conference after Smackdown that his storyline with Cody doesn’t necessarily require them to have a match. If there is no Rock match, what impact will The Rock ultimately have on the WrestleMania 42: Night 2 main event.
Cody’s challenger is scheduled to be the winner of the Elimination Chamber match next weekend. That is the extent of what we know for certain for now. Everything else about the storyline heading into that match is unknown. I do know that a Rhodes turn at this point wouldn’t make a lot of sense.
He’s hot as a babyface and hasn’t even had to do much heavy lifting from a storyline standpoint as champion to stay hot. He hasn’t faced a big name opponent yet with his WWE Undisputed Championship on the line, nor has he had to headline the majority of WWE PLEs.
WrestleMania looked to be his first opportunity to face a big opponent with C.M. Punk, Seth Rollins, John Cena, and Drew McIntyre all being possibilities to win the Elimination Chamber match next weekend and it wouldn’t seem right for The Rock to force Cody’s hand and have him turn heel when he hasn’t fully maxed out his potential as a face during his current right.
Whatever is in store for Cody, it is hard to be optimistic about whatever it is that The Rock has had planned because he seems disengaged from the current WWE product and his own involvement in ongoing storylines, as evidence by him suddenly being friends with Cody during the first Raw on Netflix.
The Rock making a last minute appearance on Smackdown could have contributed to how weird his segment on Smackdown was last week. Hopefully with time to flush out what he wants to do with Cody moving forward, The Rock allows the people around them to help him put the pieces together and try to make the best of any incongrueties he’s already injected into the mix.
The Rock’s involvement got better last year once he agreed to change course and allow Cody to finish his story. Hopefully something similar happens this year because if he isn’t fully engaged and vacillates between face and heel, things could get messy again for WWE.
Contact Sean at pwtorchsean@gmail.com. Follow him on bluesky: @seanaradican
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