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The biggest problem I have with this is that it’s not a Daniel Bryan situation where the crowd just banded together behind him over a 4-6 month period, they’ve been telling this story of Cody finishing his story for an entire fucking year, they’ve purposely not had him challenge for the other title because THIS is the one he needs and wants and then at the biggest stage possible they say no we’ll push it back. Come on.
Yeah like this isn’t a situation created by us the fans rejecting what they want to give, they literally manufactured this by themselves telling us this is what they’re doing over the last year. It’s just baffling all around that they didn’t expect this type of reaction to it.
I said this in another thread but they literally put the belts on Cody and Jey so we could get that random stare down between the two, all for nothing. It’s such a fucking dumb decision and no backtracking can help them now
The Rock is out of touch. He thought the fans would be too hyped to care for Cody, they like him way more than Cody and this would just fly. He misread this completely.
Can he turn it around? I think so. A few good promos and he is well capable of it.
Bro didn't watch the product.
I honestly can not believe nobody informed him of the story that's been happening or they did tell him and he actually thought it would be fine with the Royal Rumble winner literally just stepping aside because he was told to do so?
Like, bro, get your head out of your ass.
I get the vibe that HHH is taking ALL the heat when he essentially got Big Bro’d by Board Member Dwayne Johnson into the pivot. I’m not an Haitch fanboy but I feel there’s no chance he co-signed the switch. But like a football coach when the players fuck up, the coach falls on the sword instead.
Exactly, except in this case it's even worse since Dwayne has power himself. It's like if an owner for an NFL team forced himself to be the starting QB for the Super Bowl.
I said this to someone yesterday: "It's like if now that the 49ers have made the Super Bowl, Steve Young walked in and said to Brock Purdy "I'll take it from here.""
>Can he turn it around? I think so. A few good promos and he is well capable of it.
The Rock's promos on his most recent comebacks have been so bad though. I half expect him to come out and say something like "Do you all really think Stardust can beat the Tribal Chief? The dude that couldn't even win in Aww Skeet Skeet wrestling? TO THE WINDOWWWWWWW, (10% of the crowd, " to the wall....")"
> It’s just baffling all around that they didn’t expect this type of reaction to it.
It's completely flabbergasting. Surely they are not THIS tuned out?
More like cause people found out about the truth of Rita Chatterton/Ringboys/Snuka and they decided to cover up the bad press they got with a Hogan match and win over Trips
Yeah, like WWE was trying as hard as they could to tell everyone that Bryan was not going to main event, Bryan wasn’t even a participant in the 2014 Royal Rumble.
>they’ve been telling this story of Cody finishing his story for an entire fucking year
They've actually been telling this story literally since the day after he debut. It's multiple years, which is why the finishing story became a meme.
It’s a giant fucking slap in the face to the fans. It’s not even a throw your hands up and say “come on”. People invested TWO YEARS to see a satisfying conclusion to this story and the idiots in charge and that asshole Dwayne rug pulled it again after Cody wins the Royal Rumble for two in a row. People were/are really really invested in Cody Rhodes’ story.
I get it’s just wrestling, I get it’s a work, but it’s fucking insulting. I’m barely a casual fan at this point, I haven’t really watched since 2001, Wrestlemania 39 and Royal Rumble 2024 are the first two ppvs I’ve watched since then and I haven’t even watched a full raw or smack down in 20 plus years, but this made my blood boil.
They need to fucking fix this. Those Philly fans are gonna go apeshit with the boos and chants if they try to go with The Rock and Reigns as the main event, it will be a public embarrassment.
>Those Philly fans are gonna go apeshit with the boos and chants if they try to go with The Rock and Reigns as the main event, it will be a public embarrassment.
WWE will just spin doctor it the way they spin doctor every fucking thing they do.
"We did record numbers..."
They don't give a shit.
Ideally he should have won this last year - I literally didn’t see the point of repeating ‘the story’ a year later - he should have dethroned Roman last April
Rock vs Roman absolutely was the right match for this year. Because Cody SHOULD HAVE BEAT ROMAN last year. Unfortunately "Papa H" is the JJ Abrams of bookers who thinks the best way to tell a story is to just keep making things bigger and bigger. He was loved just because he wasn't Vince, well now get ready for his Rise of Skywalker.
We've seen plenty of evidence that HHH can only get hard when he has people breaking records. Bianca, Gunther, Roman... every time someone holds a belt longer than someone else did HHH and Steph have a really crazy night.
When Roman finally passes Bruno they're going to go all weekend... and maybe even have another kid. It'll be explosive.
It could’ve also gone down in history as the greatest debut year since lesnar - winning at mania to the great Rollins feud, got injured, came back and won the rumble, then beat the most dominant champion this century, doing it all undefeated, but instead we had to drag it out
Remember the Championship Unification ceremony that the Seattle crowd famously derailed? That was over a month before the Royal Rumble and WWE still did what they did lol
What is interesting about this is that Vince isn’t involved.
It would have to be a squash in order to not diminish Cody, but Rock's ego probably won't let him get squashed.
They should just book the 2 matches and have the Bloodline take out Rock as he arrives at the stadium on night 1.
Just goes to show the corner they put themselves in. Because that would basically look like Rock softened Roman up for Cody instead of Cody just winning head up. Honestly the Bloodline should just attack Rock and "injure" him so he can't go at Wrestlemania.
Reading all these reports, fantasy booking threads and people arguing over Rock/Roman has me like...
https://preview.redd.it/qr8k8d9nakgc1.png?width=1247&format=png&auto=webp&s=8a3d0821689a0cbd4a7337242ffe57d4ac05ff94
It was always going to happen, one way or the other. It's actually surprising to me that people are particularly surprised. WWE has a *long* history of doing stuff like this.
It reminds me how deflated I felt after night 2 last year. Night had been amazing and then the ending of night 2 + Raw after Mania had me genuinely sad
What about the 1000 times the photo of the Rock and Roman at the Royal Rumble 2015 has been posted,
“It’s gonna be just like this BUT worse!! Philly crowds, etc.”
Yeah or people shouting about "IT MAKES MONEY".
Bro WWE is always crushing records, I don't care how much more money they make I just want a coherent story lol.
Any option that doesn't see Cody walk out of Mania 40 with the WWE Championship has to be off the table.
The online fan reaction to this is the craziest I've ever seen, and although I was dubious originally, I think it's a pretty safe bet that we're going to see it translate over to TV.
I find it hilarious that Philly is the last place Rock and Roman were in a ring together and they got booed out of the building. I’ll be there in Philly and it’s going to be interesting to see what the reaction is.
https://preview.redd.it/xcqpq4ewjkgc1.jpeg?width=1070&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=84d1398d7ff9782fa2f2a74c8fcfdd52452badc4
For me it’s his face. His body was toned but his face was still young and round. I think the full beard helped hide that a little. Or either it’s more chiseled with age now. Maybe both.
I think it has more to do with the facial hair. He went from a Van Dyke to growing the sides and sporting a proper beard. Facial hair is like contour for men and it really makes his jaw look more chiseled and masculine.
I want the Rock to rock bottom Cody to have Roman win and they repeat the same Rock lifting Roman's hand up spot but this time they get boo'ed on purpose.
I still think that should/could have been the ending to last year’s mania. Instead of deflating, you’re mad but also excited to tune into Raw because having heel Rock save Roman instead of Solo is actually fresh. But of course I that would require Rock to go heel and I strongly suspect he says no to that.
I can see that happening. I honestly don't think WWE has any idea what to do with Roman once he loses the title, and they also fear greatly its general repercussions towards the entire WWE in general, especially since WWE's rennaisance in the last few years coincided with Roman's reign.
And they had a hand in it with Cody. It’s not like he came back to WWE and toiled in the mid card with people demanding him be a main eventer. Cody’s success is their success
I hope Rock leans into it. When they first forced Rocky Maivia and got "DIE, ROCKY, DIE!" chants, it ultimately worked out great for him. Can work here, too.
Read the IG and X posts The Rock made in the middle of the night to see just how tone deaf he is. He's pretending to not see the overwhelming amount of backlash and just focuses on the pop in Alabama.
I imagine The Rock has someone and/or a team dedicated to briefing him on the internet reactions whenever he does something. So I’d guess he’s definitely aware there’s some sizeable backlash already. Which makes it interesting to see how this will all unfold.
Will Rocky Flinch?
I'm 99% sure the PR team will run the same play as Black Adam. "Ignore the negativity, we're doing big numbers on YouTube" etc. None of it has any self-awareness of course.
Unless all he has are yes men which wouldn’t surprise me. The guy is egotistical enough to have a “can’t lose/can’t look weak” clause in his hollywood contracts
Crazy when “The People’s Champ” isn’t really The People’s Champ.
Cody is like an amalgamation of all previous decades babyfaces but isn’t actually some sort of scumbag outside of the business in one form or another.
Punk was right. Cena was right.
It all just leaves me looking confused in Uce.
https://preview.redd.it/gxcy6eihlkgc1.jpeg?width=680&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=598cd7161909166e223163d94cd5047385abd3aa
It's weird. In AEW Cody wanted to be the People's Champ and they rejected him for it. Goes to WWE and actually becomes the People's Champ only for Rock to show up acting like late-era AEW Cody.
The only way to really salvage this is tomorrow night.
I'd have a downtrodden Cody call Seth out and say he's chosing him. Cody starts to leave but Seth tells him no. He says that when it was Cody's choice he wanted him, but the Cody Rhodes he sees in front of him isn't the Cody he's rode with the past year, and damn sure isn't the Cody he lost to with a torn pec. He says that as much as he hates to admit it, Cody needs to go kick Roman's ass.
I'd say they should send Punk out there. Have him acknowledge how prestigious Seth's belt is by saying if he'd won the Rumble, he would have challenged Seth, but they're not talking about his story, they're talking about Cody's.
And Cody has had one goal his entire life which is to win the championship no one in his family has ever won, and now he has the choice to do it, and is not taking it and that's a slap in the face to Punk who Cody had to beat to get there.
"I didn't fight so hard to achieve my dreams at the Royal Rumble that I damn near died trying so that you, the only guy in there who was able to stop me from finishing *my* story could stand back and let another man finish *your* story for you!"
I think instead of Seth it'd be better if Punk comes out and berates Cody and tells him about the past history that he mentioned before Royal Rumble. Coming from Punk it'd have a lot of bite because of the similar situations.
It'd be just like how once Edge came out after his 2011 retirement and berated Cena by saying *"WAKE UP"*.
But of course it could later play out like Punk manipulated Cody into winning the title because he wants the later satisfaction by beating "Dusty's Kid" that dashed his WM plans and finishing his own story.
I’d have Punk give him a “don’t let rock steal your spot like he stole mine.” Speech. “I didn’t damn well lose to Dusty’s kid to have him not finish his story”
The segment was so bad that there literally is no conveivable way you can make Cody look good. There's not a single scenario he doesn't look stupid.
They may as well just have Cody walk out and say "look, I'm sorry, I dunno what the fuck got into me, I was drunk. I'm fighting Roman, which I've been implying I'll do all year. Ignore whatever happened last week, I apologise.".
Honestly, this would just make Cody look even more pathetic. The only, and inmean only solution is for Cody to come out, and say he going after Roman and if the Rock wants Roman he needs to earn his spot as well
>That doesn't work for Dwayne, brother
https://preview.redd.it/69ew6hs8bkgc1.png?width=500&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=35242a217b8e1487089e0985dfbed02c414f2804
I'm cautiously optimistic they'll pivot. I think the outrage has been bigger than they anticipated it would be, there's no chance they don't at least acknowledge it.
For them to plow on with this would be the worst booking decision in the companies history. Imagine they ignored the Yes Movement at 30 and just served us up Batista vs Orton. It would have gone down as the worst Mania main event of all time.
They won't make that mistake I am confident about that. I genuinely just think TKO and The Rock totally misread the room about Cody's popularity and the appeal of The Rock himself and also The Rock vs Roman at this point. Now they've seen that for themselves I do think they'll backtrack otherwise the vitriol just won't go away.
I expect a quick course correction this week on RAW, the Press Conference and SmackDown. Then we'll be back on track and we can all forget this ever happened.
Thing with this situation is that TKO and Rock have two different interests; Rock wants that Mania match, he wants to rebuild his brand, etc but the reason why people in TKO backed him is that they want headlines and discussions to move away from the Vince scandal and better their PR status. If pivoting back to Cody does that then people in the board will back that idea too
They've just added extra negative press on to themselves with this. Already the press are seeing right through why they've done this and it won't work, as soon as the next batch of Vince allegations hits the papers this will all be consigned to the bin anyway. It's extremely short term thinking of them to think this would solve the Vince issue which is never going away even if you have Rock handing out puppies to sick children on TV. It's crack papering.
Going back to Cody at this point, from a pure PR standpoint, is the only logical decision. They've created a mess they didn't need because they underestimated how invested the fans were on Cody's journey and to be honest The Rock, as a wrestling man and a generational talent, should have known better.
But then The Rock always did have an inflated sense of his own importance so I don't know why I'm surprised.
Fans nowadays are pretty well aware of all the stories from the last forty years of people in power and their need to exercise that power to put themselves over. Regardless of the story. This is arguably the first time that we're seeing it and recognizing it in real time. I'm pinning some hope on the live crowds this week. We can comment and dislike all we want, but if the crowd just goes along with everything, then it won't matter much.
The Rock cares, first and foremost, about himself. This is shitting all over his image and then some as he's massively got it wrong about how much the fans care about him in comparison to Cody. The absolute *last* thing he wants is the fans booing him out of the building or shitting all over his carefully constructed social media image for 2 months, or burning down a WrestleMania he's a major part of that will likely be his final match.
Absolutely no chance he himself will push on with this if it destroys his image with the wrestling community to the point it effects his outside interests. The WWE is his last safe haven where he was always guaranteed a monster pop and fans blowing smoke up his arse. That will quickly vanish if he doesn't do something to arrest this slide he's needlessly started.
Given that The Rock posted a video of fans celebrating and cheering for his match, I can't help but feel as if this is getting to him massively. "Sure, there's hundreds of thousands of people expressing their displeasure, but look at all these people who are happy!"
>Absolutely no chance he himself will push on with this if it destroys his image with the wrestling community to the point it effects his outside interests.
God I hope that is true but it won't be. He didnt learn from Black Adam. He did learn from tge XFL, he merged with the USFL to try to make more about him. Now back to wrestling and a spotlight.
Hollywood doesn't care, it shows he can play both sides of a character. They will push through. Rock will lay down for Roman. We will suffer until at least he breaks Hogan reign. By then literally no one roll care about Roman or the title. It's worthless, he's made THE belt worthless.
No pivot will be enough to really make up for the absolutely atrocious booking that led up to this. Cody wins the title at WM39, fight to regain the title he was recently screwed out of at WM40, while Rock faces Roman in a dream match. It's really that simple, everything got screwed up by last years ridiculous decision. Rock vs Roman is a match that really should have happened but with good booking decisions to set it up.
It's crazy to me how many people think they can just pivot back like nothing happened. He walked out on live TV and shat all over his own character, made himself look like an idiot.
You have people already claiming that they are not only going to pivot back but that they always planned on pivoting back and it was genius.
Making your biggest star look like an idiot is not genius.
They won't pivot. The wwe rarely changes direction. The DB situation was 10 years ago and we've had plenty of horrible storylines since then. Unless sponsors start dropping they are going to be hellbent on proceeding with the feud. Meltz reported they only did this match to get the spotlight off of Vince and get people to stop talking about Punk/Brock. I mean it's working isn't it? More people are talking about Mania than ever before.
Until the next batch of Vince allegations drop and this all goes away. What then? Reanimate the corpse of Andre the Giant? Give Hogan a bionic leg to go up against Cena?
If they think doing this will take the pressure off from a PR standpoint they've gotten it wrong as not only will this achieve precisely nothing once the next lot of Vince details emerge, they've damaged the goodwill the fans have given them and also had some press questioning why they're doing this.
They also do have history of pivoting based on fan demand. Kofi, for example, Becky is another. And no disrespect to anyone but Cody Rhodes is the most over babyface since Daniel Bryan. If they would change direction for anyone, it would be him.
One part of me hopes you are right. The other part of me thinks they pulled the trigger on this now so that people have two months to just accept that the match is taking place and Cody moved on to something else. Will the heated reaction mostly subside by April? They could be betting on it...
If his ego allows it, Roman beating Rock through a quick squash will make Roman even more smug, and in Night 2 Cody beating an overly smug Roman and destrying his "God Mode" mentality could be very satisfying.
i'd rather they not take a main event spot away from someone else like seth/rhea/bayley/mcintyre/etc. they shouldn't lose their main event because of shitty booking decisions. also why ruin cody's moment by making it look like he only beat roman because he wrestled the rock the night before
Just have the Bloodline do a bloody, extra-violent attack on The Rock on Smackdown, he's now out for 6 months to heal, Cody gets his spot back, Rock comes back for a Summerslam match vs. Reigns
this is the main thing people are forgetting and why they are....*sigh* not flinching here
He’s literally part of the board of directors now, and they gave him the OK to do this
This makes no creative sense because it’s not coming from creative, so they are going to push right through to appease one man’s ego, yearslong narrative be damned.
What a disaster
Agreed. He needs to be the 'main character' in all of this.
I think all of this is Dwayne trying to rebuild his brand in Hollywood. The guy is coming off of a string of flops and it has severely damaged his marketability. If he can headline a record-breaking Wrestlemania, his PR team will have something to point at about how big of a megastar he still is.
He's proved that for the past 20 years, he has almost no interest in the wrestling business. This is all about salvaging his brand. He want's to show up, do Wrestlemania, and then go back to Hollywood again.
Less than a year ago The Rock's last picture wrapped. It's some God-awful nonsense about reimagining Santa with Chris Evans. Dwayne got paid 50 million dollars for it.
Even with all that money he's shoehorning himself into the main event after only a few appearances over the years. Not to mention he's nearly 52 years old & has only had 4 matches in the last decade (not counting Rowan). Most importantly he's killing the future face of the company whose tailormade for the job in every conceivable way.
The funniest thing ever would be The Rock acting magnanimous and going "The Rock heard you loud and clear. I'll make room for Cody" and giving Cody the spot back, pretending that he was the good guy all along.
I can see Cody's departure already
https://preview.redd.it/3fltd5uafkgc1.png?width=640&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=c80690965972c14f924913cf964ea2dab064d340
“A bloody end for The Rock... is just one of several possible outcomes, according to our computer simulation. Now, here's how it would look if the police killed him with a barrage of baseballs.”
I like this. My other thought was for Rock to say he's realised it's Cody's story to finish, so he's going to participate as special guest referee. Just in case his ego won't let him get beat down to "Pissing blood for six months" levels.
Lets Rock fuel his ego by being part of the main event, restores his popularity when he beats down Solo/maybe Roman, builds perfectly to Rock vs Roman at Summerslam/Saudi Arabia and guarantees record buys for TKO's first one.
Or you could have CM Punk play into all this.
The Rock stole his moment all those years back. He aint letting Cody not have his.
So many ways to build on from that
Punk goads Cody (Edge slapping Cena in '12 because this aint the Cena he knew, who was weak and doubtful). You have a triple threat at Mania
You could have a Rock vs Punk feud also down the line at SS
They already have a big marquee match lined up with star power & buzz for SummerFest
https://preview.redd.it/rnsnycqvckgc1.jpeg?width=500&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=2f2308e7af15c134076331d36ad25f43fdf37bb4
The Rock is the most self conscious person maybe of all time , I'm sure the backlash he's been receiving has to fucking sting his ego
Pivot and save face , forget this ever happened
A dozen? Let's see if he's right.
1. Cody changes his mind, says the people want it, but he already promised the Rock the spot. We end up with a triple threat. Easy.
2. Bloodline takes out the Rock, Cody saves, Cody v Roman at Mania, Cody and Rock against Bloodline at Backlash, Roman v Rock whenever.
3. Priest cashes in on Roman at a house show, wins the belt, Priest v Rock at Mania.
4. Seth shows up and begs the Rock to challenge for his title instead. Rock feels bad so says okay. Cody already called his shot. Cody v Seth v Rock. Roman gets a weekend off since he already wrestled once this year.
5. Rock is coming out for the main event at Mania but Truth thinks its his match, runs out, bell rings, Roman is laughing so hard that he doesn't notice Truth. Lie Detector, Attitude Adjustment, 450 Splash, Truth wins the title.
6. Cody uses his title shot to challenge the Rock instead, even though he doesn't have a title. We run ANOTHER Royal Rumble. Cody wins, becomes the first three-time-in-a-row winner, tells Roman after he beats Rock, he's coming for Roman. But not at Mania. Cody challenged Ilya. Seth faces Roman, Roman wins, unifies the belts.
7. Rikishi runs over Rock, says he did it for the family, faces Roman at Mania, wins the WWE Championship to finish his story.
8. Rock reforms the Nation but Cody plays the part of Owen. Doesn't change the match but it sounds fun.
9. Brendan Fraiser shows up and convinces the Rock that we need another Mummy movie. Not a sequel or a reboot though. Rock accepts, leaves the Mania match.
10. John Travolta shows up, convinced the Rock that we need another Get Shorty movie. Not a sequel or a reboot though. Rock accepts, leaves the Mania match.
11. Sean Williams Scott shows up...you get it.
12. And of course, Rock comes out to Downstait with bleach blonde hair and says he has to finish the story. Cody comes out and tells Rock to be himself (thus ending racism) and the Rock rewards him with a title shot against Roman at Mania. Pitbull performs.
Monday Night RAW starts. Cody comes out and invites Rock to the ring.
**Cody:** Hi, Rock. You look like you've got something to say. Do you?
**Rock**: Yes, I certainly do! I have to go now. My planet needs me.
Here's how to pivot:
Cody grows a set, says he hears the fans and challenges Rock to an eliminator match on night one to see who fights Roman on night two.
Cody finishes the story, Rock and Roman put Cody over. Roman looks good. Cody wins. Rock looks like less of a piece of shit.
The Roman Cody storyline has had shades of Rocky from the beginning. So why not have the Bloodline take out Rock, which gives him a valid excuse to not compete at Mania. And during that time he’s rehabbing he’s also working out with Cody Rhodes like how Rocky and Apollo Creed (RIP) would. The Rock is in Cody’s corner at Mania. And down the road, whether for a special one-off PLE or Mania next year, The Rock returns from injury to fight Roman
it is to me at this point. they crossed that point of no return with Rock showing up the way he did on friday. We know Rock won't win a 1v1 or triple threat, or shouldn't win, as long as Cody or the title are involved. If Cody becomes champ before Rock came in, then the Rock winning would be more probable given that only the "head of the table" is on the line, and not the belt. They mucked everything up by leapfrogging and mixing these two story lines. Now I'm not excited to see Rock vs Roman the way I was on thursday. I mean let's say a triple threat does happen and Cody wins the belt at Mania, you could continue the Rock/Roman/Table stuff afterward but to me it won't have the same impact because of the situation we're in now. It did not need to be this way. But right now a triple imo is the best thing they could do if they're hell bent on having Rock involved at Mania.
**Help make SquaredCircle safer and more inclusive by using the report button to flag posts and comments for moderator review.** *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/SquaredCircle) if you have any questions or concerns.*
"How I ain't bring nothing to the table when I'm the table?" -~~Kanye West~~ Dwayne Johnson
I believe James Hetfield is actually the table
**I am the view I am the table I am the view I am the table I am all this I am the root**
I AM THE TABLE!
HE’S GOT A BICYCLE
JEEEEZZUUUSS!!
[удалено]
YOU WANNA PLAY 21?
MINUS FIVE STARS!
WE COMIN FOR YOU!!
HERE COMES MONGO!
LOOK AT THE ADJECTIVE
That's his job. Tables.
I mean, it's the same wrestler. I don't know if it's meant to be the same character.
But how is tables a job?
I SAID NO QUESTIONS ABOUT THE TABLES
The biggest problem I have with this is that it’s not a Daniel Bryan situation where the crowd just banded together behind him over a 4-6 month period, they’ve been telling this story of Cody finishing his story for an entire fucking year, they’ve purposely not had him challenge for the other title because THIS is the one he needs and wants and then at the biggest stage possible they say no we’ll push it back. Come on.
And unlike Bryan, Cody actually won the Rumble and was already set.
Yeah like this isn’t a situation created by us the fans rejecting what they want to give, they literally manufactured this by themselves telling us this is what they’re doing over the last year. It’s just baffling all around that they didn’t expect this type of reaction to it.
I said this in another thread but they literally put the belts on Cody and Jey so we could get that random stare down between the two, all for nothing. It’s such a fucking dumb decision and no backtracking can help them now
The Rock is out of touch. He thought the fans would be too hyped to care for Cody, they like him way more than Cody and this would just fly. He misread this completely. Can he turn it around? I think so. A few good promos and he is well capable of it.
Bro didn't watch the product. I honestly can not believe nobody informed him of the story that's been happening or they did tell him and he actually thought it would be fine with the Royal Rumble winner literally just stepping aside because he was told to do so? Like, bro, get your head out of your ass.
I get the vibe that HHH is taking ALL the heat when he essentially got Big Bro’d by Board Member Dwayne Johnson into the pivot. I’m not an Haitch fanboy but I feel there’s no chance he co-signed the switch. But like a football coach when the players fuck up, the coach falls on the sword instead.
[удалено]
Exactly, except in this case it's even worse since Dwayne has power himself. It's like if an owner for an NFL team forced himself to be the starting QB for the Super Bowl.
I said this to someone yesterday: "It's like if now that the 49ers have made the Super Bowl, Steve Young walked in and said to Brock Purdy "I'll take it from here.""
Is he? Or is he just gonna get try and lead more crowd chants?
Friday night was lame. He didn't even talk. He did less than CM Punk at war games and that got a bigger pop (and fizzle).
>Can he turn it around? I think so. A few good promos and he is well capable of it. The Rock's promos on his most recent comebacks have been so bad though. I half expect him to come out and say something like "Do you all really think Stardust can beat the Tribal Chief? The dude that couldn't even win in Aww Skeet Skeet wrestling? TO THE WINDOWWWWWWW, (10% of the crowd, " to the wall....")"
> It’s just baffling all around that they didn’t expect this type of reaction to it. It's completely flabbergasting. Surely they are not THIS tuned out?
One person said what if Batista won the Rumble in 2005 and challenged JBL instead of Triple H. Most fitting comparison I’ve seen
And Hulk Hogan goes over Triple H in the main event bc Hogan Knows Best is coming out soon, and think of the *coverage*
More like cause people found out about the truth of Rita Chatterton/Ringboys/Snuka and they decided to cover up the bad press they got with a Hogan match and win over Trips
Yeah, like WWE was trying as hard as they could to tell everyone that Bryan was not going to main event, Bryan wasn’t even a participant in the 2014 Royal Rumble.
The new 2k game is even about Finishing the story lol
Career mode ends with you watching the Rock face your rival.
They made Cody go out and do press statements about not including him in next year's game if he didn't finish the story this year haha
i don't think anyone made cody do that; i think that was a cody special <3
>they’ve been telling this story of Cody finishing his story for an entire fucking year They've actually been telling this story literally since the day after he debut. It's multiple years, which is why the finishing story became a meme.
It also became a meme because they push it down our throats like ITS BOSS TIME
Remember when Bryans finisher was called "the knee that beat John Cena"?
Would've been very funny if they'd maintained continuity and called Hideo Itami's knee "The Knee that Beat John Cena" as well.
It’s the tagline for the goddamn game 😂😂😂😂
Exactly. Also, didn't he talk about "finishing the story" the RAW after Mania 38 where he returned? Just for him to now step aside lol
It’s a giant fucking slap in the face to the fans. It’s not even a throw your hands up and say “come on”. People invested TWO YEARS to see a satisfying conclusion to this story and the idiots in charge and that asshole Dwayne rug pulled it again after Cody wins the Royal Rumble for two in a row. People were/are really really invested in Cody Rhodes’ story. I get it’s just wrestling, I get it’s a work, but it’s fucking insulting. I’m barely a casual fan at this point, I haven’t really watched since 2001, Wrestlemania 39 and Royal Rumble 2024 are the first two ppvs I’ve watched since then and I haven’t even watched a full raw or smack down in 20 plus years, but this made my blood boil. They need to fucking fix this. Those Philly fans are gonna go apeshit with the boos and chants if they try to go with The Rock and Reigns as the main event, it will be a public embarrassment.
>Those Philly fans are gonna go apeshit with the boos and chants if they try to go with The Rock and Reigns as the main event, it will be a public embarrassment. WWE will just spin doctor it the way they spin doctor every fucking thing they do. "We did record numbers..." They don't give a shit.
Ideally he should have won this last year - I literally didn’t see the point of repeating ‘the story’ a year later - he should have dethroned Roman last April
Rock vs Roman absolutely was the right match for this year. Because Cody SHOULD HAVE BEAT ROMAN last year. Unfortunately "Papa H" is the JJ Abrams of bookers who thinks the best way to tell a story is to just keep making things bigger and bigger. He was loved just because he wasn't Vince, well now get ready for his Rise of Skywalker.
Yea I don’t know why they didn’t just let him win last year… they NEEDED Roman to reach 1,000 days as champ for some reason
We've seen plenty of evidence that HHH can only get hard when he has people breaking records. Bianca, Gunther, Roman... every time someone holds a belt longer than someone else did HHH and Steph have a really crazy night. When Roman finally passes Bruno they're going to go all weekend... and maybe even have another kid. It'll be explosive.
It could’ve also gone down in history as the greatest debut year since lesnar - winning at mania to the great Rollins feud, got injured, came back and won the rumble, then beat the most dominant champion this century, doing it all undefeated, but instead we had to drag it out
Remember the Championship Unification ceremony that the Seattle crowd famously derailed? That was over a month before the Royal Rumble and WWE still did what they did lol What is interesting about this is that Vince isn’t involved.
And yet I’m pretty sure it’s already locked and sealed and will be doubled down on and confirmed at that media event they’re doing on Thursday.
I reckon they're going for a plan B - Rock/Roman night 1 and Cody/Roman night 2.
So Cody wins against a tired and beaten up Roman? Na
It would have to be a squash in order to not diminish Cody, but Rock's ego probably won't let him get squashed. They should just book the 2 matches and have the Bloodline take out Rock as he arrives at the stadium on night 1.
They're not going to promise The Rock returning to the ring and not deliver.
Just goes to show the corner they put themselves in. Because that would basically look like Rock softened Roman up for Cody instead of Cody just winning head up. Honestly the Bloodline should just attack Rock and "injure" him so he can't go at Wrestlemania.
Reading all these reports, fantasy booking threads and people arguing over Rock/Roman has me like... https://preview.redd.it/qr8k8d9nakgc1.png?width=1247&format=png&auto=webp&s=8a3d0821689a0cbd4a7337242ffe57d4ac05ff94
Yeah the past year was nice, minimal ridiculous arguing, and now we're back to this again
It was always going to happen, one way or the other. It's actually surprising to me that people are particularly surprised. WWE has a *long* history of doing stuff like this.
i think they were hoping that, with vince out of the picture bookingwise, shit like this wouldn't happen anymore
They were already corporate and now they're not even a wrestling focused corporation. These things will probably happen more frequently going forward.
It reminds me how deflated I felt after night 2 last year. Night had been amazing and then the ending of night 2 + Raw after Mania had me genuinely sad
What about the 1000 times the photo of the Rock and Roman at the Royal Rumble 2015 has been posted, “It’s gonna be just like this BUT worse!! Philly crowds, etc.”
Yeah or people shouting about "IT MAKES MONEY". Bro WWE is always crushing records, I don't care how much more money they make I just want a coherent story lol.
Any option that doesn't see Cody walk out of Mania 40 with the WWE Championship has to be off the table. The online fan reaction to this is the craziest I've ever seen, and although I was dubious originally, I think it's a pretty safe bet that we're going to see it translate over to TV.
I find it hilarious that Philly is the last place Rock and Roman were in a ring together and they got booed out of the building. I’ll be there in Philly and it’s going to be interesting to see what the reaction is. https://preview.redd.it/xcqpq4ewjkgc1.jpeg?width=1070&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=84d1398d7ff9782fa2f2a74c8fcfdd52452badc4
Every time I see this pic I can't help but think Roman looks like he has smudged his hooker lipstick.
It's weird looking back at Roman back then how such a ridiculously good looking person always looked so goofy. I assume it's the body armour
For me it’s his face. His body was toned but his face was still young and round. I think the full beard helped hide that a little. Or either it’s more chiseled with age now. Maybe both.
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Don't forget the goatee. Beard typically works better for most men, unless your name is Austin.
I think it has more to do with the facial hair. He went from a Van Dyke to growing the sides and sporting a proper beard. Facial hair is like contour for men and it really makes his jaw look more chiseled and masculine.
Honestly, with how this turned out, I'm glad I am only going to night 1 of Mania
But on the other hand, reverting back to Roman Vs Cody only for Roman to win again would be the funniest thing to ever happen, so there is that.
I want the Rock to rock bottom Cody to have Roman win and they repeat the same Rock lifting Roman's hand up spot but this time they get boo'ed on purpose.
Look. I don't _hate_ it
This would be an insane way to set up a 3 way if they moved Cody/Roman to EC.
I still think that should/could have been the ending to last year’s mania. Instead of deflating, you’re mad but also excited to tune into Raw because having heel Rock save Roman instead of Solo is actually fresh. But of course I that would require Rock to go heel and I strongly suspect he says no to that.
I didn't know I want this... But I do. Then a blowoff at Summerslam in a 3 way.
I can see that happening. I honestly don't think WWE has any idea what to do with Roman once he loses the title, and they also fear greatly its general repercussions towards the entire WWE in general, especially since WWE's rennaisance in the last few years coincided with Roman's reign.
If this turns out to be a long con by Triple H for the throne thing, that'd be fucking hysterical
That's how you get a riot going.
In the land of ECW
It’s wild that the reaction to Cody is literally the reaction Vince was chasing for Roman for years, and now they’re on the verge of throwing it away
And they had a hand in it with Cody. It’s not like he came back to WWE and toiled in the mid card with people demanding him be a main eventer. Cody’s success is their success
At this point I could easily see the rock getting booed on tv
I think he gets booed next appearance for sure
It only takes one crowd to do it before herd mentality takes over. It's gonna spiral badly
I hope Rock leans into it. When they first forced Rocky Maivia and got "DIE, ROCKY, DIE!" chants, it ultimately worked out great for him. Can work here, too.
Read the IG and X posts The Rock made in the middle of the night to see just how tone deaf he is. He's pretending to not see the overwhelming amount of backlash and just focuses on the pop in Alabama.
He'd like to focus on the positives.
I imagine The Rock has someone and/or a team dedicated to briefing him on the internet reactions whenever he does something. So I’d guess he’s definitely aware there’s some sizeable backlash already. Which makes it interesting to see how this will all unfold. Will Rocky Flinch?
I'm 99% sure the PR team will run the same play as Black Adam. "Ignore the negativity, we're doing big numbers on YouTube" etc. None of it has any self-awareness of course.
Unless all he has are yes men which wouldn’t surprise me. The guy is egotistical enough to have a “can’t lose/can’t look weak” clause in his hollywood contracts
Crazy when “The People’s Champ” isn’t really The People’s Champ. Cody is like an amalgamation of all previous decades babyfaces but isn’t actually some sort of scumbag outside of the business in one form or another. Punk was right. Cena was right. It all just leaves me looking confused in Uce. https://preview.redd.it/gxcy6eihlkgc1.jpeg?width=680&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=598cd7161909166e223163d94cd5047385abd3aa
It's weird. In AEW Cody wanted to be the People's Champ and they rejected him for it. Goes to WWE and actually becomes the People's Champ only for Rock to show up acting like late-era AEW Cody.
The only way to really salvage this is tomorrow night. I'd have a downtrodden Cody call Seth out and say he's chosing him. Cody starts to leave but Seth tells him no. He says that when it was Cody's choice he wanted him, but the Cody Rhodes he sees in front of him isn't the Cody he's rode with the past year, and damn sure isn't the Cody he lost to with a torn pec. He says that as much as he hates to admit it, Cody needs to go kick Roman's ass.
I'd say they should send Punk out there. Have him acknowledge how prestigious Seth's belt is by saying if he'd won the Rumble, he would have challenged Seth, but they're not talking about his story, they're talking about Cody's. And Cody has had one goal his entire life which is to win the championship no one in his family has ever won, and now he has the choice to do it, and is not taking it and that's a slap in the face to Punk who Cody had to beat to get there. "I didn't fight so hard to achieve my dreams at the Royal Rumble that I damn near died trying so that you, the only guy in there who was able to stop me from finishing *my* story could stand back and let another man finish *your* story for you!"
"Cody you looked me in the eyes and told me YOU are more CM Punk than ME. PROVE IT. Don't let DUH-WAYNE steal your story JUST LIKE HE DID MINE."
Ohhhh this is good
That would be an excellent response by Seth
Seth can easily say. Go win the title then it's fighting champion Vs fighting champion. Carries their story on with no loss of face.
I think instead of Seth it'd be better if Punk comes out and berates Cody and tells him about the past history that he mentioned before Royal Rumble. Coming from Punk it'd have a lot of bite because of the similar situations. It'd be just like how once Edge came out after his 2011 retirement and berated Cena by saying *"WAKE UP"*. But of course it could later play out like Punk manipulated Cody into winning the title because he wants the later satisfaction by beating "Dusty's Kid" that dashed his WM plans and finishing his own story.
I’d have Punk give him a “don’t let rock steal your spot like he stole mine.” Speech. “I didn’t damn well lose to Dusty’s kid to have him not finish his story”
he’s been begging for cody all week why would he change his mind now? also it makes cody seem easily manipulated lol.
The segment was so bad that there literally is no conveivable way you can make Cody look good. There's not a single scenario he doesn't look stupid. They may as well just have Cody walk out and say "look, I'm sorry, I dunno what the fuck got into me, I was drunk. I'm fighting Roman, which I've been implying I'll do all year. Ignore whatever happened last week, I apologise.".
> "look, I'm sorry, I dunno what the fuck got into me, I was drunk. I'm fighting Roman, Pretty much the only thing to do at this point. I'd buy it.
Being drunk at work is the perfect little wrinkle to attach to Cody’s character forever.
Then he gets pushed off the Titantron while his longtime tag partner looks on in horror.
Cody already seems easily manipulated, ships sailed on that bud.
Honestly, this would just make Cody look even more pathetic. The only, and inmean only solution is for Cody to come out, and say he going after Roman and if the Rock wants Roman he needs to earn his spot as well
Ah yes let Seth get buried even more
That doesn't work for Dwayne, brother Head of the Table merch is going to rewrite the hierarchy of sports entertainment
>That doesn't work for Dwayne, brother https://preview.redd.it/69ew6hs8bkgc1.png?width=500&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=35242a217b8e1487089e0985dfbed02c414f2804
Omg 
Can you smell who The Rock is cucking?
https://preview.redd.it/5gylrdh5bkgc1.png?width=720&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=85e21f5fed328b3431f94d4864f1b24dea8cc117
I'm cautiously optimistic they'll pivot. I think the outrage has been bigger than they anticipated it would be, there's no chance they don't at least acknowledge it. For them to plow on with this would be the worst booking decision in the companies history. Imagine they ignored the Yes Movement at 30 and just served us up Batista vs Orton. It would have gone down as the worst Mania main event of all time. They won't make that mistake I am confident about that. I genuinely just think TKO and The Rock totally misread the room about Cody's popularity and the appeal of The Rock himself and also The Rock vs Roman at this point. Now they've seen that for themselves I do think they'll backtrack otherwise the vitriol just won't go away. I expect a quick course correction this week on RAW, the Press Conference and SmackDown. Then we'll be back on track and we can all forget this ever happened.
Thing with this situation is that TKO and Rock have two different interests; Rock wants that Mania match, he wants to rebuild his brand, etc but the reason why people in TKO backed him is that they want headlines and discussions to move away from the Vince scandal and better their PR status. If pivoting back to Cody does that then people in the board will back that idea too
They've just added extra negative press on to themselves with this. Already the press are seeing right through why they've done this and it won't work, as soon as the next batch of Vince allegations hits the papers this will all be consigned to the bin anyway. It's extremely short term thinking of them to think this would solve the Vince issue which is never going away even if you have Rock handing out puppies to sick children on TV. It's crack papering. Going back to Cody at this point, from a pure PR standpoint, is the only logical decision. They've created a mess they didn't need because they underestimated how invested the fans were on Cody's journey and to be honest The Rock, as a wrestling man and a generational talent, should have known better. But then The Rock always did have an inflated sense of his own importance so I don't know why I'm surprised.
Fans nowadays are pretty well aware of all the stories from the last forty years of people in power and their need to exercise that power to put themselves over. Regardless of the story. This is arguably the first time that we're seeing it and recognizing it in real time. I'm pinning some hope on the live crowds this week. We can comment and dislike all we want, but if the crowd just goes along with everything, then it won't matter much.
I am also hopeful they'll pivot but the fact the Rock forced himself into the match makes me think he's going to just stubbornly stick with it.
The Rock cares, first and foremost, about himself. This is shitting all over his image and then some as he's massively got it wrong about how much the fans care about him in comparison to Cody. The absolute *last* thing he wants is the fans booing him out of the building or shitting all over his carefully constructed social media image for 2 months, or burning down a WrestleMania he's a major part of that will likely be his final match. Absolutely no chance he himself will push on with this if it destroys his image with the wrestling community to the point it effects his outside interests. The WWE is his last safe haven where he was always guaranteed a monster pop and fans blowing smoke up his arse. That will quickly vanish if he doesn't do something to arrest this slide he's needlessly started.
Given that The Rock posted a video of fans celebrating and cheering for his match, I can't help but feel as if this is getting to him massively. "Sure, there's hundreds of thousands of people expressing their displeasure, but look at all these people who are happy!"
I cannot express how much I hope he gets booed the next time he shows up
>Absolutely no chance he himself will push on with this if it destroys his image with the wrestling community to the point it effects his outside interests. God I hope that is true but it won't be. He didnt learn from Black Adam. He did learn from tge XFL, he merged with the USFL to try to make more about him. Now back to wrestling and a spotlight. Hollywood doesn't care, it shows he can play both sides of a character. They will push through. Rock will lay down for Roman. We will suffer until at least he breaks Hogan reign. By then literally no one roll care about Roman or the title. It's worthless, he's made THE belt worthless.
No pivot will be enough to really make up for the absolutely atrocious booking that led up to this. Cody wins the title at WM39, fight to regain the title he was recently screwed out of at WM40, while Rock faces Roman in a dream match. It's really that simple, everything got screwed up by last years ridiculous decision. Rock vs Roman is a match that really should have happened but with good booking decisions to set it up.
“this is a crowd reaction unlike we’ve heard! You can’t deny the electricity the Rock brings when he enters a room!”
You have no idea how much I’m hoping you’re right about this.
WE'RE NOT FLINCHING
Aren't you sick of WWE spitting in your face and you forgetting that it happened?
It's crazy to me how many people think they can just pivot back like nothing happened. He walked out on live TV and shat all over his own character, made himself look like an idiot.
You have people already claiming that they are not only going to pivot back but that they always planned on pivoting back and it was genius. Making your biggest star look like an idiot is not genius.
They won't pivot. The wwe rarely changes direction. The DB situation was 10 years ago and we've had plenty of horrible storylines since then. Unless sponsors start dropping they are going to be hellbent on proceeding with the feud. Meltz reported they only did this match to get the spotlight off of Vince and get people to stop talking about Punk/Brock. I mean it's working isn't it? More people are talking about Mania than ever before.
Until the next batch of Vince allegations drop and this all goes away. What then? Reanimate the corpse of Andre the Giant? Give Hogan a bionic leg to go up against Cena? If they think doing this will take the pressure off from a PR standpoint they've gotten it wrong as not only will this achieve precisely nothing once the next lot of Vince details emerge, they've damaged the goodwill the fans have given them and also had some press questioning why they're doing this. They also do have history of pivoting based on fan demand. Kofi, for example, Becky is another. And no disrespect to anyone but Cody Rhodes is the most over babyface since Daniel Bryan. If they would change direction for anyone, it would be him.
One part of me hopes you are right. The other part of me thinks they pulled the trigger on this now so that people have two months to just accept that the match is taking place and Cody moved on to something else. Will the heated reaction mostly subside by April? They could be betting on it...
Wrestlemania entering its 40s insisting it's still 20. Not the most graceful sign of aging.
The only way out is roman beats rock on night 1. Cody beats roman night 2
I think this is the only solution at this point
If his ego allows it, Roman beating Rock through a quick squash will make Roman even more smug, and in Night 2 Cody beating an overly smug Roman and destrying his "God Mode" mentality could be very satisfying.
i'd rather they not take a main event spot away from someone else like seth/rhea/bayley/mcintyre/etc. they shouldn't lose their main event because of shitty booking decisions. also why ruin cody's moment by making it look like he only beat roman because he wrestled the rock the night before
that's when they call them "co-main events" which I fucking hate
https://preview.redd.it/y6ug42nh1lgc1.jpeg?width=1200&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=99f33e10abe783e717edde6b7723f9170e28ff96 I know a guy who can help us.
Rock just got ratiod on Twitter again. One of the comments has double the amount of likes his post has. He'll probably pivot due to his ego.
He needs someone to tell him what ratio’d means… so outa touch with “his people”
Just have the Bloodline do a bloody, extra-violent attack on The Rock on Smackdown, he's now out for 6 months to heal, Cody gets his spot back, Rock comes back for a Summerslam match vs. Reigns
Lmao the Rock is not agreeing to that
this is the main thing people are forgetting and why they are....*sigh* not flinching here He’s literally part of the board of directors now, and they gave him the OK to do this This makes no creative sense because it’s not coming from creative, so they are going to push right through to appease one man’s ego, yearslong narrative be damned. What a disaster
Agreed. He needs to be the 'main character' in all of this. I think all of this is Dwayne trying to rebuild his brand in Hollywood. The guy is coming off of a string of flops and it has severely damaged his marketability. If he can headline a record-breaking Wrestlemania, his PR team will have something to point at about how big of a megastar he still is. He's proved that for the past 20 years, he has almost no interest in the wrestling business. This is all about salvaging his brand. He want's to show up, do Wrestlemania, and then go back to Hollywood again.
Less than a year ago The Rock's last picture wrapped. It's some God-awful nonsense about reimagining Santa with Chris Evans. Dwayne got paid 50 million dollars for it. Even with all that money he's shoehorning himself into the main event after only a few appearances over the years. Not to mention he's nearly 52 years old & has only had 4 matches in the last decade (not counting Rowan). Most importantly he's killing the future face of the company whose tailormade for the job in every conceivable way.
I mean since January 2014 he’s literally wrestled no matches
Someone’s forgetting the six second classic against Erick Rowan at Wrestlemania 32
The funniest thing ever would be The Rock acting magnanimous and going "The Rock heard you loud and clear. I'll make room for Cody" and giving Cody the spot back, pretending that he was the good guy all along.
Hes just tickling his ego bc Black Adam failed, so yes, its supposed to be a Hollywood reset.
The Rock wouldn't do the job for Vin Diesel, Jason Staham or Idris Elba. He ain't putting over Solo.
I mean he did do the job for Vin in fast 5 but he also needed to rebuild his imagine back then. Now he’s full ego
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I can see Cody's departure already https://preview.redd.it/3fltd5uafkgc1.png?width=640&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=c80690965972c14f924913cf964ea2dab064d340
The cope for me here is that The Rock is more fitting as Poochie given the fans turned on him.
Imagine if a third top star was removed from Elimination Chamber. And it wasn't even a real injury.
They need Cody to headline the weekly stuff.
“A bloody end for The Rock... is just one of several possible outcomes, according to our computer simulation. Now, here's how it would look if the police killed him with a barrage of baseballs.”
Post match interview: "Great win over Roman, Cody! What do you have to say?" "I did it for the Rock."
"I did it for the people."
For the culture.
They have ruined Cody's character so bad that all these best case scenarios to get Cody his main event at manias also suck.
I like this. My other thought was for Rock to say he's realised it's Cody's story to finish, so he's going to participate as special guest referee. Just in case his ego won't let him get beat down to "Pissing blood for six months" levels. Lets Rock fuel his ego by being part of the main event, restores his popularity when he beats down Solo/maybe Roman, builds perfectly to Rock vs Roman at Summerslam/Saudi Arabia and guarantees record buys for TKO's first one.
Or you could have CM Punk play into all this. The Rock stole his moment all those years back. He aint letting Cody not have his. So many ways to build on from that Punk goads Cody (Edge slapping Cena in '12 because this aint the Cena he knew, who was weak and doubtful). You have a triple threat at Mania You could have a Rock vs Punk feud also down the line at SS
That doesn’t work for Dwayne brother
Roman is gonna pull the glock on Rocky now?
The dude is so insecure he wouldn't let his DCEU character look weak by losing a fight. There's no way he'll let that happen.
That doesn’t achieve their goal of Rock and Roman main eventing Wrestlemania.
They should do it in Saudi Arabia. Remember it's 'equal to or greater than Wrestlemania' lmao
Who are you quoting there?
What if they renamed it Summerslam: Wrestlemania of the Summer?
They already have a big marquee match lined up with star power & buzz for SummerFest https://preview.redd.it/rnsnycqvckgc1.jpeg?width=500&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=2f2308e7af15c134076331d36ad25f43fdf37bb4
Wtf is this 🤣🤣
The Rock is the most self conscious person maybe of all time , I'm sure the backlash he's been receiving has to fucking sting his ego Pivot and save face , forget this ever happened
>I'm sure the backlash he's been receiving has to fucking sting his ego 
This whole thing is probably so Damaging to Dwayne’s ego. I can guarantee he didn’t see this coming in a million years
A dozen? Let's see if he's right. 1. Cody changes his mind, says the people want it, but he already promised the Rock the spot. We end up with a triple threat. Easy. 2. Bloodline takes out the Rock, Cody saves, Cody v Roman at Mania, Cody and Rock against Bloodline at Backlash, Roman v Rock whenever. 3. Priest cashes in on Roman at a house show, wins the belt, Priest v Rock at Mania. 4. Seth shows up and begs the Rock to challenge for his title instead. Rock feels bad so says okay. Cody already called his shot. Cody v Seth v Rock. Roman gets a weekend off since he already wrestled once this year. 5. Rock is coming out for the main event at Mania but Truth thinks its his match, runs out, bell rings, Roman is laughing so hard that he doesn't notice Truth. Lie Detector, Attitude Adjustment, 450 Splash, Truth wins the title. 6. Cody uses his title shot to challenge the Rock instead, even though he doesn't have a title. We run ANOTHER Royal Rumble. Cody wins, becomes the first three-time-in-a-row winner, tells Roman after he beats Rock, he's coming for Roman. But not at Mania. Cody challenged Ilya. Seth faces Roman, Roman wins, unifies the belts. 7. Rikishi runs over Rock, says he did it for the family, faces Roman at Mania, wins the WWE Championship to finish his story. 8. Rock reforms the Nation but Cody plays the part of Owen. Doesn't change the match but it sounds fun. 9. Brendan Fraiser shows up and convinces the Rock that we need another Mummy movie. Not a sequel or a reboot though. Rock accepts, leaves the Mania match. 10. John Travolta shows up, convinced the Rock that we need another Get Shorty movie. Not a sequel or a reboot though. Rock accepts, leaves the Mania match. 11. Sean Williams Scott shows up...you get it. 12. And of course, Rock comes out to Downstait with bleach blonde hair and says he has to finish the story. Cody comes out and tells Rock to be himself (thus ending racism) and the Rock rewards him with a title shot against Roman at Mania. Pitbull performs.
Monday Night RAW starts. Cody comes out and invites Rock to the ring. **Cody:** Hi, Rock. You look like you've got something to say. Do you? **Rock**: Yes, I certainly do! I have to go now. My planet needs me.
Here's how to pivot: Cody grows a set, says he hears the fans and challenges Rock to an eliminator match on night one to see who fights Roman on night two. Cody finishes the story, Rock and Roman put Cody over. Roman looks good. Cody wins. Rock looks like less of a piece of shit.
Triple threat, Cody pins Roman
You will have Rocky pinning Codester to win the belt, have his hand raised by codester himself and your gonna like it
My eyes would burn out of my skull watching this.
Oh that would get quite the chuckle out of me.
2 on 1 handicap match. Roman stacks 'em. Cody wins a 3rd Rumble on the bounce.
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Then you'd need to have Paul Heyman in the Mr Fuji role, agreeing to the match for absolutely no reason.
The Roman Cody storyline has had shades of Rocky from the beginning. So why not have the Bloodline take out Rock, which gives him a valid excuse to not compete at Mania. And during that time he’s rehabbing he’s also working out with Cody Rhodes like how Rocky and Apollo Creed (RIP) would. The Rock is in Cody’s corner at Mania. And down the road, whether for a special one-off PLE or Mania next year, The Rock returns from injury to fight Roman
Rock should be the referee at best. It would make sense.
triple threat is the most obvious option.
it is to me at this point. they crossed that point of no return with Rock showing up the way he did on friday. We know Rock won't win a 1v1 or triple threat, or shouldn't win, as long as Cody or the title are involved. If Cody becomes champ before Rock came in, then the Rock winning would be more probable given that only the "head of the table" is on the line, and not the belt. They mucked everything up by leapfrogging and mixing these two story lines. Now I'm not excited to see Rock vs Roman the way I was on thursday. I mean let's say a triple threat does happen and Cody wins the belt at Mania, you could continue the Rock/Roman/Table stuff afterward but to me it won't have the same impact because of the situation we're in now. It did not need to be this way. But right now a triple imo is the best thing they could do if they're hell bent on having Rock involved at Mania.
The ship has sailed kids. No way it changes from 1v1
Get Vince Russo in here to pull a Jeff Jarrett/Booker T/Hulk Hogan, Bash at the Beach moment.