A few years ago, no one would have believed you if you told them Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson would be the most hated man in the wrestling world, especially when seemingly pitted against his distant cousin Roman Reigns, one of the biggest villains in the wrestling world himself. Yet here we are, in February 2024, and that is the exact scenario we have come to. Let’s take a deep dive into why:
On the Feb. 2 edition of WWE Friday Night SmackDown, Cody Rhodes, the first back-to-back Royal Rumble match winner in a quarter century, confronted Reigns in the final segment of the show.
Every year, the winner of the Royal Rumble match gets to take on the champion of their choosing in the main event of WrestleMania. Over the past few years, Rhodes has made it clear that he wants to do what his father, Dusty Rhodes, was never able to do: win the WWE Championship. Last year, Rhodes failed to take the title from Reigns after Reigns’ cousin Solo Sikoa interfered to help him win. Ever since, it seemed like Rhodes, arguably the biggest babyface (a “good guy” in wrestling terms) in the company, would finally get to “finish the story” and defeat Reigns in his second try. When he won the Rumble match, he pointed to Reigns during his celebration and alluded to wanting to fight him once more in the press conference afterward.
That is why when Rhodes went on SmackDown and said, “I’m coming for you, Roman Reigns… just not at WrestleMania,” only for The Rock to come out as his opponent, the fans felt like they had been spit on. The fans who had invested a lot of time and energy into Rhodes’ story were disappointed that it ended because Johnson, a movie star who is also often regarded as one of the greatest wrestlers of all time, might bring more eyes to WrestleMania. To put the cherry on top, as Rhodes stepped out of the ring to let Reigns and The Rock have the ring to themselves, his efforts to keep a straight face were not enough to hide his sadness. He looked like his heart had just dropped to the floor.
So how did The Rock get there? On Jan. 3, 2024, The Rock joined the board of directors of TKO, the parent company of both the WWE and UFC. He received over $30 million in TKO stock and was promised a
WrestleMania’s match against Reigns was part of the deal, according to famous wrestling journalist Dave Meltzer. That would mean that the WWE had Rhodes win the Royal Rumble despite this important fact. This conflicts with other reports saying that Rhodes versus Reigns for the WWE Undisputed Championship and Seth Rollins versus CM Punk for the World Heavyweight Championship was the plan until a few days before Feb. 2.
Either way, logic is lacking here. Why would Rhodes remain booked as the Rumble winner if he was never going to fight Reigns, and if the plans changed, why, storyline-wise, would Rhodes challenge Rollins instead? He could only challenge either Reigns or Rollins. Moments before he said he was handing over the Reigns match to The Rock, Reigns had been diminishing the value of the World Heavyweight Championship and making fun of Rollins’ injury. In addition, Rhodes is 3-0 against Rollins since returning to the WWE, including a match where he won inside Hell in a Cell with a torn pectoral muscle. So, is Rhodes giving up his dream title and a match for the top prize in WWE to opt for a B-level title against a man who has never beaten him?
Outside of storylines, reports say that Johnson pushed strongly for a match against Reigns to distract fans and media from the Vince McMahon sex scandal and to “save WrestleMania” after Punk got injured and Brock Lesnar was ruled out due to his part in the scandal. However, this only shows an abuse of power and a massive distrust in the rest of the roster to carry out a good show.
Immediately after SmackDown went off the air on Feb. 2, angry fans took to social media to voice their displeasure. #WeWantCody quickly began trending and even became the number one trend on X, formerly known as Twitter. Fans began questioning if the whole situation was a work (a planned storyline, in wrestling terminology), but the lack of logic makes that highly doubtful. Wrestlers both inside (Ricochet) and outside (Matt Cardona) of the WWE began tweeting #WeWantCody. When the segment was played at a live event the next day, the fans booed loudly. WWE had only a few days to correct their mistakes if they so wished.
The Rock versus Roman Reigns was seemingly supposed to be made official at the Feb. 8 press conference in Las Vegas, but the fans forced WWE’s hand. At the press conference, Johnson called many fans “Cody crybabies” and tried, along with Reigns, to force their way into a match between families. Rhodes then came out and changed his mind, to the fans’ delight. This whole fiasco reminded fans of when WWE had previously tried to underhand Daniel Bryan a decade ago with the return of another former superstar turned Hollywood actor, Dave Bautista. Furthermore, Philadelphia fans booed The Rock and Reigns out of the building back when The Rock helped Reigns win the Rumble match in 2015. Considering WrestleMania will be at an even bigger venue and knowing how wild fans in Philly can get, Johnson may not have wanted to push his luck. The WWE has now pivoted to a storyline where Triple H, the Chief Creative Officer, has been trying to halt The Rock and Reigns’ power trip and where Reigns and The Rock are seemingly working together to make life difficult for Rhodes. Now, to tie it all together, the WWE just has to explain why Rhodes had a change of heart twice.
