00:00 I have to finish the story.
00:04 We thought we knew where we were going and then it all changed.
00:12 I am coming for you, Roman Reigns.
00:18 But not at WrestleMania.
00:22 When Cody Rhodes told Roman Reigns that he wouldn't be facing him at WrestleMania
00:28 40, despite having a guaranteed spot to challenge him for the WWE
00:34 championship at the main event.
00:36 Everybody was pretty surprised when the rock came out instead to take Cody's
00:44 perceived spot at WrestleMania and even embraced, and it made it feel like
00:48 someone was stabbing Cody in the stomach, depending on what meme you see on the
00:53 internet.
00:53 We'll get into it.
00:55 It's Sportskeeda Wrestling.
00:56 I'm Kevin.
00:57 What do you think of the shakeup with the main events of WrestleMania?
01:02 Let us know in the comments below.
01:03 Some are trying to say that this is reminiscent of something that happened 31
01:06 years ago in the main event when Bret Hart was cheated out of the WWE
01:12 championship by the villainous Yokozuna only for the red and yellow Hulk Hogan to
01:18 come out who was earlier in the show, but didn't have the main event to somehow get
01:22 a title shot and step in and get Hart's endorsement to finish the job.
01:26 The live audience's response to the rock and the online response has been two
01:30 entirely different stories.
01:31 Obviously the live crowd in Birmingham was thrilled to see the WWE legend and
01:39 they smelled what he was cooking.
01:41 The man's a certified hall of famer and recently just became, oh, oh, I don't
01:45 know, one of the biggest movie stars in the world.
01:47 The response from fans online is a different picture from what many fans seem
01:53 to feel that Cody Rhodes, he got screwed circumstantially out of this whole thing.
01:58 It's been a challenging week for WWE and triple H, and apparently this is a move
02:03 they felt they had to take, but that doesn't mean the public perception
02:06 around it is the most positive.
02:08 Ever since triple H became the creative head of NXT, he's become a darling with
02:13 many fans and his status has only grown beyond his in-ring prowess as one of the
02:18 greatest in-ring performers, but maybe one of the most influential creative
02:21 minds in the business directly responsible for a huge shift in WWE
02:26 quality, dating back to raw and SmackDown of 2022 when he returned
02:30 after health challenges in his own life.
02:32 But after the Royal Rumble on SmackDown, he's been getting a lot of heat.
02:37 People want their fantasy booking.
02:39 People feel like they've been teased something that they aren't getting at
02:43 mania, the post Royal Rumble press conference was going to be a challenging
02:47 one considering the recent serious allegations against Vince McMahon, who
02:52 was once again forced to resign reportedly from his executive role
02:56 in WWE TKO executive branch.
02:59 This was not going to be easy.
03:01 And people felt that triple H's response to it in the press
03:03 conference was unsatisfactory.
03:06 Triple H tried to avoid the negative saying he wanted to focus on the
03:09 positives like the Royal Rumble itself and the recent $5 billion distribution
03:14 deal with Netflix for WWE.
03:16 But let's focus back on what's going on with WWE on camera on raw and
03:20 SmackDown and that road or lack of roads, if you will, going to the
03:26 biggest match at WrestleMania.
03:27 Obviously triple H has a direct hand on where things are going with
03:31 these huge matchups at WrestleMania.
03:33 And now he's getting a lot of negativity thrown his way on social media.
03:37 Yeah, because of his decision to essentially have Cody Rhodes step out
03:42 of what was perceived to be his path to once again, chase Roman Reigns
03:47 to the main event mountain of mania.
03:49 He didn't officially make his choice, but he told Romans clearly when he
03:53 won the Royal Rumble pointing at him in a skybox that he intends to target
03:57 the undisputed universal championship.
03:59 But that won't happen.
04:00 His father, the American dream looking down has to be proud.
04:06 Cody Rhodes speaking with Bleacher Report about the idea of the rock
04:09 being a part of WrestleMania plans said, I don't think he's the type
04:13 that would come in and metal with a story that's been told over the past
04:17 two years, but things change between then.
04:20 And now that's right.
04:21 Things change.
04:22 Turns out the rock was in fact, the guy who was going to change those plans.
04:27 Reportedly.
04:28 Now we get business is business.
04:30 WWE is very much a for-profit business, and it's hard to pass up on making
04:35 a big, big match across generations with rock versus Roman Reigns.
04:39 And they couldn't have made that change in a more aggressive and questionable way.
04:44 Yeah.
04:44 If you heard the way the internet responded on SmackDown, you'd understand.
04:48 It also doesn't help the accusation that the rock may have inserted himself
04:52 into the spot immediately after becoming a member of the board on TKO.
04:56 Yeah.
04:57 It's a real problem that the rock is one of the executives of the company.
05:01 That's a problem.
05:02 That's the part I don't understand in terms of people getting angry.
05:05 Think about the rock versus John Cena.
05:07 At least the rock had to appear the previous year to set the whole thing up.
05:11 At WrestleMania 28, that's where the payoff was.
05:14 And it led to that.
05:15 And there were no titles involved and maybe they don't even need a title.
05:19 We understand that there is a lot changing here as a result
05:23 of CM Punk's recent injury.
05:24 We were supposed to get Punk versus Rollins.
05:26 We had circumstances with Brock Lesnar being yanked out of this
05:29 entire thing with the entire allegations.
05:32 There's a lot of moving parts.
05:34 Maybe the rock stepping in is simply a response to all of those moving parts.
05:38 For one, it makes the decision to have Cody Rhodes lose the title at
05:42 WrestleMania 39 retrospectively look really bad, but did they know what
05:47 was going to happen this year?
05:49 Last year?
05:50 I don't know about that.
05:51 A lot of people's think that Cody Rhodes could have simply finished the story
05:55 last year and set up rock versus Roman for WrestleMania 40 without
05:59 affecting anything else better yet.
06:01 WWE could have easily done Roman versus Cody this year and had Cody win it in
06:06 the main event and set up rock versus Roman at the main event of WrestleMania 41.
06:10 But is that something the rock can do in a year's time?
06:14 He's still a very, very busy guy outside of WWE.
06:17 And now it looks like a somewhat convoluted circumstantial
06:21 mess in the eyes of some.
06:23 Not exactly us, but that's the perception out there is WWE has a lot of extra
06:29 work to pick up these pieces before the biggest show of the year.
06:33 It leaves plenty of questions and let's try to answer some of them.
06:37 What was the point of Cody winning the rumble and directly teasing
06:41 a showdown once again with Roman?
06:43 Yeah.
06:44 What happened here?
06:46 What was the point of building Cody back up for an entire year, clearly
06:49 gearing towards some type of Roman Reigns rematch only for it not to happen at
06:55 mania, it has to happen at mania, right?
06:57 It can't happen anywhere else.
06:59 Yeah.
07:00 Those same fickle fans are saying that part.
07:02 That's the part where I say WWE does have an out.
07:05 We will get Cody versus Roman and a big rematch, but does it mean the
07:09 same if it's not at WrestleMania?
07:11 What's the sense that it would make to have Cody Rhodes go after the world
07:15 heavyweight championship, something that he's avoided and has already set his
07:20 destination on the title around Roman Reigns his waist.
07:23 Yeah.
07:24 It does feel like an aggressive turn away from what WWE has been building up to.
07:29 And that perception is a very natural reaction from fans.
07:34 Time will tell whether this turns out to be the right decision or not, but one
07:39 can't help, but feel history is repeating itself with a part timer taking the place
07:45 of a well-deserving full timer.
07:48 You've heard those fans use that word part timer full timer, right?
07:52 Except this time it's worse because the full timer has already won the Royal
07:57 Rumble and just gave up a spot for no reason whatsoever.
08:01 Is there no reason whatsoever?
08:03 Yeah.
08:04 It's all up for debate for now.
08:06 The immediate aftermath of it all feels like a complete waste.
08:11 In the eyes of some people.
08:13 Are you one of those people?
08:15 Let us know in the comments below what could have been a generational once
08:18 in a lifetime, mega match between Roman Reigns and the rock has been tainted
08:23 as well by these circumstances.
08:25 Does that match get to be as great as it should be for rock and Roman because
08:30 of, uh, you know, the whole situation around it seems kind of like a lose,
08:35 lose to some, what do you think?
08:38 Let us know in the comments below.
08:40 [inaudible].
08:46 [inaudible].
08:51 [inaudible].
08:56 you
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