00:00 It's official, Cody Rhodes will challenge Roman Reigns for the WWE Universal Championship
00:10 at WrestleMania 40.
00:12 But that's not all, Roman Reigns, yes the hubris-filled mind manipulator surprised everyone
00:19 by revealing that he had chosen The Rock, yeah, because he claimed he could do that
00:24 even though he's not the one who won the Royal Rumble, that he would face his bloodline family
00:30 member at WrestleMania.
00:32 What does this mean?
00:34 Well, we are coming to that.
00:36 After all the confusion with The Rock coming face to face with Roman Reigns on SmackDown,
00:41 the World Heavyweight Champion Seth Rollins asking Cody to choose him instead of Reigns,
00:46 WWE finally gave us some answers at their big WrestleMania kickoff event on February
00:52 8th in Las Vegas.
00:55 Cody chose Roman as his opponent for WrestleMania.
00:58 The American Nightmare won the Royal Rumble earlier this year, and fans knew that he was
01:03 going to face Roman, something that's been teased for quite some time, a big rematch
01:07 from the previous year's WrestleMania where Roman once again cheated his way out of the
01:12 match with the title.
01:14 However, the confusion arose when he explained on SmackDown that he wants to "finish his
01:19 story" but not at WrestleMania.
01:22 In an unexpected twist, finally, Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson made his surprise entrance
01:29 in Birmingham, Alabama to a massive eruption.
01:33 He embraced Cody in the center of the ring before the American Nightmare swiftly exited.
01:38 The Rock locked eyes with Roman Reigns, setting the stage for an epic showdown as the show
01:43 concluded, but still question marks arose, and fans were like "what?"
01:48 This came just weeks after The Rock joined the board of directors of TKO, the parent
01:53 company of WWE.
01:55 A ripple of discontent echoed among many fans who viewed The Rock's involvement in the
02:01 main event as questionable.
02:03 Yes, we want Rock vs. Roman, but not this year, Cody's gotta finish his story!
02:10 Yeah, there's that crowd too.
02:13 So Cody was trending the moment Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson had his showdown with Roman.
02:19 The outrage was loud and clear.
02:22 The trending term of "We Want Cody" rang out on social media for over 72 hours.
02:30 Fans wanted Cody.
02:31 Criticism surfaced with the expressing concern that The Rock seemingly inserted himself into
02:37 the spotlight.
02:38 He's still The Rock, by the way.
02:42 Using his position on the board of directors to secure a headlining spot at WrestleMania
02:46 40.
02:47 Yeah, it's worth the debate.
02:48 This is a match between Rock and Roman that people have wanted for years.
02:52 Also, it was reported that The Rock pushed for the match, and with no surprise, he had
02:58 a lot of support from the TKO board.
03:00 Reportedly, they see it as the biggest possible money-making match that WWE can offer this
03:05 year.
03:06 So there's no denying the allure of a dream match like Rock vs. Roman Reigns headlining
03:12 WrestleMania.
03:13 There's no debate that it's mania-worthy.
03:16 Fans felt that the timing of the match just was wrong.
03:19 Yeah, the pro-Cody crowd really wanted Cody to have his WrestleMania moment to shine.
03:26 WWE has been telling the story with Cody Rhodes for the last two years that he must win the
03:32 championship by defeating Reigns for the title to finish his story.
03:37 Yes, one that ties to his Hall of Fame father, the American Dream, Dusty Rhodes, who was
03:43 robbed of the WWE title on a technicality.
03:47 Another noteworthy concern for the pro-Cody crowd is that Cody won the Rumble.
03:52 WWE has established for decades now that if you win the Rumble, you get the biggest match
03:57 possible at WrestleMania.
03:59 And why did they have the American Nightmare win the Rumble then, especially with The Rock
04:05 disrupting the entire plan?
04:07 The essence of the Rumble lies in shooting the winner to the spotlight as a rightful
04:12 contender, but does that always mean you get exciting, compelling, page-turning television
04:19 on the road to WrestleMania?
04:21 Yeah, this twist of a winner voluntarily stepping aside for another competitor introduced a
04:28 wrinkle in the challenge of the tradition.
04:37 Ever since Cody came back to WWE, he has been one of the biggest heroes on the roster, moving
04:44 merchandise, connecting with fans of all ages, being a hero in a time when the top guy in
04:51 the company is a villain.
04:57 It's historic reign, blah blah blah, all the records, yeah we've heard it all before, but
05:02 Cody is the guy.
05:04 You can feel the momentum shift, you can feel the emotional investment, he seems like the
05:10 guy to take the title off of the guy who holds it, Roman Reigns.
05:16 So what about Roman vs Rock?
05:18 Well these two didn't need a championship, their presence alone in Wrestlemania is enough,
05:24 their names are enough, their bloodline history is the story, who is the head of their family's
05:30 table is the story.
05:32 The Rock winning the WWE Championship right now at his age and his sense of power in Hollywood
05:37 doesn't make much sense, we're not saying it's the worst thing in the world, it wouldn't
05:42 hurt WWE to put the title on the most popular movie star in the world at the moment, but
05:47 we're wrestling fans and our little bubble and we want to complain if anything comes
05:52 inside the bubble.
05:54 But the way that things went down in Las Vegas at the Wrestlemania 40 kickoff press conference
06:00 where The Rock felt the boo's from the pro Cody crowd while he made the case for his
06:06 match with Roman Reigns, and then even got antagonized by Cody who called him and Roman
06:12 making their match above him "bulls***", yeah The Rock responded to Cody saying that
06:19 his grandfather would be ashamed of him and Roman's grandfather would be ashamed of him
06:24 by slapping the s*** out of Cody.
06:27 The intensity fueled over, Rollins was yelling at The Rock, The Rock was yelling at Rollins,
06:33 Cody was yelling at The Rock, Roman Reigns is yelling at people, it was a wild scene,
06:37 we're getting Cody vs Roman, that's happening, Triple H put it out on the Twitter machine,
06:43 okay, that's happening.
06:45 But there's a lot of other elements here, are we going to get a triple threat match
06:49 with Rock, Roman and Cody?
06:51 Honestly, Cody deserves the one on one shot against Roman Reigns, the clash between Rock
06:56 and Roman is monumental on its own and maybe shouldn't be diluted with a third competitor
07:01 and vice versa with Cody and Roman.
07:04 So what's the solution, how do you do this, how will WWE potentially thread the needle
07:10 between night one and night two of Wrestlemania in Philadelphia?
07:14 There are multiple scenarios that could play out with maybe Cody wrestling two nights,
07:19 maybe Roman wrestling two nights, maybe a scenario where someone wins on night one and
07:24 gets the title shot on night two.
07:27 This way, no matter what, we're going to see someone finish the story at Wrestlemania and
07:34 seems like a lot of people want that person to be Cody Rhodes.
07:38 Has WWE painted themselves into a corner or have they simply put the hook in our mouths
07:44 and we're being reeled into the Wrestlemania payoff?
07:48 What do you think?
07:49 Let us know in the comments below, how would you handle this year's Wrestlemania?
07:54 Subscribe to Sportskeeda Wrestling here on YouTube, over 100,000 of you strong.
08:00 Check out our weekly show, Rings and Rambles, where we get really long and conversational
08:06 with these topics.
08:07 See you next time.
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