On April 2nd, in the main event of WrestleMania 39 Night 2, Roman Reigns shockingly defeated Royal Rumble winner Cody Rhodes to retain the Undisputed WWE Universal Championship, extending his reign to just shy of 1000 days. The majority of fans were of the belief that the ‘American Nightmare’ would finally be the one to dethrone the ‘Tribal Chief’, and thus the result has led to many questioning what the company’s end goal is with Reigns.
In the aftermath of WrestleMania 39, Paul Heyman stated that the main event bout provided the adversity that Rhodes needs to get through before he can dethrone Reigns. Speaking to ComicBook Nation, Cody had the chance to respond to Herman’s claims, revealing that he believes a rematch between the pair is still the goal, noting that its still the biggest match the company can put together.
“I almost think Mr. Heyman, I don’t know if it’s poking the bear, or if he likes living on the wild side, because he’s one of the smartest, most important, influential figures in the history of the sport, but he’s fully aware that I’m an incredibly reactionary person. I react differently. Five or seven years ago, if you sent me a tweet about how I couldn’t do something, I might react immediately and then try and go out and do it. That happened quite a bit. Today, it’s a little more cerebral in how I react to certain things. Reacting to losing at WrestleMania, here we are, the most profitable WrestleMania of all time, the most important show ever involved, this collective thing that fans love, and to be able to main event. So many people looked at it and tried to sell me that that was a win in itself and it’s not how I feel. A win is a win and a loss is a loss. I haven’t gone on TV talking about the nature of how I lost because I think it’s whining and I think everybody saw it. We saw it, we lived it, we breathed it. I think Mr. Heyman lives on the wild side in a sense when you hear things like ‘earn it,’ ‘hasn’t had enough adversity,’ I can’t wait until my documentary comes out. It’s very ironic in terms of juxtaposing the documentary and the amount of adversity in it, some people may not know about, particularly getting back to WWE, and Mr. Heyman’s comments. The goal is the same, is the best way to put it. The goal is the same for me as a sports entertainer, as a wrestler, I came here wanting one thing. It doesn’t mean other stories won’t happen that will also be finished and it doesn’t mean there aren’t other milestones, we’re talking about good things like video game covers, but the important thing to me is still the championship on Roman’s shoulders and it’s the biggest match that WWE could do, but it would take a great deal of mountains to be moved for that rematch to even happen. The goal is the same for me, I just have to see it through and do the work,”
-Cody Rhodes
Rhodes attempted to challenge Roman yet again during the Raw after WrestleMania, however, the champion instead proposed a tag team bout for later in the show. Before the bell rang, Rhodes’ surprise tag team partner, Brock Lesnar, attacked the former AEW EVP, setting up a mammoth showdown between the pair at this weekend’s upcoming Backlash premium live event in Puerto Rico.
With Rhodes drafted to Raw, he now finds himself separated from The Bloodline, and this it remains to be seen how, or if he manages to work himself back into Undisputed WWE Universal Championship contention.
H/T to Fightful for the transcription.
