A new report has detailed what Cody Rhodes did and didn’t know with regards to the WrestleMania 40 main event plans.
When Cody Rhodes won the 2024 Royal Rumble, it seemed inevitable that he would square off with Roman Reigns in the main event of WrestleMania 40. However, when The American Nightmare stepped aside to allow The Rock to challenge The Tribal Chief instead, uproar ensued online and the overwhelming majority of fans outright rejected The Great One in favour of Rhodes getting his match, leading to Rock turning heel and Cody returning to the spot he was once a certainty for.
Now, per Dave Meltzer in the Wrestling Observer Newsletter, more has come out regarding the thought process behind the WrestleMania 40 main event, including that Cody Rhodes was told he’d face Reigns at ‘Mania as far back as the autumn, without any indication of Rock being part of the equation prior to the Rumble.
“He was told he was facing Roman Reigns at WrestleMania in the fall. He was not told about The Rock getting the match as part of Rock’s deal on 1/3, so any interview he did about finishing the story prior to the Rumble was with the idea he was definitely in the match.”
-Dave Meltzer
According to the report, Rhodes found out that The Rock would be facing Reigns at WrestleMania at the Royal Rumble, despite The American Nightmare still being booked to come out victorious in the Rumble match itself. It was noted that the company still had the intentions to stage Rhodes vs Reigns at a later date, so Cody’s comments post-winning the over-the-top-rope spectacle were moreso there to build towards the future.
On this, it’s said that the plan was actually to have Rhodes written out with an injury angle in order to take him out of the Reigns match.
“Even fewer knew the injury angle planned for Rhodes because even people who knew this complete story were not aware of the original idea of how to get Rhodes out of the match and Rock in.”
-Dave Meltzer
It’s noted that the segment on the February 2 edition of SmackDown in which Cody stepped aside for The Rock was perceived to have worked perfectly on the night. Though, once the fan backlash became overwhelming, it was The Rock who was eager to turn heel, and the first inkling of this was when Logan Paul publicly tweeted support for Cody following the show.
“Everyone thought the angle, which was from Paul Levesque, using Rhodes to endorse Rock, worked perfectly given the crowd reaction that night. The social media reaction, while you always expect negativity and ignore it, was enough so where Johnson wanted to go heel if the fans were going to boo him and very quickly the company subtly pushed the direction when its largest social media star, Paul, posted about the angle.”
-Dave Meltzer
At the time, many wondered whether the injury CM Punk sustained during the Royal Rumble had led to Rhodes’ victory. On this, Meltzer clarified that Punk was always planned to earn his World Heavyweight Title shot in the Elimination Chamber, as, if he’d won the Rumble, it would’ve meant Rock would’ve gone to Australia to set up a match with Reigns, something that wasn’t going to happen.
Luckily, WWE didn’t run the injury angle with Rhodes, as they’d have then had to attempt to undo his write-off in an attempt to satisfy viewers who were expressing displeasure over the star not facing Roman Reigns at WrestleMania. As it stands, ‘Mania 40 will end much as last year’s did, with Rhodes facing The Tribal Chief for the Undisputed WWE Universal Title.
As always, we’ll aim to provide any further updates on the lead up to the WrestleMania 40 main event as soon as we hear more.
