Brian Gewirtz continues to pull back the curtain on what happened at WWE WrestleMania XL.
The former WWE writer, who now works for The Rock and Seven Bucks productions, appeared on The Ringer’s Masked Man Show to discuss a wide array of topics, including the build-up to this year’s Showcase of the Immortals. As everyone knows, The Rock was originally supposed to face Roman Reigns, but due to a wave of fans chanting #WeWantCody and Triple H having a change of heart, the main event instead became Roman Reigns vs. Cody Rhodes, where the American Nightmare ‘Finished his Story.’
However, there was a point when Rocky was going to get the spot, and Cody basically passed the torch to him. On the February 2nd edition of WWE SmackDown Cody cut a promo telling Reigns that The Rock was going to be the one to dethrone him. Photos of Cody and The Rock hugging went viral afterward as many in the WWE Universe saw how unhappy Cody was with the decision. Gewirtz addresses that during his interview, revealing that the promo Cody cut was originally supposed to be much more uplifting, but he doesn’t blame him for wearing his emotions on his sleeve.
Cody is a human being who is genuine and real, and he wears his heart and emotion on his sleeve. In Alabama [February 2nd WWE SmackDown], certainly, even if you tell me, ‘that would never work, it’s stupid to propose it.’ The idea was supposed to be, it’s like the Nixon-Kenedy debate a little bit where you read the transcript, you’re like ‘Nixon kicked his ass.’ If you watch the actual footage, ‘Oh, he was a sweaty terrible mess.’ Cody, it was supposed to be, in some form, ‘Yeah, Fuckin A! Go get em Rock! You’re going to get your ass kicked, Roman! Let’s do this!’ and this uplifting promo. Instead, he looked like someone shot his dog in the face in the parking lot. Just look at his expression. By the way, someone else, even when the team wins, looks forlorn and upset and despondent. Julius Randle [laughs]. That, I don’t think, helped matters. It might not have changed or affected anything. Certainly, on paper, and I don’t blame Cody for that, he’s real and one of the realest people I’ve ever met. He said what he had to say in the promo, but you couldn’t mask what he was really feeling, and I think the fans felt that a lot. They felt like ‘he doesn’t mean a word of this. This is being forced for him to say.’ He’s despondent. He’s literally doing the Michael Cera-Arrested Development, Charlie Brown walk out of the arena when he’s supposed to be on cloud nine. I think that had a lot to do with it.”
In the end, Cody got his WrestleMania moment, The Rock became the biggest heel in wrestling, and Roman Reigns would finally lose the title after a near four year reign.
Elsewhere in the interview, Gewirtz spoke about the Behind The Curtain documentary on WrestleMania XL, and how The Rock shouldn’t be blamed for its delay. You can read about that here.
