(So. What do we want to talk about?)
The featured story in WWE almost to the point of parody since Cody Rhodes’ return to the company is his Legend of Zelda-like fetch quest to “finish the story.” His dream to accomplish what no one in his family has; while both he and his father have worn NWA and ROH world title gold, it’s not quite the same thing as winning the WWE title. It has the history, the prestige and the honour ingrained in it via the people who’ve held it, the streaks born during reigns, and the periods that defined multiple eras of professional wrestling.
We thought it might happen in 2023 following his return from injury at that year’s Royal Rumble, an event he won to secure his title match at WrestleMania opposite Roman Reigns. Whether or not he should have won last year is debatable. If you were to ask me, as someone who has followed Rhodes his entire career, I’d say he should have won. They set the table for it, and then pulled the table cloth off the surface not so delicately, resulting in all the fine dinnerware ending up on the floor.
However, in hindsight it was the right call. If we consider the journey of the entire Rhodes family, nothing has ever come easy, and last year’s win highlighted the magic of the Rumble with him coming back from injury to win it all, almost a Cena-like callback, but it also felt unearned. It almost flies in the face of his old “do the work” mantra.
So when the 2024 Rumble rolled around, it was a foregone afterthought that he would re-enter and again aim to target Reigns’ throne. And it was a foregone conclusion that once he won he would again challenge Reigns for the Undisputed WWE Universal Championship. The end of the show made that quite clear, and it’s becoming quite apparent in the hours following Friday night’s Smackdown and over the course of the next day it’s what a loud segment of fans want.
The question we have to ask is, is that the right move and for who?
I don’t think anyone’s immediate negative reaction toward The Rock seemingly stepping into the main event slot at WrestleMania is wrong, and it’s nothing to be ashamed of considering that sentiment proves Cody is the person to carry the company in the coming years. That we care and are knee-jerk reacting so negatively to the decision is proof positive that Rhodes matters to us as fans. And for as much as they might not want to admit, there is a segment of fan like myself that have followed the entire journey –the good, the bad and the Codyverse in AEW–and are hopelessly invested in the story. That’s also why the sentiment is so negative right now until we have clarity; it reeks of pessimism about what the future holds for a company that did so much right in 2023. The groundswell of support for Cody over the weekend is truly remarkable and is where WWE needs to turn through 2024 and beyond.
Here’s the issue. Where “the story” is ripe with goodwill sentiment with an army of people who genuinely like Cody and want him to win the big one, the reality is foremost and above all that the Bloodline Saga has been THE story in wrestling for the last three-and-a-half years. Personally, left to its own merits, the story has run its course with the sole exception being that lingering possibility of punctuating the story with a Reigns-Rock showdown. It’s the natural, final notch the story needs and is just what can push Reigns’ record run going along a little while longer. (Who doesn’t actually want him to pass Hogan at this point?)
Rocky Rhodes Ahead? Not Necessarily
This brings us to a weird point where we have segments of fans split over what we want, and both are valid avenues for the company to pursue. On the one hand there’s the obvious financial consideration of how lucrative a Rock-Reigns headliner would be for the show, PPV and traffic to the WWE Network and Peacock. Conversely, with the Rhodes-Reigns route you have two years (if not more) of emotional investment by fans who want the payoff. It’s a matter of does the company sacrifice its goodwill equity from over the last year for the sake of box office? That’s the decision that needs to be made, or perhaps already has been.
There’s no hard fast and rule as to when “the story” needs to be finished, it simply the base level logic that it should be at WrestleMania because of its grandiose, stage. There’s not a bigger platform considering the stadium backdrop and the marquee of the Mania logo. But if it’s for that reason you can equally argue Roman and Rock should also happen especially when considering the limitations to Dwayne Johnson’s schedule. It might be now or never, and is that worth sacrificing? Probably not, because equally so, Reigns run is growing long in the tooth. That’s simple fact from my perspective; now is the time to pull the trigger on both, its just a matter of how and when.
With the rumor being Rhodes will be challenging Seth Rollins for the World Heavyweight Championship, and likely Reigns at either a major show, SummerSlam or as Bully Ray has suggested a Madison Square Garden show to truly bring the story full circle, it seems to me the most sensible option is to replicate what NJPW did at its Double Gold Dash a few years back at Wrestle Kingdom.
At that show over two nights, Jay White, Kazuchika Okada, Kota Ibushi and Tetsuya Naito took part in a mini-tournament to unify the IWGP Heavyweight and Intercontinental titles. The winners of both nights wrestled the next, with the winner becoming double champion. I’d propose the same here, with Cody and Roman winning on night 1 and then matching up the next night to unify the titles if that’s what’s on the table.
X-Factors
Roman winning on night one is only conditional on the match being a title match with Rock. If it’s non-title and Rocky wins, it still serves the story of chipping away at Roman but steals the luster of Cody beating him. If this is what’s happening, it is what it is unless Roman goes over Rock–which he should.
Secondly, how much longer is Rollins’ world title planned to be active? However, the above point is conditional on what that belt’s timeline is for inevitably being folded into the main title. It was bad enough for Roman to run the title down on Friday, so I don’t think any option that devalues Rollins’ run or the work he’s put in over the last year should be followed through on if it’s going to be worked into the bigger story. If so, Cody should win and then challenge Reigns that weekend. If not, he shouldn’t be in any match opposite Rollins unless it’s to win or lose and have Damian Priest cash in.
In my opinion, there is a way to do this right if the objective is to keep Rhodes and Reigns apart on WrestleMania weekend. For Cody to win and not have the world title mean less, WWE would need to follow up on Rollins’ reference to the title as the “workhorse title” and really have Rhodes defend it an torrid, almost Orange Cassidy-like pace as seen during his first run as AEW International Champion. To do that, and then have Reigns and Rhodes square off has as much impact narrative-wise as it would WrestleMania weekend. No other scenario suffices, and contrary to what can be politicked, the end game needs to be the current generations of the Rhodes and Anoa’i families squaring off.
Table Set, End of Story
I’ve never once been shy about being a Cody Rhodes fan, and I count myself among the many who also have followed him from Day 1 in WWE through his exit in 2016, runs in ROH, NJPW, AEW and the indies, and return to WWE in 2022.
I still remember the first time I heard “Kingdom” on one of his first indie matches, and from that point the line “wrestling has more than one royal family” has almost been a mantra or rallying call for Rhodes’ journey. The point of the line is that the wrestling business has never just been about the McMahons, despite what the prevailing narrative might have dictated. While the family has its roots in wrestling’s history for better and worse, so too does the Anoa’i and Maivia families, the Flairs and Harts, the Jarretts and Guerreros, and the Ortons and Rhodes among many others. That’s without ever counting second generation athletes of all walks and levels of the business.
At this time, with this story, what we have are two massive narrative forces coming together at the same time, two which you could argue have never been held in the same regard as a McMahon, Flair or a Hart. Always respected and revered, but never the consistent headliner on the big stage. That’s all changed over the last several years with Reigns finally ascending beyond where he was positioned to be and Rhodes taking control of his path and making people respect his family’s legacy.
One has demanded acknowledgment and has commanded the respect that comes with it, the other has earned it with the equivalent respect inherent to it. If not WrestleMania, then any other payoff down the road that doesn’t end with them facing off for the WWE title is a disservice to both stories.
Who knew when Reigns first secured the Universal title, and when Rhodes later returned that two years later their stories would become this intertwined and important to WWE as a company that we’d be arguing over whether or not we want Dwayne Johnson to bugger off. While he’s part of the bigger cross-generational story, it’s definitely bigger than him. It might even be the most important over-arching WWE story in quite some time.
Rhodes and Reigns need to match up this year, sooner than later. Whether it’s at WrestleMania, SummerSlam, an MSG show, or somewhere of equal value, their match and its outcome is the conclusion their combined stories deserve.
Nothing less.