Mr Ego, Mr Gloryhound Forces Cody Out of WM Main Event

C.M. Punk warned Cody that this would happen over a week ago:

He said Cody carried this company for an excruciating two years and they gave him the video game cover and he’s ready to finish his story but what’s that? A Superstar much bigger than him, who hasn't been around would come around and steal Cody's spot

WWE uploaded the full segment from Smackdown to YouTube and on Saturday morning, Twitter account @wrestleops noted the following about the video…

“The Rock & Roman Reigns’ segment from last nights #SmackDown is now officially @wwe’s most disliked YouTube video of all time with over 500,000 dislikes in under only 9 hours. In 9 hours: 1.6M views. 57,000 Likes. 500,000+ Dislikes.”


According to a report on Fightful Select, people backstage were said to have been shocked about Rock coming in to take Cody’s spot at Wrestlemania. Others that Fightful talked to noted that they heard as of the afternoon of the 2024 Royal Rumble PLE that Rock had agreed to do the match against Reigns. In addition to that, it’s believed that there was Rock “Head of the Table” Wrestlemania themed merchandise prototypes created by the Rumble weekend.

Fightful spoke to people within the company that believe Rock had not only lobbied to work the match against Reigns, he was even pushing to win it. The early word is that Rock will attempt to work a full-length match but there have been some concerns about him doing an extensive match following his recent appearances. (You mean considering he was gassed after throwing a few punches and an Elbow on Jinder)

Mike Johnson of PWInsider.com confirmed with multiple sources that Rock was pushing to get the Wrestlemania main event spot. Rock reportedly pushed for the match as he felt him vs. Reigns is the bigger attraction for the company and was said to have received the backing of multiple top executives at WWE’s parent company TKO.

Johnson noted the following…

“While WWE had been expertly building to a Cody Rhodes vs. Roman Reigns rematch, some sources believe it was done by Johnson [Rock] to, as one source stated, ‘save Wrestlemania’ after CM Punk and Brock Lesnar, for very different reasons, were taken off the board from the biggest weekend of the year.”

“PWInsider.com is told this wasn’t done to target and politic Cody out of his main event out of malice, but out of the belief that Johnson was the best idea to make money now and respect his new position with the company’s parent company. This was a strategic move to give Johnson more political power overall and to show Endeavor’s faith in his involvement and that even Paul Levesque [Triple H], who has done an admirable job as the Chief Creative Officer, would ‘lose that power struggle with Johnson at this point’, as one source surmised.”

Mike Johnson of PWInsider.com noted the following in regards to The Rock’s creative direction in WWE…

“One source confirmed to PWInsider.com that former Senior Vice President of Development at Johnson’s Seven Bucks Productions, Brian Gewirtz will be in the mix as the voice representing Johnson in the WWE Creative process going forward. There are some who believe Gewirtz, who at one point was one of the longest tenured WWE Head Writers, will be around physically at least for major shows going forward, could even be there as a ‘Plan B’ if Endeavor ever needs to pivot WWE’s direction and go with a Johnson-backed creative team down the line.”

Cody Rhodes returned to the ring Saturday for a WWE live event in Knoxville, Tennessee, one night removed from SmackDown, where he literally handed over the right to face Roman Reigns at WrestleMania to The Rock.

A replay of what happened on SmackDown aired on a big screen in the Knoxville Civic Coliseum earlier in the evening. Fans booed The Rock upon seeing him saunter out to accept Rhodes’ place against Reigns

Rhodes later entered the arena to a warm reception, then put his head down and went to work against Shinsuke Nakamura in a Street Fight.

Afterward, Rhodes addressed the live event crowd.

Rather than addressing the recent controversy, Rhodes kept his attention to the Knoxville audience. While preparing to offer a fragment of one of the broken tables as a souvenir, he noticed a sign in the crowd that read, “Legally blind, but trying to see Cody Rhodes.”

Rhodes exited the ring and made a point for the fan to see him closeup as he embraced his loyal supporter before returning to the ring to wish Knoxville a good night.

We didn’t have to wait very long into this week’s episode of Monday Night Raw to get more answers to the Cody Rhodes questions coming out of Friday Night SmackDown and his decision to hand off the Roman Reigns match to The Rock. Well, at least it seemed we would.

At the mention of The Rock’s catchphrase, the boos start and the camera pans out to show a sea of “We Want Cody” signs. Seth says he wants Cody too, and after Friday he has more questions than answers... so Cody Rhodes, come on down!

The American Nightmare shakes hands on his way to the ring, then asks Rollins and the crowd what they want to talk about. They pause as a “Rocky Sucks” chant goes around the arena, to which Cole asks if it’s 1996. Rollins says he didn’t expect to hear it. The crowd switches to “We Want Cody”, and an emotional looking Rhodes poses for them.

Drew McIntyre would come out and implore Cody to finish the story leaving Seth to Drew, McIntyre attacks Rollins until Cody made the save

(Nothing was announced, but clearly the crowd made their choice known & they want Cody)

The Rock’s daughter Ava (Simone Johnson), who is the current WWE NXT general manager, started receiving negative messages from angry fans on Twitter/X. Ava wrote the following in response to the situation…

“can ya’ll just leave me out of this ffs i’m busy running a SHOW. death threats over a situation i have nothing to do with … bffr [be for fucking real].

On Tuesday, Ava ended up deactivating her account.
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This is NOT ok. I get fans being pissed at the whole situation, but this is going WAY over the line and yeah I understand Ava is Rock's daughter, but she has nothing to do with any of this

HHH just announced that it will indeed be Roman vs Cody at mania.