The night after WrestleMania, Cody Rhodes, after winning The WWE Championship and finally finishing his story, was confronted on Monday Night Raw by The Rock. The two men exchanged some testy words, and the implication to the audience was very clear. At some point, after filming another movie or two in Hollywood, The Rock would return and try and take the belt Cody just won. It was a fantastic little segment that got fans hyped about a match between the two, but eight months later, I’m starting to worry it’s causing a problem.
There’s just no forward momentum. When The Rock first left in April, there wasn’t a clear timeline for his return. Some fans speculated we could see the legend back for SummerSlam in August, but then he got injured over the Summer while filming his new A24 movie The Smashing Machine. That caused the anticipation to switch to November’s Survivor Series, especially after The Rock made a surprise appearance at Bad Blood, where he stared Cody Rhodes and Roman Reigns down and did a throat slashing gesture. But now Survivor Series has come and gone too without The Rock, and the latest rumors are especially troubling.
Speculation is currently running wild that WWE is moving forward with creative plans as if The Rock will not be working WrestleMania 41. He's denied them, but still, they persist aggressively. Even worse, there have been some recent stories claiming The Rock’s appearance at Bad Blood wasn’t actually part of a planned storyline. Instead, it was allegedly just a way to keep him and his character present in the minds of fans. That part doesn’t necessarily bother me, but the implication certainly does. If there aren’t currently any creative plans for The Rock that his appearance would tease to, then it likely means he’s not going to be returning anytime soon.
Now, The Rock can do whatever he wants to do. He’s one of the biggest actors in the entire world, and he’s fantastic at professional wrestling. There were a few initial hiccups when he came back in January because of how it affected ongoing storylines, but once that got sorted and he got rolling, he gave us an all-time run. So, if he wants to come back six months from now or eighteen months from now, I’m into it.
The problem is Cody Rhodes needs a long-term plan. I’m not Triple H, nor am I in WWE’s writing room, but that segment after WrestleMania, in which The Rock asked to literally hold Cody’s WWE Championship, seemed like a pretty clear signal that they were going to wrestle for the belt at some point in the future. But now it’s eight months later, we don’t seem to be any closer to that match, and if there’s not an immediate plan to give us that match, I don’t really think Cody should hold the title for that much longer.
I’m not saying the crowd doesn’t love Cody or that he’s not a great ambassador for WWE. He is. I’m so happy to see him getting an extended moment in the sun. He deserves it. But he’s now held The WWE Championship for more than 250 days, and his current feud with Kevin Owens is the first truly compelling one he’s had. He’s had some good matches (with AJ Styles most prominently) and done some interesting things with The Bloodline, but this most recent match with KO is the first time fans have even considered the possibility he could lose.
And that’s a problem. Cody Rhodes is not Hulk Hogan, nor is he Roman Reigns. He’s more of a Bret Hart type figure, and Bret Hart’s longest ever run with the big title was 248 days. If you want other comparisons, Shawn Michaels’ was 231 days. Kurt Angles’ was 126 days. You can go down the list, but apart from a handful of generational crossover mega-stars, even the great WWE Champions have maxed out at around a year for their title runs. Now, many of them have later won the title back, but that’s the entire point. WWE has thrown adversity in their way to keep their characters fresh and interesting.
Cody hasn’t had any of that. I guess you could argue him joining forces with Roman Reigns was some character development, but to be honest, it just sort of felt like he was being shoehorned into Roman’s story. Now WWE has used the fallout of him helping Roman to great storyline advantage, and as such, we’re currently getting something really interesting with Owens. But there’s still this lingering feeling amongst many fans that no one is really a threat to win The WWE Championship until The Rock comes back. But if he’s not going to be back at or before WrestleMania 41, I think WWE needs to move in another direction. I think they need to consider letting Kevin Owens win the Championship, at least for a short while. It would be the fastest way to make Rhodes’ storyline feel like must-see TV again.
I was having a conversation this morning with some of my coworkers about who is going to main event WrestleMania. Is CM Punk finally going to get his shot after all these years? What about John Cena? Could he return and wrestle someone like Gunther for a Championship? Would that be enough? Could Rhea Ripley sneak in there? We all agreed whatever Roman Reigns does is almost certainly going to be one of the Main Events, but Cody Rhodes, despite being The WWE Champion, felt like a big question mark. Many fans think he’ll wind up taking on Randy Orton, but does that actually feel WrestleMania Main Event worthy to you? Would we all still be assuming he's going to win and wait for The Rock?
Cody Rhodes is arguably WWE’s most popular babyface champion since John Cena. He also seems like a great guy, and fans are still cheering him longly and loudly. He deserves everything he’s gotten, but if The Rock isn’t going to be back for another nine months or a year, I don’t think it’s a good idea to keep the Championship on Cody. This current program with Kevin Owens has been a wakeup call about how unexciting the rest of his run has been. So, if it’s not going to be The Rock that adds a little excitement and adversity to his storyline, then WWE needs to start making plans to find that with someone else. Or, in my opinion, they should give the title to Kevin Owens, at least for a month or two. He’s never won the big belt before, and he’s been fantastic in this current program.
The Rock is great. He should be welcomed back and put into a main event program the next time he has a few months to spare, but if those months aren’t going to be leading into this WrestleMania, then Cody Rhodes shouldn’t wait on him any longer. He needs to lose to someone at some point soon-ish. If done correctly, a big loss and a few months of chasing would only make him more popular, and it would certainly make his narrative arc a lot more compelling.
