The Rock has gone full heel. After a week plus of questions around whether Dwayne Johnson would lean into all the fan outrage, he appeared on SmackDown and tapped into his inner villain for the first time in decades. He insulted Cody Rhodes, insulted the people of Utah and insulted the internet wrestling community for daring to complain about his return. His promo, despite some storyline inconsistencies, was masterful work and has gotten even many of the most jaded fans fired up for WrestleMania. In fact, it’s probably fair to say a lot of people are more fired up about this storyline than they have been about any for a long time, but there’s still one absolutely massive decision The Rock, Triple H and all the other key WWE decision makers need to make.
Who should actually win at WrestleMania 40?
We’re all pretty sure the long-term plan is for The Rock and Roman Reigns to main event WrestleMania 41. The cousins are undoubtedly two of the biggest stars in the history of the wrestling business, and a match between them would be a dream come true for wrestling fans. In fact, the plan quiet clearly seems to have been for the two to wrestle this year at WrestleMania 40 for the WWE Championship, but after outraged fans complained about Cody Rhodes being pushed aside, the decision was made to turn The Rock heel and delay the match to next year. It was the right call and one that has gone over very well with the fanbase. But now, WWE needs to decide what to do about this year’s WrestleMania main event, more specifically, whether to keep the title on Roman Reigns or give it to Cody Rhodes.
Fans on X, formerly known as Twitter, seem to be quite confident The Rock is going to interfere in the match to help Cody Rhodes win and set up a year long feud with Roman Reigns. In fact, they seem convinced The Rock spelled out his intentions during his SmackDown promo when he seemingly pointed at Roman Reigns while talking about doing everything in his power to make sure he loses. But I’m not so sure about that.
What’s best for Cody Rhodes’ story is almost certainly to win the WWE Championship at WrestleMania 40. He famously lost after outside interference in the main event of WrestleMania 39, and many fans and even other wrestlers were outraged at the time. He was so popular and over with fans at the time, and while sometimes adversity can help make the payoff that much sweeter, there are also plenty of examples of the opposite happening. Just ask Lex Luger who was white hot heading into SummerSlam 1993, but lost all his momentum after he didn’t win the belt.
Thanks to strong booking and great work by Cody Rhodes, he’s maintained his popularity and remained hot for the last year. A win at ‘Mania would pay off all that fan support in a huge way. He really needs to finish the story. Another loss could be disastrous. Waiting another year or even a few more months isn’t worth the risk for his character, as some fans might start seeing him as a perennial loser and stop emotionally investing. Now is the time, and a win would be almost guaranteed to create an all-time WWE moment.
But as The Rock alluded to in his promo on Friday, this isn’t just about Cody’s story anymore. The Rock is unquestionably the biggest star WWE has ever produced, and he’s now sitting on the board of directors and back for another run. His long-term story with Roman Reigns is going to be the A-plot of WWE storytelling moving forward, and it’s not necessarily clear that Cody winning the belt is the best path forward for that story.
Think about it this way. Let’s say The Rock interferes in the Cody and Roman match and helps Cody Rhodes win. At that point, it’s clear The Rock and Roman Reigns are now enemies and on a collision course for WrestleMania 41, but what happens over the course of the next year? They’re not going to wrestle each other at a second rate premium live event, which would take away excitement from WrestleMania 41. So, they’re going to just deliver promos calling each other out for an entire year? I’m very excited about the storyline and am a huge wrestling fan, but I’m not even sure I’m down for a year long build like that.
Instead, whatever happens needs to develop more slowly. We need twists and turns between now and WrestleMania 41. Roman hasn’t lost a singles match in more than three years. The Rock has been around for a few weeks. In an ideal world, you would want some time to see the two of them try to co-exist with Roman as champion before he loses the belt. Or, much to the frustration of wrestling fans, you’d even want to keep the belt on him until WrestleMania 41. The match doesn’t need the belt to draw interest, but The WWE Championship always raises the stakes of every match. The Rock wants this to be the biggest match in wrestling history. Would it be without the WWE Championship involved?
I’m not sure which way WWE is going to go. I tend to think they should probably give the title to Cody but not have The Rock directly cost Roman. That would allow Cody’s character to evolve and change, which is extremely important to WWE’s future, but it would also allow The Rock and Roman to move from family to enemies more slowly. I honestly have no idea what they’re going to do though. Instead, all I know is whichever route they take is going to play a major part in dictating WWE’s future for the next year.
