Like a majority of very plugged-in wrestling fans, I’m pretty confident about what’s going to happen in the two main events at WrestleMania 40. I’m sure there will be surprise appearances and unexpected story beats along the way, but regardless of what they are, it would be a big surprise if The Rock and Roman Reigns didn’t win on night one and Cody Rhodes didn’t win on night two. I’m not saying every single WWE fan is in agreement, but I’m sure the credible predictions will overwhelmingly pick those outcomes. That being said, what happens after WrestleMania is a gigantic question mark and involves a huge decision WWE is going to have to make about The Rock.
Before we get into that, let’s talk about the WrestleMania 40 main events. The Rock and Roman Reigns are squaring off against Cody Rhodes and Seth Rollins on the first night. If Cody and Seth win, there’s no outside interference allowed on night two, and if The Rock and Roman Reigns win, it’s “Bloodline Rules” and anything goes. Given the second night is way more interesting if anything goes and it doesn’t make any sense for The Rock to come back and lose his first match, the obvious outcome is The Rock and Roman will win.
Then on night two, it’s overwhelmingly likely Cody Rhodes will win because we all watched him lose at WrestleMania 39, and if he loses at WrestleMania 40, the audience is probably going to get sick of watching him try to finish his story. Some obstacles are a good thing, but WrestleMania 40 will mark two years since Rhodes vowed to win The WWE Championship in honor of his late father. Three years is too long to watch him run into obstacles, and the history of wrestling tells you that if the audience wants to get behind a traditional babyface in a big way, you should give the babyface the title and let him run.
To be clear, I’m beyond fired up for WrestleMania. Wrestling is hotter than it’s been in decades right now, and this has the potential to be one of the best PPVs WWE has ever put on. I cannot freaking wait to see how it all plays out, even if the endings to several of the bigger matches are pretty obvious.
That being said, as obvious as those endings are, what happens afterwards is a gigantic fork in the road question mark that I’ve been internally arguing with myself about for weeks. When Cody Rhodes’ music hits and he gets his long-awaited celebration with WWE’s most famous title, Triple H, Bruce Prichard and the other writers are going to have in front of them the single biggest decision to make over the next year: what to do about The Rock.
It’s widely assumed that the eventual plan is for WWE to get to Roman Reigns and The Rock as the main event at WrestleMania 41. The real life cousins are, without question, the biggest stars involved with wrestling right now, and the two squaring off has the potential to be the biggest ‘Mania main event since The Rock and John Cena or maybe even Hulk Hogan and Andre The Giant. But there’s also a lot of money to be made with The Rock and Cody Rhodes.
Last week’s Monday Night Raw was one of the best episodes I have ever seen, a view widely shared by many fans. Drew McIntyre, CM Punk, Seth Rollins, Rhea Ripley, Becky Lynch, R-Truth and more performers had a lot to do with that, but the single biggest factor for many was the segment between The Rock and Cody Rhodes, which involved a bloody fight in the parking lot that closed the show. It was absolutely fantastic and has fans desperate for more.
So, here’s the question: when Roman Reigns loses at WrestleMania, are we going to see The Rock blame Roman Reigns, setting off a yearlong feud between the two most famous members of The Bloodline or are we going to see The Rock blame Cody Rhodes and try to win the championship back for his family?
When The Rock’s return was first announced, there were some rumors that we could see him win The WWE Championship. I thought that was absolutely ludicrous at the time, as did many other fans, but he is doing some of the best work of his entire career right now. His heel persona is the best gimmick we’ve seen in wrestling in quite awhile; so, if he wants to set his sights on Cody Rhodes, there’s a lot of money to be made there. That match could main event any PPV on WWE’s calendar including WrestleMania 41. But it would also require The Rock to be around quite a bit, as he has been, to build the match, and it would involve taking more of a slow burn approach on his inevitable feud with Roman.
Or the other option is The Rock could tell Roman to go win the belt back for the family and he could watch from the sidelines. That doesn’t mean he wouldn't get involved with Cody Rhodes on occasion, but his feud with Cody would only be by proxy. It would all be in service to eventually building whatever is going to happen with Roman Reigns. That would allow him to do more Hollywood stuff and only pop in on special occasions.
I don’t know what WWE is going to do. All I know is after the year resets post WrestleMania, whatever WWE decides to do with The Rock is going to be the single biggest decision the powers that be make all year. I can’t wait to see what they decide.
