Cody Rhodes is going to try to finish his story at WrestleMania after all, but it appears Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson will loom large regardless.
The WWE on Thursday night hosted a WrestleMania "press conference" in Las Vegas. The event was built around officially revealing the main event for this year's WrestleMania in Philadelphia with questions swirling about which direction the company would go.
Rhodes, who is in the midst of a title chase that spans two years, won the Royal Rumble in January. That was more or less expected, as a WrestleMania rematch with universal champion Roman Reigns appeared to be the company's play. However, it appeared WWE pivoted in recent weeks by bringing back The Rock. According to reports, the WrestleMania plans were rewritten so that Rock would face Reigns.
It was a head-scratcher and one that received legitimate backlash from fans online.
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Fast-forward to Thursday night where they had Reigns flip the script and announce he was "choosing" Rock for his WrestleMania bout. The two superstars were even shown on the big screen as a way to promote the supposed bout.
That's when Rhodes crashed the party and made his "decision" to fight Reigns at WrestleMania.
From there, things got really interesting. As Rhodes ran down Reigns' family -- he and The Rock share the same Samoan bloodline and are "cousins" -- he also mentioned The Rock's grandfather, "High Chief" Peter Maivia.
That led to perhaps the most surprising outcome of the entire night. The Rock walked over and slapped Rhodes in the face, leading to a pull-apart to end the press conference. Seemingly, The Rock has turned heel.
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The decision certainly is one that has fans talking. As of Friday morning, the tweet had been retweeted or quote-tweeted more than 11,000 times with roughly 53,000 likes and had gained 2.5 million views.
WWE then conducted a backstage interview with chief content officer Paul Levesque (aka Triple H), whose character toes the line of the real-life executive and the storyline decision-maker for the entire company. As he was being interviewed, Reigns, The Rock and Reigns' manager Paul Heyman were seen walking together, seemingly aligned. The Rock stopped and told Levesque "you gotta fix it" regarding Rhodes.
"It's a lot of bull (expletive) is what it is. You gotta fix it. Fix it. Have him talk (expletive) about our family again, and that's what happens. … If you don't fix it, we will. Have him talk (expletive) about our family again, (and) I'll slap his (expletive) teeth out of his mouth."
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As for the actual match at WrestleMania, it now looks like WWE is actually going with Rhodes vs. Reigns. That much we know.
What we don't know, of course, is what role The Rock will have at the two-night extravaganza in April. This all coincides with Johnson's recent return to the company. Johnson was named a board of directors member for TKO Group, the company that was formed when Endeavor merged WWE and the UFC. The netted Johnson $30 million in stock, and he also earned the rights to "The Rock" trademark. According to PWInsider, part of that contract might have included assurances or guarantees that Johnson would perform at WrestleMania.
"Multiple sources have noted that The Rock is 100% performing in the ring at WrestleMania 40," PWInsider reported, per SEScoops.com. "That is a done deal and, as we noted on Saturday, likely something that was contractually locked in as one of the milestones Rock would be involved in as part of his TKO Board of Directors deal."
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One other major piece from that reporting: "We were told there is 'no scenario' where Rock is not wrestling Roman Reigns at WrestleMania 40, unless something unforeseen happens, like an injury."
It's too early to say how that will shake out. The story is just beginning -- or is being rewritten, depending what you believe -- and there's still plenty of time for the company to build a Rock match for 'Mania. If a Rock-Roman match is still definitely happening, Reigns could face Rhodes on one night and the Rock the other.
Regardless, if this wasn't the original plan and the company felt the backlash (that it ultimately leaned into) was too much to ignore, they have done a pretty good job of generating excitement in the direction they're going, as evidenced by the YouTube video of Thursday night's angle getting more than 2 million views in less than 12 hours.
Featured image via YouTube/WWE
