This past Friday night on WWE SmackDown, Cody Rhodes delivered the news that he would not face Roman Reigns at WWE WrestleMania 40 for the Undisputed WWE Universal Championship. Instead, Rhodes informed Reigns that he wanted to “take everything” from him and brought out his cousin, Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson. The backlash to Rhodes abandoning his desire to finish his story was swift, with fans taking to social media to air their grievances. Over the weekend, the hashtag #WeWantCody regularly trended worldwide.
On WWE Raw last night, the crowd chanted “Rocky Sucks” and “We Want Cody” throughout. WrestleVotes reports that the “Rocky Sucks” chants threw off certain people backstage. Furthermore, it was noted that WWE did anticipate some kind of “viral reaction” to Rhodes but did not anticipate the amount of hate hurled toward Johnson. It is worth noting that the hate being hurled at Johnson has also found its way to his daughter, WWE NXT General Manager Ava. Ava has deactivated her X account after receiving death threats and other inappropriate messages.
On Wrestling Observer Radio, Dave Meltzer stated he had spoken with a source who confirmed WWE is going for a “Daniel Bryan thing” with Rhodes. This means they want the fans to really get behind Rhodes and demand his entry in the WWE WrestleMania 40 main event. In regard to the negative chants toward Johnson, it was added that The Rock likely does not care whether or not the fans boo or cheer him. All Johnson cares about is the revenue generated for him, WWE, and TKO Group Holdings. The increased demand for WWE tickets in recent weeks was pointed to as the kind of thing Johnson is more interested in.
Meltzer also shared the following on social media earlier this morning, giving some clarity to when Paul “Triple H” Levesque became aware that Johnson would be wrestling Reigns at WWE WrestleMania 40.
“My buddy Jay told me that since his tweets are private I probably should note that the idea that Paul Levesque didn’t know about Rock’s signing with the company and him wrestling Reigns when he booked the Rumble is clearly not the case,” he wrote. “He knew exactly what he was doing.”
I will be on-site this Thursday for the WWE WrestleMania 40 Press And Fan Event at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada. Any exclusive interviews that I conduct will be made available for Haus of Wrestling ClubHaus Members first before being released to the general public. To learn more about the Haus of Wrestling ClubHaus or to become a Member, please click HERE.