CODY RHODES SAT in a director-style chair ultimate November within a manufacturing depot in Sylmar, California. The WWE superstar was once in Los Angeles’ San Fernando Valley for a multimedia execute for the WWE 2K24 online game.
Rhodes came upon in a while earlier than that he’d be at the defend of the sport’s field, the fresh signifier that he had emerged as some of the faces of WWE — if now not the face.
Two months next, Rhodes would win the Royal Rumble for a 2nd symmetrical pace, the primary back-to-back winner for the reason that iconic “Stone Cold” Steve Austin in 1998. Even earlier than that Rumble victory, which was once intended to earn Rhodes a identify shot in the primary occasion of WrestleMania 40, all indicators pointed to Rhodes difficult Roman Reigns for the Undisputed WWE Common championship on professional wrestling’s grandest degree, identical to he did in 2023.
Sitting in that manufacturing area again in November, Rhodes was once requested about one doable impediment in the way in which of any other WrestleMania headlining spot: Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson, some of the largest superstars WWE has ever produced and Hollywood’s highest-paid actor, who additionally simply occurs to be Reigns’ cousin.
“I don’t consider him in my way,” Rhodes advised ESPN. “Maybe he is and I’m being naïve to it. Maybe he wants to get in, I don’t know.”
Johnson returned to WWE on Jan. 1 and indicated in a promo that he was once eyeing a matchup with Reigns, a bout wrestling lovers have been salivating over since even earlier than Reigns launched into his record-setting identify run in 2020. On Feb. 2, Rhodes looked as if it would step apart in bias of Johnson in a hotly debated area on SmackDown when Johnson and Reigns confronted off for the primary life.
And WWE lovers hated it.
Johnson, probably the most liked wrestlers of all life, was once booed. A “WeWantCody” hashtag trended for days on X (previously Twitter), and the society at occasions echoed it with chants. WWE decision-makers had refuse selection however to pivot clear of what was once anticipated to be a marquee Reigns vs. Rock WrestleMania leading occasion.
Professional wrestling is without doubt one of the most original methods of leisure in that lovers can grant real-time comments about characters and storylines with their voices at are living presentations. That merely does now not exist in any alternative medium, and WWE has needed to alternate months of making plans to fulfill the vocal calls for of its boisterous fan bottom. Rhodes has been followed through WWE lovers as their man, much more so than the mythical Johnson, which was once illuminating to a couple within the editor’s room. Through extension, Johnson had virtually refuse selection however to “turn heel,” and turn into the evil man on the behest of the loads, dubbing Rhodes lovers “Cody Crybabies.”
Rhodes will certainly problem Reigns for WWE’s govern prize in the primary occasion of WrestleMania 40’s 2nd night time on April 7 in Philadelphia. At the first night time, Reigns will crew up with Johnson in a tag fit in opposition to Rhodes and Seth Rollins, the WWE International Heavyweight champion.
The street to get there was once now not one any of the above may have foreseen.
“I’ve been in that situation before where people just get behind you and you have no real explanation for it,” Rollins mentioned. “You just got to ride it. You ride that wave, and I know how good it feels, too. And for Cody, I don’t know that he expected that. And you get to a point where you don’t want to disappoint those people who believe in you. And it stops being less about what you want and your story, and it becomes more about not disappointing the people who love you, who’ve gotten behind you, who’ve invested in you.”
THESE SCENARIOS ARE now not overseas to WWE, particularly for the reason that daybreak of social media and podcasts. Fan response on the ones platforms can gasoline in-arena crowds and vice versa. In the long run, it’s as much as WWE brass to resolve whether or not to shift issues because of fan sentiment or arise company with the untouched plans.
“We’ve been through eras where it’s like, ‘Don’t listen to the vocal minority,'” mentioned Brian Gewirtz, a former longtime WWE editor who nonetheless writes for Johnson and is the senior vp of building at Johnson’s Seven Greenbacks Productions. “Are they a vocal minority? [The feeling has sometimes been], ‘It might be a vocal majority, but they’re not going to dictate to us — we’re going to stay the course and do what we have to do.’ And sometimes that’s proven to be successful, and sometimes it was like, ‘Wow, you really should have listened.'”
WWE’s fan bottom were given in the back of CM Punk as a straight-edge, anti-establishment determine who spoke reality to energy within the early 2010s. Time he had a record-setting identify reign, he by no means were given the WrestleMania leading occasion he and his supporters at all times pined for. The most productive probability for that was once in 2013 in opposition to his rival John Cena, however Punk was once booked to lose the WWE championship on the Royal Rumble to Johnson, who went on to stand Cena at WrestleMania for the second one symmetrical pace.
Lovers have been hoping for Punk to be in that spot, however Cena and Johnson have been probably the most important mainstream names within the promotion, to not point out one of the most most famed names WWE ever produced. It’s dried guilty the promotion for placing its absolute best bottom ahead for the blind target market on its largest annual display.
The plan was once to do one thing related a pace next when Dave Bautista — referred to as Batista in skilled wrestling — returned to WWE from Hollywood next 4 years. Batista promptly received the 2014 Royal Rumble fit, surroundings him up for the WrestleMania identify fit in opposition to Triple H — to vociferous boos. This life, the fan bottom, nonetheless pissed off that Punk have been spurned, determined that Daniel Bryan, the bearded, scrappy everyman, was once the wrestler they’d throw their weight in the back of.
The fan response was once so intense that it spurred what has been known as the “Yes Movement,” next Bryan’s “Yes!” catchphrase, to propel Bryan into the Mania headliner. Crowds chanted for Bryan, took over are living presentations and left WWE and not using a selection however to change. Bryan ended up in a triple-threat fit with Randy Orton and Batista for the WWE International Heavyweight championship in the primary occasion of WrestleMania 30 — and received. And that was once next beating Triple H to kick off the development.
“Bryan is one of the most fun examples ever of a real, organic groundswell,” Rhodes mentioned. I want Batista would come again now as a result of I felt so evil. Like, you’re booing Batista. That is Drax [from Guardians of the Galaxy], proper? He’s one of these lovely and beautiful personality.”
Rhodes said he has heard pundits say that WWE is trying to make the “We Need Cody” support just like the “Sure Motion,” but he feels that was “its personal factor.”
“Possibly the tales are related,” Rhodes said. “Rock and Roman would’ve been superb at WrestleMania 39. My gosh. However [Rock] didn’t come again and we began one thing else.”
SINCE RHODES’ RETURN to WWE at WrestleMania 38, he has been pushed as the promotion’s top babyface, a star in the mold of Cena who moves merchandise and possesses the clean-cut look advertisers adore.
Rhodes’ affable charisma jumps off the TV screen and has endeared him to fans, the same ones who willed him into the main event of WrestleMania over The Rock. His quest to “end the tale” is genuine. Rhodes truly does wish to win the one title his legendary father, Dusty Rhodes, never could.
“I were given such a lot of society after I first got here again, like, ‘Whats up, they’ll be booing him in two months. Oh, they’ll be booing him in a pace,'” said Rhodes. “I’ve the privilege, but in addition the load of, I’m enjoying myself. It is a genuine tale. My father, I sought after him to be WWF Champion.
“I still have that title. And the fact that he didn’t get it and I felt he deserved it. And in his absence, after he passed, you hear so much about him now. It’s that one little piece that nags at me, that’s really finishing the story.”
That long-game tale arc — which has performed out since Rhodes received the Rumble ultimate pace and the following loss to Reigns at WrestleMania 39 — has been performed seamlessly. That was once till Rhodes looked as if it would giveover that main-event slot to the returning Rock, despite the fact that he had already received the Rumble for a 2nd life.
Lovers revolted. They, too, sought after to peer Rhodes end the tale, a story delivered to existence through Rhodes’ real-life, scratch-and-claw climb to the govern of WWE following years at the indie scene and in AEW.
“Would the fans be as adamant Cody needs to finish his story if he didn’t win the Royal Rumble?” Gerwitz requested. “Once he won the Royal Rumble, then I think there was a certain element of, ‘Hey, don’t screw with us now.’ You can’t dangle the Royal Rumble win and then take it away. And I think everyone, Rock included, was like, ‘Yeah, they’re right. We should continue this story as it naturally would play out if this were real life.’
“If this have been genuine existence and he received the Rumble and he didn’t win ultimate pace’s WrestleMania, there’s actually refuse logical reason why — despite the fact that it’s worthwhile to struggle to build one up — why he wouldn’t wish to face Roman and win the identify.”
They tried anyway, but it didn’t work. On that Feb. 2 SmackDown episode, Rhodes conceded his championship shot at Reigns in favor of The Rock and headed toward yet another match with Rollins. The fans weren’t pleased. They let Johnson, WWE and Rhodes know exactly how they felt — loudly. Chants of “Rocky sucks” echoed in arenas, as if Johnson wasn’t one of the most recognizable people on the planet.
Surely, WWE didn’t want a repeat of January 2015 — an event that also took place in the infamously hostile Philadelphia wrestling market — when Reigns won the Rumble rather than Bryan. Boos cascaded down on the budding star, and even The Rock’s appearance couldn’t stop the crescendo.
“I used to be booed, traditionally,” Reigns said in a trailer for his upcoming “Biography: WWE Legends” episode. “You take into accounts those moments. You dream about them. And the age that it in truth occurs, it’s like they’re enjoying the worst soundtrack of all life over your age, ruining your birthday party. That’s how the Rumble in Philly felt.”
So, this time, WWE’s creative team, led by Paul “Triple H” Levesque, made the prudent move later in February and pivoted. At the WrestleMania XL Kickoff event in Las Vegas during Super Bowl Week, The Rock, Rhodes, Rollins and Reigns met on the stage at T-Mobile Arena.
And Rhodes officially chose to select Reigns rather than Rollins for the title shot earned by his Rumble victory. The Rock was already being booed when he viciously slapped Rhodes on stage in Vegas, officially signaling the star’s shocking heel turn and pushing himself on a different road to WrestleMania.
This is also new territory for WWE’s creative process, which appears far more fan-driven than in years past. Levesque is now at the helm of the promotion’s storylines, the position once held by his father-in-law, Vince McMahon, since WWE’s inception in 1982.
While McMahon seemed to pen storylines in permanent ink — an attitude that he knew what was best for the fans and if they didn’t like it, oh well — Levesque seems to approach weekly programming from his gorilla position behind the curtain through a more collaborative lens.
“Now it’s a unique life, and the way in which I do issues is quite other,” Levesque, WWE’s chief content officer, told ESPN. “My profession, I realized from being right here, however there have been issues alongside the way in which that I at all times concept I might do another way. On this life now, I am getting to build the ones yelps and with a immense crew of society. Whether or not society will wish to imagine it or now not, I feel we have been form of taking a look at this as right here’s the place we’re getting to travel to get this began and it has the potential of going this fashion or that means.
“We always have to call audibles every single week. Everything you do is dependent on reactions. That’s what we do as an industry. … The beautiful thing with this group and with Cody and Roman and Rock especially, everybody’s got their ear to the ground. … And then we all just get together and figure the s— out.”
In fact, Johnson needed to be on board with the storyline leaving, too. Particularly because it concerned him turning heel forward of his first fit in 11 years. Unquestionably, that supposed surroundings his arrogance apart to do what’s absolute best for industry, as Levesque favored to mention when he was once an on-screen heel authority determine. Time The Rock continues to be in the primary occasion of WrestleMania’s first night time, it pales compared to Rhodes’ slot along Reigns to alike out Night time 2.
It additionally implies that Rock received’t have a singles fit and rather should proportion the highlight with 3 others. While you’re a celeb on his degree — and few are — it might be simple to veto the storyline twist and keep the path. Later all, Johnson is at the board of administrators of TKO Team, WWE’s dad or mum corporate. Extra so, The Rock is so revered and generates such a lot industry that if he sought after to stay in a championship fit with Reigns, he most probably would have.
“Obviously it’s not his first rodeo, so he knows very well of the old axiom, ‘Card subject to change,'” Gewirtz mentioned. “I think he went into this with Rock vs. Roman, we have like 95 pages of merchandise and all these kinds of things. But also we had a meeting that day on Jan. 1 with Triple H, Nick Khan, myself and Rock. We talked about it, it’s like one of those things where WWE needs to do what WWE needs to do.”
Regardless of Rhodes’ wild luck and endurance on the govern of the cardboard, even he was once shocked through the lovers’ outpouring of aid. Once more, that is The Rock we’re speaking about. But it surely’s dried to swim in opposition to that tide when a stream rises in professional wrestling.
“I think he might just have come back at a strange time, which is wild [for] the most popular wrestler of all time and one of the most recognizable faces on Earth,” Rhodes mentioned. “Just the fact that one person is booing him out there throws me. It means we’re doing something special here. And I’ll say it until I’m blue in the face, [Disco Inferno] and those [podcasters], they get real mad at it, but we’re doing bigger business than the late ’90s. And the business in the late ’90s was incredible.”
After all, the raucous “We Want Cody” chants that reverberated thru T-Cellular Area ultimately gave solution to the “Cody Crybabies,” the ones passionate Rhodes lovers Johnson categorized as such for necessarily complaining about WWE’s ingenious course.
Possibly The Rock won’t ever have any other singles fit now that Rhodes grabbed his spot. He’s 51 and owns a dizzying agenda between his many industry ventures and starring Hollywood roles. No matter occurs this weekend, Johnson appears to be taking part in it occupied with what it’s: professional wrestling at its core.
“I loved it,” he advised ESPN in Las Vegas in regards to the confident aid for Rhodes. “I think the internet is just doing what they do, there are very passionate Cody Rhodes fans. And I love that. I respect it. I’ve been in this — I was born into this business like Cody. So, we have a tremendous amount of respect for the business.
“Now, there’s Cody Rhodes lovers, and nearest there’s Cody Rhodes, and nearest the particular Cody Rhodes lovers who have been going unstable and insulting and [sending] dying ultimatum and such things as that, that have been simply terrible. So I name them the Cody Crybabies, OK? As a result of there’s a extra. Cody Rhodes has his passionate lovers as all of us do. However nearest the ones are the lovers that whisk it a minute bit too a ways. So I known as ’em the Cody Crybabies.”
Hard seeing or now not, the lovers made their selection: Rhodes. And, this life, with sunny seeing, WWE listened.
