The Cody Rhodes Story Thread (IT'S OVER)

[Kevin Hamilton]

If one really has thick skin would they say they do at 3 am?

[lucas_lee]

Feb 4, 2024 7:12:51 GMT -5 Kevin Hamilton said:

If one really has thick skin would they say they do at 3 am?

Rock usually posts his shilling stuff late at night. He's just more shill than man at this rate

[Jedi-El of Tomorrow]

Feb 4, 2024 7:09:47 GMT -5 AdamAFL was sooooo wrong said:

So despite having not watched a WWE show since AEW first debuted in 2019 (I’m now in my 30s and work full time plus other life commitments so just do not have the time to watch two wrestling companies). This is not a tribal thing, just providing context, and AEW personally gives me more of what I want wrestling to be. That being said I want WWE to do well because the healthier and more successful the whole industry is the better in my opinion. And I’ve still loosely followed the WWE via mainly things like reading stuff on this forum. My name is in reference to the bet that went round here last year about Cody vs Roman. The fact that I believed WWE would actually deliver for the fans last year and not only did they not but they acted pretty aggressively towards those who dared question the story only to prove them all right by ditching the rematch in favour of a 50+ year old actor blows my mind. I take no pleasure in this. I just feel sorry for the fans. And in particular I feel sorry for the fans who love this promotion so much that they feel the need to try and defend this. I did honestly think Hunter being head booker would change what we saw from Vince over the past 20 odd years but they clearly haven’t changed and just don’t give a f*** about their audience. Just a shitty situation and I feel for the fans.

It's not Hunter who booked this, it's The Rock. Rock is Hunter's boss and if he wants something, he gets it. Hunter was obviously setting up Cody vs Roman at Mania again, and their moment on Smackdown back in October showed it. Rock comes in, gets a seat on the board, more power than Hunter, and this happens.

Imagine telling people 20 years ago that in the world of wrestling politics that Triple H would be the hero and Rock would be the villain.

[Citizen Snips]

Feb 4, 2024 0:06:28 GMT -5 Xxcjb01xX [PIECE OF: SH-] said:

Feb 4, 2024 0:03:47 GMT -5 Tom Turkey said:

What fresh hell will Monday bring as the groundswell of anger erupts?

Drew McIntyre begins with a promo

"Sooo... what do you guys wanna talk about??"

Actual high chance this happens out of sheer spite lol

The first 2 hours of Raw should be Black Adam playing on the entrance screen and Drew sitting in the middle of the ring doing running commentary on how awful it is.

[Jedi-El of Tomorrow]

Feb 4, 2024 7:18:47 GMT -5 Citizen Snips said:

Feb 4, 2024 0:06:28 GMT -5 Xxcjb01xX [PIECE OF: SH-] said:

Drew McIntyre begins with a promo

"Sooo... what do you guys wanna talk about??"

Actual high chance this happens out of sheer spite lol

The first 2 hours of Raw should be Black Adam playing on the entrance screen and Drew sitting in the middle of the ring doing running commentary on how awful it is.

Drew: "And here comes the JSA. They should have just made a JSA movie, because the JSA is the best thing about this."

[repomark]

I just don’t buy the narrative that this match is only happening because the Rock “booked himself” into the main event because he is now on the board.

If you talk about finishing the story, the bloodline story only ever had one logical conclusion. For nearly four years Roman has been banging on about being head of the table, clearly setting up for the real head of the table to come back and set him straight. It is the money match - the biggest match available to them to possibly do - and this is probably their one chance to do it. With Rock being 52 and his schedule, this likely has to happen now or not at all - and there isn’t anyone in WWE (Triple H included) that doesn’t want this match to happen.

The issue is it didn’t have to happen at Cody’s expense. If they knew Rock was going to face Roman, don’t have Cody win the rumble. That way he can still finish the story at a later date without looking so wretchedly weak.

[Pooh Carlson]

Feb 4, 2024 7:16:21 GMT -5 Jedi-El of Tomorrow said:

Feb 4, 2024 7:09:47 GMT -5 AdamAFL was sooooo wrong said:

So despite having not watched a WWE show since AEW first debuted in 2019 (I’m now in my 30s and work full time plus other life commitments so just do not have the time to watch two wrestling companies). This is not a tribal thing, just providing context, and AEW personally gives me more of what I want wrestling to be. That being said I want WWE to do well because the healthier and more successful the whole industry is the better in my opinion. And I’ve still loosely followed the WWE via mainly things like reading stuff on this forum. My name is in reference to the bet that went round here last year about Cody vs Roman. The fact that I believed WWE would actually deliver for the fans last year and not only did they not but they acted pretty aggressively towards those who dared question the story only to prove them all right by ditching the rematch in favour of a 50+ year old actor blows my mind. I take no pleasure in this. I just feel sorry for the fans. And in particular I feel sorry for the fans who love this promotion so much that they feel the need to try and defend this. I did honestly think Hunter being head booker would change what we saw from Vince over the past 20 odd years but they clearly haven’t changed and just don’t give a f*** about their audience. Just a shitty situation and I feel for the fans.

It's not Hunter who booked this, it's The Rock. Rock is Hunter's boss and if he wants something, he gets it. Hunter was obviously setting up Cody vs Roman at Mania again, and their moment on Smackdown back in October showed it. Rock comes in, gets a seat on the board, more power than Hunter, and this happens.

Imagine telling people 20 years ago that in the world of wrestling politics that Triple H would be the hero and Rock would be the villain.

Rock was on raw saying he wanted to sit at the head of the table two weeks before he was appointed to the board. This was the plan all along.

[AdamAFL was sooooo wrong]

Feb 4, 2024 7:16:21 GMT -5 Jedi-El of Tomorrow said:

Feb 4, 2024 7:09:47 GMT -5 AdamAFL was sooooo wrong said:

So despite having not watched a WWE show since AEW first debuted in 2019 (I’m now in my 30s and work full time plus other life commitments so just do not have the time to watch two wrestling companies). This is not a tribal thing, just providing context, and AEW personally gives me more of what I want wrestling to be. That being said I want WWE to do well because the healthier and more successful the whole industry is the better in my opinion. And I’ve still loosely followed the WWE via mainly things like reading stuff on this forum. My name is in reference to the bet that went round here last year about Cody vs Roman. The fact that I believed WWE would actually deliver for the fans last year and not only did they not but they acted pretty aggressively towards those who dared question the story only to prove them all right by ditching the rematch in favour of a 50+ year old actor blows my mind. I take no pleasure in this. I just feel sorry for the fans. And in particular I feel sorry for the fans who love this promotion so much that they feel the need to try and defend this. I did honestly think Hunter being head booker would change what we saw from Vince over the past 20 odd years but they clearly haven’t changed and just don’t give a f*** about their audience. Just a shitty situation and I feel for the fans.

It's not Hunter who booked this, it's The Rock. Rock is Hunter's boss and if he wants something, he gets it. Hunter was obviously setting up Cody vs Roman at Mania again, and their moment on Smackdown back in October showed it. Rock comes in, gets a seat on the board, more power than Hunter, and this happens.

Imagine telling people 20 years ago that in the world of wrestling politics that Triple H would be the hero and Rock would be the villain.

I don’t know enough about the internal workings of the current backstage system in WWE to really say one way or the other but did Hunter not have total control last year and then passively aggressively taunt people who shit on last years outcome saying how shortsighted etc they were? Seems like a continuation of a Vince mindset to me.

[Snaptastic]

Coping mechanism, but I still think we're being worked.

[Kevin Hamilton]

I know they're cousins or whatever but outside of getting booed at the Rumble 8 years ago have they ever even interacted? I guess Roman was in that Hobbes movie. But... So?

[UN PLOMBIER NIGHTMARE #blm]

Feb 4, 2024 7:09:47 GMT -5 AdamAFL was sooooo wrong said:

So despite having not watched a WWE show since AEW first debuted in 2019 (I’m now in my 30s and work full time plus other life commitments so just do not have the time to watch two wrestling companies). This is not a tribal thing, just providing context, and AEW personally gives me more of what I want wrestling to be. That being said I want WWE to do well because the healthier and more successful the whole industry is the better in my opinion. And I’ve still loosely followed the WWE via mainly things like reading stuff on this forum. My name is in reference to the bet that went round here last year about Cody vs Roman. The fact that I believed WWE would actually deliver for the fans last year and not only did they not but they acted pretty aggressively towards those who dared question the story only to prove them all right by ditching the rematch in favour of a 50+ year old actor blows my mind. I take no pleasure in this. I just feel sorry for the fans. And in particular I feel sorry for the fans who love this promotion so much that they feel the need to try and defend this. I did honestly think Hunter being head booker would change what we saw from Vince over the past 20 odd years but they clearly haven’t changed and just don’t give a f*** about their audience. Just a shitty situation and I feel for the fans.

believe, you’re a mark. don’t believe, you’re shit on for not being optimistic enough. care about the show, care too much and don’t care enough about the show you’re not being fair to the work being put into it. it’s all stupid as f***

[Lizuka #BLM]

Really I do definitely believe Triple H deserves a lot of the blame here because at the root of it he is the one who opted to have Cody choke for no particular reason last year, acted completely petulant about people criticizing that decision, and then had the following year do absolutely f*** all with that to where Roman has defended the title three times since, in universally terrible matches no one especially cared about because everyone knew he was winning all of them while Cody's just spent the whole year being completely aimless. If there was any chance at all of Rock swooping in to do the match at Mania 40 then they should have just given the damn thing to Cody at 39 because the Rock match not only does not need the belt but is actively diminished by having it be involved.

Either way I do certainly appreciate being validated that no, being patient with WWE and giving them the benefit of the doubt is absolutely never something you should do because one way or another they will continually find a way to f*** it up.

[Bo Rida]

I was just thinking what a perfect storm the online element of this is because it goes beyond current wwe fans.

If you've watched wrestling in the last 15 years chances are you have some investment in Cody. Aew, njpw, nwa or dozens of indies. Then there's his family on top.

You dont even have to like Cody, just have a sense of fairness. Or basic storytelling.

If you stopped watching wwe chances are things like this is why.

Then there's more recent baggage with the Rock's tone deathness and lets say corporate issues with the previous and new regime.

However the names involved make it intresting to the media, people with the most passing interest in wrestling, news, Hollywood, business, there's a bit of interest all over.

[thechase]

Feb 4, 2024 4:43:46 GMT -5 David-Arquette was in WCW 2000 said:

Feb 4, 2024 2:57:26 GMT -5 thechase said:

h

Make it happen!

ROCK VS RHODES VS REIGNS VS ROLLINS

FOUR CORNERS ELIMINATION MATCH

THE BLOODLINE IN EVERY CORNER!

(Reigns with Heyman, Rhodes with Jey, Rock with Sakoa, Rollins with Jimmy...somehow)

And yeah, wrong city, but I get sooo nostalgic for this theme...

Love this theme, and I was so happy they put it on the Anthology CD collection back in the day.

They could actually save it with this scenario, though it would be overbooked to hell. Basically have it start as a tornado tag with Cody going after Rocky, Seth after Reigns. Eventually Seth is taken out leading to Rocky and Roman beating on Cody. The teamwork breaks down and Reigns goes after Rocky.

Rocky gets the upper hand but Seth gets back into the match and takes him out. As Seth then gets the upper hand on Roman The Bloodline get involved, but then out comes Punk with a chair. He goes after The Bloodline, but also hits Seth 'accidentally on purpose'.

Seth and The Bloodline taken out. The Rock is trying to make his way back into the ring but has a 'worked shoot' verbal exchange with Punk, before Punk blasts Rocky in the face with a chair, causing colour.

Roman gets to his feet, Cody is waiting for him. Cody mercs him with his greatest hits, and boom! New champ! Big celebrations! He finished the story, but there is all kinds of fallout between Punk/Rock, Punk/Seth, Roman/Rock, Cody/Roman, even Punk/Cody.

There's so much that can be done from here, with interacting arcs and some long term booking.

The four-corner curse strikes again, much like Hogan and his Skydome jinx!

[BorneAgain]

What gets me about the idea of Rock being in the main event to get the event greater business is that its Wrestlemania in the year 2024. Not only does it largely sell itself even before matches are even announced, but PLE's these are largely viewed through either the WWE Network or Peacock. We are not talking about a Wrestlemania 20 PPV in 2004 that would have its numbers dramatically increased by the inclusion of the Rock. In the grand scheme, him being on this show does not make the kind of difference it would in previous eras, and the attention he has brought thus far has been negative.

Moreover, especially when WWE is a company that would be best served as being far away from its old habits (in more ways than one) something this tone deaf just tells people it's the same kind of contrarian booking its often had, just without the criminal sexual predator being in charge anymore.

[Nosnorb]

I feel really bad for Erick Rowan. WM32 was the prefect send off for The Rock and now it's ruined. He must be feeling like Shawn Michaels did when Ric Flair started to wrestle in TNA.

[jp49er80]

Honestly if this was all it led to then they should've just put the belt on Sami at his hottest.

[ssdrivin]

Feb 4, 2024 7:24:28 GMT -5 repomark said:

I just don’t buy the narrative that this match is only happening because the Rock “booked himself” into the main event because he is now on the board.

If you talk about finishing the story, the bloodline story only ever had one logical conclusion. For nearly four years Roman has been banging on about being head of the table, clearly setting up for the real head of the table to come back and set him straight. It is the money match - the biggest match available to them to possibly do - and this is probably their one chance to do it. With Rock being 52 and his schedule, this likely has to happen now or not at all - and there isn’t anyone in WWE (Triple H included) that doesn’t want this match to happen.

The issue is it didn’t have to happen at Cody’s expense. If they knew Rock was going to face Roman, don’t have Cody win the rumble. That way he can still finish the story at a later date without looking so wretchedly weak.

In WWE world this sounds about right but if that's really how it was always going to go down (or even if it wasn't before but is now) it makes no sense.

If Rock wins he's a throwback part-timer who just buried the absolute top guy and can't carry the company forward because he's not a wrestler any more and hasn't been in 20 years.

If Rock loses then the whole thing was pointless because Roman goes over the final boss, the one member of the Anoa'i family bigger than him, the legacy he has to outshine to become the definitive unquestionable head of the table, we're still stuck with the unbeatable Roman Reigns who even The Rock couldn't bury and we're back to there being no credible challenges to Roman's infinite reign.

It's WWE in a nutshell. Still, even now, after all the crazy drama with Vince retiring twice, the rise of NXT and the power struggle with HHH for the book, wrestlers coming and going depending on who was running the show and everybody saying how much WWE has changed or is in the process of changing for the better.

Which sucks because there surely must be so much potential for it to become something it hasn't been in years. Maybe it has been for a minute, I haven't been watching at all since going to see Clash At The Castle (until this year's Rumble which I thought sucked), but I kept hearing the buzz and Vince leaving again drew me back in, I figured it was finally time to buy the hype and see what's up with the "new" WWE. But here we are again like it's 10 years ago and none of this crazy shit happened at all.

[thecrusherwi]

Feb 4, 2024 1:33:00 GMT -5 Lizuka #BLM said:

Hollywood Rock was basically the only time I've ever enjoyed watching him. Even as a kid I hated Rock.

I think people tend to forget that the reason Hollywood Rock even was a thing in the first place is because crowds turned on him hardcore when he became a part timer. There are lots of fans, myself included, who have always found it a chore when he’s been around after that initial full time run.

[FinalGwen]

The thing with the whole 'oh but the head of the table stuff has been set up' is like... Then you have Cody win last year's Mania match, so the story becomes Reigns losing his belt but he has to try and justify it, titles change hands and maybe he'll get the belt back at some point, but even without it he's still the head of the table. But now he has a more perilous position keeping the Bloodline together, only able to do so by asserting his authority through sheer brutality rather than the champ making the rules. Then when you have the Rock/Roman match it's for that more literal title rather than a belt.

... But that's just from a storytelling position, the real bizarre thing is that Cody, the guy who wasn't in the company when everything was happening and still gave the best and most honest answer at the press conference that his boss failed to about the Vince McMahon situation, is the only person getting a demotion.