A lot of you seem to be losing sight of what the problem is and why fans are mad.

Rock vs Roman happening is not the issue. It’s that they shoehorned the match into Wrestlemania at the expense of a massive baby face and an incredible story they have spent years building.

There were multiple ways they could have booked Rock vs Roman at Wrestlemania, all of which would have made sense and been better, yet they actively chose to go this route and piss off millions of people for no reason.

It was also complete character assassination. Cody Rhodes the character on TV that we have watched since he left AEW would not have done this in a million years.

It’s a baffling decision and feels like they did it for no other reason than to upset as many fans as possible. That is why people are mad.

Feb 4, 2024 21:19:50 GMT KJ said:

IM, you bring up Bryan …

His journey was SummerSlam to Mania. That was his story.

Cody will be going on three years if it doesn’t go until next year. That’s the WWE of old—delaying Babyface moments until it loses its sense of meaning.

I haven’t posted because I’m genuinely at a loss. I hope the WWE sees the reaction and realizes how foolish this move is. I doubt it, because this is seemingly all rooted in the bruised ego of Dwayne, but I can only hope.

Yes, it's all because of Dwayne and his supposed 'ego'. Not because Roman vs The Rock makes more sense from a business POV.  Again, The Rock has 394 Million followers world wide. In contrast, Cody has 2 million. This is WM40! 

My point with the DB thing was this is not the first time the WWE has messed up over the years: waiting too long to pull pin on a storyline or a match, pushing someone etc. Do I think they've dropped the ball with Cody? Maybe, but it's hard to say as there's been lots of moving parts since his return and in the main title picture.  I think they were pinning some hope on Phil not getting injured and Seth having to work injured, but here we are. 

But what it comes down to - and what I'll keep reiterating - is Roman vs Cody II is in no way the draw that Roman vs The Rock is at WM 40 despite how much some of you want it to be. It just isn't. And if I was a shareholder that what I would want for my money too. 

Feb 4, 2024 22:00:08 GMT iron maiden said:

Feb 4, 2024 21:19:50 GMT KJ said:

IM, you bring up Bryan …

His journey was SummerSlam to Mania. That was his story.

Cody will be going on three years if it doesn’t go until next year. That’s the WWE of old—delaying Babyface moments until it loses its sense of meaning.

I haven’t posted because I’m genuinely at a loss. I hope the WWE sees the reaction and realizes how foolish this move is. I doubt it, because this is seemingly all rooted in the bruised ego of Dwayne, but I can only hope.

Yes, it's all because of Dwayne and his supposed 'ego'. Not because Roman vs The Rock makes more sense from a business POV.  Again, The Rock has 394 Million followers world wide. In contrast, Cody has 2 million. This is WM40! 

My point with the DB thing was this is not the first time the WWE has messed up over the years: waiting too long to pull pin on a storyline or a match, pushing someone etc. Do I think they've dropped the ball with Cody? Maybe, but it's hard to say as there's been lots of moving parts since his return and in the main title picture.  I think they were pinning some hope on Phil not getting injured and Seth having to work injured, but here we are. 

But what it comes down to - and what I'll keep reiterating - is Roman vs Cody II is in no way the draw that Roman vs The Rock is at WM 40 despite how much some of you want it to be. It just isn't. And if I was a shareholder that what I would want for my money too. 

WWE receives a flat fee for Mania.

WWE Mania sells out every year, and will again.

Mania 39 set all the records for revenue possible.

What’s the “draw” you’re referring to?

I don’t believe for one second there will be a cataclysmic difference in WM’s performance because The Rock is there.

Feb 4, 2024 22:00:03 GMT RT said:

A lot of you seem to be losing sight of what the problem is and why fans are mad.

Rock vs Roman happening is not the issue. It’s that they shoehorned the match into Wrestlemania at the expense of a massive baby face and an incredible story they have spent years building.

There were multiple ways they could have booked Rock vs Roman at Wrestlemania, all of which would have made sense and been better, yet they actively chose to go this route and piss off millions of people for no reason.

Okay, I can get behind that narrative, but I truly believe Roman vs The Rock was the plan for WM 40 and not just 'shoehorned' in.  Again people were asking for this match 2 years ago and the end of the Bloodline story they've been working on longer than Cody has been back. I also think The Rock is getting a lot of unnecessary backlash and attacks on his character for simply doing business.  

Now where I believe and agree some of this went wrong is The Powers that Be insisting on having Roman unify and then hold the title even in his part time status. I'm not a fan of any part timer holding the title for any length of time. Never have been, never will be. Gunther has defended his IC Title 17 times compar4ed to Roman who has defended his 8 times within the same time frame. I also said I didn't think that R vs R needed to be a title match, but then what else do you have? Seth vs Cody? Well that's what you are getting...so I don't know what you want? 

They should've just had Hogan win the Rumble like I wanted. All could've been avoided.

If these nerds ruin Rock vs Roman from happening and we have to deal with Cody/Roman 2 or a triple threat match, I’m going to be sick.

They just gave ‘you guys’ LA Knight in a title match. Let us have Rock/Roman and take Cody Rhodes away from this story ASAP.

The fans in attendance will ultimately tell us if they've made the right decision. If Rock v Reigns is booed out of the building on Monday, and Cody is welcomed by a chorus of " We want Cody " during every related segment, then they've made the wrong decision.

Rock v Reigns makes sense, but not this year. RT, is right - they've been telling this story for 2 years with Cody. He is the people's champ right now, Cody v Reigns makes sense now.

Maybe that's part of the problem. They have matches and moments that can only be done at Mania in their eyes. And as a result you find yourself in these tight corners that make booking difficult. Shame they could never market Summerslam as their #2. That really made me never buy into any of these potential matches ending Reigns' reign because well it ain't THE ppv.

Feb 4, 2024 22:12:39 GMT KJ said:

Feb 4, 2024 22:00:08 GMT iron maiden said:

Yes, it's all because of Dwayne and his supposed 'ego'. Not because Roman vs The Rock makes more sense from a business POV.  Again, The Rock has 394 Million followers world wide. In contrast, Cody has 2 million. This is WM40! 

My point with the DB thing was this is not the first time the WWE has messed up over the years: waiting too long to pull pin on a storyline or a match, pushing someone etc. Do I think they've dropped the ball with Cody? Maybe, but it's hard to say as there's been lots of moving parts since his return and in the main title picture.  I think they were pinning some hope on Phil not getting injured and Seth having to work injured, but here we are. 

But what it comes down to - and what I'll keep reiterating - is Roman vs Cody II is in no way the draw that Roman vs The Rock is at WM 40 despite how much some of you want it to be. It just isn't. And if I was a shareholder that what I would want for my money too. 

WWE receives a flat fee for Mania.

WWE Mania sells out every year, and will again.

Mania 39 set all the records for revenue possible.

What’s the “draw” you’re referring to?

I don’t believe for one second there will be a cataclysmic difference in WM’s performance because The Rock is there.

This is an interesting point because the only financial benefit the Rock truly brings is buzz. Obviously if Rock is in the match, more mainstream outlets will report on it. That’s the benefit to going with Rock. Except for the time being at least, the buzz is negative.

So the question is now, where is the benefit? The tickets are sold, the subscriptions are sold, the sponsors finalised. All the buzz thus far is negative.

Feb 4, 2024 23:20:14 GMT Todd said:

Feb 4, 2024 22:12:39 GMT KJ said:

WWE receives a flat fee for Mania.

WWE Mania sells out every year, and will again.

Mania 39 set all the records for revenue possible.

What’s the “draw” you’re referring to?

I don’t believe for one second there will be a cataclysmic difference in WM’s performance because The Rock is there.

This is an interesting point because the only financial benefit the Rock truly brings is buzz. Obviously if Rock is in the match, more mainstream outlets will report on it. That’s the benefit to going with Rock. Except for the time being at least, the buzz is negative.

So the question is now, where is the benefit? The tickets are sold, the subscriptions are sold, the sponsors finalised. All the buzz thus far is negative.

Rock going down to Perth would move the needle 10X more given they’re having a hard time moving tickets

Feb 4, 2024 23:31:05 GMT KJ said:

Feb 4, 2024 23:20:14 GMT Todd said:

This is an interesting point because the only financial benefit the Rock truly brings is buzz. Obviously if Rock is in the match, more mainstream outlets will report on it. That’s the benefit to going with Rock. Except for the time being at least, the buzz is negative.

So the question is now, where is the benefit? The tickets are sold, the subscriptions are sold, the sponsors finalised. All the buzz thus far is negative.

Rock going down to Perth would move the needle 10X more given they’re having a hard time moving tickets

I don't know.... 45,000 tickets reportedly sold. 

Feb 4, 2024 23:44:17 GMT NATH45 said:

Feb 4, 2024 23:31:05 GMT KJ said:

Rock going down to Perth would move the needle 10X more given they’re having a hard time moving tickets

I don't know.... 45,000 tickets reportedly sold. 

I had old news in my head. Disregard the Perth need. But also, fuck the rock. 😂

Agreed. Go back to Maui Dwayne.

Feb 4, 2024 22:14:17 GMT iron maiden said:

Feb 4, 2024 22:00:03 GMT RT said:

A lot of you seem to be losing sight of what the problem is and why fans are mad.

Rock vs Roman happening is not the issue. It’s that they shoehorned the match into Wrestlemania at the expense of a massive baby face and an incredible story they have spent years building.

There were multiple ways they could have booked Rock vs Roman at Wrestlemania, all of which would have made sense and been better, yet they actively chose to go this route and piss off millions of people for no reason.

Okay, I can get behind that narrative, but I truly believe Roman vs The Rock was the plan for WM 40 and not just 'shoehorned' in.  Again people were asking for this match 2 years ago and the end of the Bloodline story they've been working on longer than Cody has been back. I also think The Rock is getting a lot of unnecessary backlash and attacks on his character for simply doing business.  

Now where I believe and agree some of this went wrong is The Powers that Be insisting on having Roman unify and then hold the title even in his part time status. I'm not a fan of any part timer holding the title for any length of time. Never have been, never will be. Gunther has defended his IC Title 17 times compar4ed to Roman who has defended his 8 times within the same time frame. I also said I didn't think that R vs R needed to be a title match, but then what else do you have? Seth vs Cody? Well that's what you are getting...so I don't know what you want? 

Shoehorned wasn’t the right word to use. I get that this was always the plan but they brought this match on in the worst way imaginable.

Cody never should have won the Rumble if this was the plan, Punk injury or not. Punk should have won the Rumble and challenged Seth while taunting Cody about ruining his story. Roman calls out Cody on Friday so he can taunt him to his face as well. Cody says he may have come up short and can’t challenge Roman for the title at Wrestlemania, but he knows someone who can. Rock enters and everyone is happy.

Then if Punk is injured you can have Cody step in as the runner up, and since he didn’t win the Rumble and the challenge was already made, he has no choice but to fight Seth. Or you make the Elimination Chamber to decide who faces Seth. Cody says it wasn’t the match he wanted at Wrestlemania but he will still treat this with the respect and prestige it deserves, and when he beats Seth he will be the true People’s Champ.


Now you can do whatever you want post-Mania. Rock ends Roman’s reign, cool. Reigns retains, you can still do him vs Cody whenever you want. Cody can win the title from Seth and go on Raw every week defending the title, showing up Roman in the process, being the working man’s champ, driving Roman nuts until Roman gives him his one last shot.

IWC going at Ava's comments on X letting her know that her dad stole Cody's spot. People are fucking weird man. This was like 1-2 weeks after the whole Grant/McManhon stuff too.

Feb 5, 2024 0:46:41 GMT Blindy said:

IWC going at Ava's comments on X letting her know that her dad stole Cody's spot. People are fucking weird man. This was like 1-2 weeks after the whole Grant/McManhon stuff too.

RUTHLESS

AGGRESSION!

She of course replied with if he can easily take it, was it ever his spot in the first place? Then goes off into a bad Joker imitation she saw on tiktok

She is the handpicked General Manager of NXT from The Rock, I mean William Regal and yeah her acting reminds me Zoey 101/Wizards of Waverly Place/Sam & Max Nick/Disney live action slop but I still think people are looney to seek out comments she is making as the GM and bringing in her dad taking Rhodes spot at WM.

Feb 5, 2024 1:18:21 GMT Blindy said:

She is the handpicked General Manager of NXT from The Rock, I mean William Regal and yeah her acting reminds me Zoey 101/Wizards of Waverly Place/Sam & Max Nick/Disney live action slop but I still think people are looney to seek out comments she is making as the GM and bringing in her dad taking Rhodes spot at WM.

The Goat Era of Post Kenan and Kel Nickeldoen

Shinsuke Nakamura attacked Cody after Smackdown. WWE decided to wait until this afternoon to share the footage for some reason. No idea why.

Likely they are booking on the fly.

Also looking like WWE is encouraging workers to post the WeWantCody stuff. Again, anything to get the Vince story buried.



Wonder if WWE fans will drive Rock's daughter to quit WWE too.  Typical of them too to attack a woman instead of the Rock himself.

Rock's daughter should quit not because she's Rock's daughter, but because she's awful.

Feb 5, 2024 0:43:59 GMT RT said:

Feb 4, 2024 22:14:17 GMT iron maiden said:

Okay, I can get behind that narrative, but I truly believe Roman vs The Rock was the plan for WM 40 and not just 'shoehorned' in.  Again people were asking for this match 2 years ago and the end of the Bloodline story they've been working on longer than Cody has been back. I also think The Rock is getting a lot of unnecessary backlash and attacks on his character for simply doing business.  

Now where I believe and agree some of this went wrong is The Powers that Be insisting on having Roman unify and then hold the title even in his part time status. I'm not a fan of any part timer holding the title for any length of time. Never have been, never will be. Gunther has defended his IC Title 17 times compar4ed to Roman who has defended his 8 times within the same time frame. I also said I didn't think that R vs R needed to be a title match, but then what else do you have? Seth vs Cody? Well that's what you are getting...so I don't know what you want? 

Shoehorned wasn’t the right word to use. I get that this was always the plan but they brought this match on in the worst way imaginable.

Cody never should have won the Rumble if this was the plan, Punk injury or not. Punk should have won the Rumble and challenged Seth while taunting Cody about ruining his story. Roman calls out Cody on Friday so he can taunt him to his face as well. Cody says he may have come up short and can’t challenge Roman for the title at Wrestlemania, but he knows someone who can. Rock enters and everyone is happy.

Then if Punk is injured you can have Cody step in as the runner up, and since he didn’t win the Rumble and the challenge was already made, he has no choice but to fight Seth. Or you make the Elimination Chamber to decide who faces Seth. Cody says it wasn’t the match he wanted at Wrestlemania but he will still treat this with the respect and prestige it deserves, and when he beats Seth he will be the true People’s Champ.


Now you can do whatever you want post-Mania. Rock ends Roman’s reign, cool. Reigns retains, you can still do him vs Cody whenever you want. Cody can win the title from Seth and go on Raw every week defending the title, showing up Roman in the process, being the working man’s champ, driving Roman nuts until Roman gives him his one last shot.

Believe it or not, I don't disagree with you. Do I think Cody's big moment is still coming? Yes. Do I think they've fucked up the booking around his big moment? Yes. But as I stated before, I THINK they can pull it out and for some reason I think they are working this all into that. Besides, this is nothing new to any long time fan. Is it fucking disappointing? Asbofuckinglutely. But over the years, the WWE has been guilty of overpushing, underpushing, over producing, under producing, etc. They've taken seemingly organic moments and pissed on them repeatedly or beat them like a dead horse until none of us ever wanted to remember that segment/character/moment ever again. There's about a hundred thing off the top of my head over the myriad of years I've watched that I would have done differently, I'm sure we all do and I don't disagree with any of you who are upset about how Cody is seemingly being treated in this moment.

However, where I get pissy is when people start attacking The Rock because they don't like how it all rolled out and it must be all his fault when they have zero proof of that. People are wishing death and injury on the man, hoping he gets embroiled in the Sex Scandal and impugning his character and even attacking his daughter. WTF? (Giving me T-Swift, Tyler Bass feels. IM don't play that.) Now, we can only speculate who all, when all and why all these decisions have been made, but none of us know for sure. But I know this: The Rock is the biggest thing to come out of a WWE ring and some people are acting like they threw over Cody for a washed up piece of garbage. HE's THE ROCK! Maybe he's 51 and maybe he can't go like he used to, but I bet my slightly swollen liver he'll do whatever it takes to rise to the occasion. He's hardly the last older generational talent to take up a match like this at his age, but he's definitely the most famous one. 

I'd like to also remind everyone that EC Chamber is still coming. Now what that means, who knows? Maybe they do something, maybe they do nothing, but right now with everyone up in arms and heating up the internet and providing fodder for all the 'news channels' they are loving every bit of this. 

Feb 5, 2024 4:11:20 GMT NATH45 said:

Rock's daughter should quit not because she's Rock's daughter, but because she's awful.

Legit.

Honestly, Cody story is super stupid. It is basically he gets a superman push because he wants to win a belt, and because he failed to do it last year, he gets to do it again. Like this lazy ass story.

Hope when AEW sends over next year's main eventer they get more of a story than Cody or Punk got.

Feb 5, 2024 7:20:10 GMT c said:

Honestly, Cody story is super stupid. It is basically he gets a superman push because he wants to win a belt, and because he failed to do it last year, he gets to do it again. Like this lazy ass story.

Hope when AEW sends over next year's main eventer they get more of a story than Cody or Punk got.

Rock walks in and cries and gets the main event, that's a pathetic way to get a match.


Die Rocky Die should be the chant the fans should chant (again) Fuck The Rock, glad his shitty ass TV show got cancelled.

Yeah, he could always go back to AEW and get booked out of the title picture again, solve racism and wrestle whichever testosterone deficient midget is meant to be the next big thing... for a month, between working " who done it? " angles and starting another one of the 35 odd stables that are " taking over AEW "

Yeah, we can all make silly comments.


But if you must know, he returned to WWE as the prodigal son, and went about proving himself to the WWE Universe with the goal to win the one thing he father and brother never did.. the WWE Championship. Hence, finishing the story.

2 months after his return, he later earns the wider respect of the WWE Universe and the locker-room during his series with Rollins, most notably tearing his pec and wrestling through the pain in an instant classic.

He returns and goes about finishing the story, as the 7 months he had off was essentially pressing the pause button on his goal. He wins The Rumble and challenges Reigns at Wrestlemania only to be screwed out of the title by The Bloodline and like everyone else he goes to the back of line and eventually, knowing that winning The Rumble gets him a guaranteed title shot, he declares, he wins it and should be challenging Reigns at Wrestlemania.

That, and he's the most over wrestler anywhere in the world today and deserves it from a kayfabe perspective for the above reasons and from a shoot, due to the professionalism and workmanship he had delivered since his return to WWE.

Feb 5, 2024 7:57:43 GMT Jake said:

Feb 5, 2024 7:20:10 GMT c said:

Honestly, Cody story is super stupid. It is basically he gets a superman push because he wants to win a belt, and because he failed to do it last year, he gets to do it again. Like this lazy ass story.

Hope when AEW sends over next year's main eventer they get more of a story than Cody or Punk got.

Rock walks in and cries and gets the main event, that's a pathetic way to get a match.


Die Rocky Die should be the chant the fans should chant (again) Fuck The Rock, glad his shitty ass TV show got cancelled.

What? You didn't enjoy the revisionist history and fabrication of events?

Jake, it’s wrestling bud.

I hope Cody takes The Rock’s place and loses again just for the lolz.

Feb 5, 2024 8:39:34 GMT System said:

I hope Cody takes The Rock’s place and loses again just for the lolz.

Finishing the story proper.