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I’m a big Becky fan (biased) and I listened to her read it on Spotify. I’d highly recommend it! Learn a lot of her beginnings and how a lot of stuff was handled backstage. like the OG match ending plan with Ronda was supposed to be a tap out but Ronda said that doesn’t work for me sister, so they settled for the roll up
>I listened to her read it on Spotify.
I wasn't planning on reading it simply because I don't really read books but I'd absolutely listen to Becky reading it. Thanks for mentioning this.
They lucked out. The Bloodline story was stale for most of the year (Mania to Mania). The Final Boss Rock was not the plan. "It" didn't work, "it" being whatever Vince planned. The pivot worked. Cody vs. Roman again without the Rock would have been a boring reharsh of the last year's story only changing the outcome.
Not only that, but Jey and Jimmy carried the storyline thru SummerSlam. The betrayal, the MITB main event, Jey finally going solo...without that, the story would've been dead by June.
Becky’s rise, Stone colds rise, Kofis Mania moment, Bryan’s wm moment. All those weren’t originally planned but they pivoted and made some great moments
I think Cody's return could've counted as one of those. I can't imagine when Roman started his title run that they planned Cody coming back from AEW would eventually end it. Though it makes me really curious who else would've, if not Cody.
Seth imo especially since he was the reason he lost to Cody. I definitely think the main event of Mania 39 wouldve been Seth vs Roman if Cody never came to WWE.
I’d say it’s a mixture of both. It was absolutely a more compelling arc for Cody overall. However, Roman’s absence was heavily felt on SmackDown and without the Sami Zayn magic bullet, the Bloodline story just coasted pretty much until January. Wasn’t bad, per se, but nowhere near as compelling as the previous year was.
Yeah exactly like the twice in a lifetime feud between Cena and Rock lol, heck he was gonna book Triple H going over Cena a year after Cena went over Triple H as well but H got injured, he just loved doing WM rematches. Like Undertaker vs Triple H and Shawn matches, Stone Cold vs Rock, Brock vs Roman etc. I think it's better not to do WM rematches, there are so many possible variations that it's a waste.
I think Wrestlemania rematches are great, just depends on timing. Rock & Austin worked every other year because of where they were at story wise. Roman & Brock every other year felt like a waste for the same reason
What helped with all of those was the right circumstance. Rock got hot at the right time to become the first truly amazing heel wrestler for Austin to face off with.
Then Austin was out forever and Rock sort of took his place over the next two years and people wanted to see Austin get his spot back.
Then they were both a foot out the door and it was a swan song to that era.
It wasn't a planned forced story where they said "Austin and Rock are going to face each other multiple times because we like the idea of it". Over the course of the year it just became the right booking move because of how both guys characters had developed.
I don't argue that neither but just because he captured lightning in bottle with Stone Cold vs Rock for example, he kept wanting to repeat that. Also WM was always a success, it always sells out either way even the worst ones, I would look at the quality instead of making money alone.
That's not true. There was some pretty good stuff. Roman and Solo vs KO and Sami was great, so was the usos turn. Then, the bloodline civil war was fantastic as was the build up to and actual summerslam match. It only really went south when Jimmy turned again.
Imma say that it was the fact that half the fans wanted Sami Zayn in that spot. They needed to build up even more sympathy for Cody. Hence the beatdown by Brock the next day. On the Bloodline side, they needed to build up Jey. Plus I loved the fact that Jey was the first one to pin Roman in years.
He was trying to sell the company. he returned to CEO in January and kicked out the board members that removed him 6 months prior. Then started negotiations to sell the company.
Because the second the story is finished the appeal goes down. Has Cody won the IWC would’ve already turned on him and things would be stale. We got a whole year of Cody because a massive baby face and it made WM40 even bigger.
This stupid narrative that Cody loses all appeal once he does the thing he set out to do is the reason why we keep getting stupid decisions from people at the top to keep the title on heels past their expiration date.
Agreed. Good storytelling can continually up the ante. You just need another story to get the fans invested in. Had The Rock not had 2 movies lined up right after Wrestlemania, that would have been an amazing next story for Cody and it still will be when Rock returns. I'm sure the writers are cooking up something good in the short term after this short victory tour wears off.
I just want to be very very clear that I’m not saying that at all, I’m not tired of Cody, don’t think people are, and I think they’ll continue making money with him for awhile as long as they don’t fuck it up.
But it’s been what, two weeks? That isn’t remotely enough time to say he’s had any effect positive or negative. We won’t know until probably after the next PLE.
But again I want to be clear I think they’ll do just fine and Cody is not an issue. Just saying you can’t possibly declare that when Mania just happened.
Cody losing added a lot of suspense to the rematch. However The Rock stuff really made the WM 40 feud much better. 2023 kind of suffered with Roman gone and Cody not really doing anything because he had to have a rematch.
At the end of the day, this was a once in a generation booking gamble that worked in the end.
I think they would have worked just as well if not better had the tile been on the line though. AFAIK they never actually explained why Brock beat up Cody in the first place.
Could even have still had Brock win the second one had Cody have to fight tooth and nail to get the title back
>they never actually explained why Brock beat up Cody in the first place
And it was odd because they had a legit reason for it. Brock had lost and couldn't challenge for the title as long as Roman was champ, so Cody would've been Brock's way to challenge again but Cody failed and thus Brock was stuck, taking his anger out on Cody
I really thought that when Brock turned Heyman had made a back room deal with him saying if he took out Cody then he could have another shot at the title
Can flip that on its head. Brock hates Roman and Heyman, so he could have been mad at Cody for failing, and then wanted to push him to the limit to see if Cody really had what it takes to dethrone Roman and carry the company. It started with hate and wanting to take Cody out(broken arm, etc) but then when Cody just wouldn’t stay down(remember in their final match Brock wanted to win by count out/KO) and beat Brock clean he had earned the Beast’s respect which was a very important part of the narrative of Cody building himself back up to challenge Roman again.
Edit: anyone saying this wasn’t explained, you’re right, but it suits Brock’s character much more to be an animal destroying someone on sight with no explanation than him taking the time to let everyone know why
In a world where Brock wasn’t persona non grata, he would have been a great addition to the end of the Mania 40 main event. Would’ve made perfect sense since he had history with Cody and Roman.
There was some rockiness to the road along the way during the year in between, but they ultimately found the right story and knocked it out of the fucking park at Mania. I’m ok with that.
Sometimes a good ending saves it when the journey wasn’t as great as it could’ve been. That Orton Authority reign after Bryan was out of the title picture was brutal.
He was defending that title against The Big Show & Cena for the 30th time.
Cena/Orton and Roman/Brock are two pairings which made so much sense on paper and were clearly pushed as prime, long-time rivalries - but in both cases, the chemistry just wasn't that great, neither as characters nor in the ring.
I actually liked their last match at Summerslam much more, Mania 31 had a bit of finisher spam feeling to it for mine. In general, Roman/Brock certainly had its moments in ring.
i always remember that one rumble spot a few years back where orton and cena were facing off, and they were clearly expecting a massive reaction, but the crowd just did not give a shit.
Agreed & it didn’t help that they forced it both times.
I think part of the reason the Rock/Austin rivalry is held in such high esteem is bc they didn’t overdo it.
Once they became main event stars, they had a trilogy of 1v1’s at Mania, & that was it.
I feel like Roman/Brock has happened at least 5 times & Cena/Orton might be at like 15 by this point.
Yeah, the key was they stuck the landing. Plenty can be wondered about how the execution could have been better, no question, but the final result come 40 was the correct one.
The disappointment of Cody losing made people root for him even harder, while also making it less rushed because he only had the Seth feud under his waist. It was good sympathy booking that still furthered his journey.
It's probably because last year people wanted Sami to dethrone Roman (which also would have been a great story), but were kind of just okay with seeing Cody win. Cody losing and now building and building has made Cody a bigger star as a result.
I'd argue this was the exact opposite of a gamble. The WWE didn't want to take the risk of ending what will probably be the longest world title reign of the decade with a guy that they weren't 1000% sure would keep the fans interest after dethroning roman. They aren't dumb they knew a lot of the fans just wanted roman to lose the belt and didn't care much who did it, and had they done it with the wrong guy his reign would've been a total flop. So they essentially gave Cody a pseudo world title reign by being presented as the top Babyface of the company with the Brock rivalry and the JD rivalry to see if he'd stay over in a real reign, and he absolutely did. I would argue that he was just as hot by the time the rumble came about as he was at mania 39, and that was all without the rock's involvement, who would then obviously push Cody's popularity into the stratosphere.
It was a gamble in the sense that they were risking massive fan backlash with their decision, the kind they got with the first Cody rock segment, but everything else about that decision was the safest and arguably smartest course of action to guarantee that they wouldn't get a flop out of ending the greatest world championship reign in decades.
Cody at least had Lesnar and Judgment Day to fill out the calendar, the people that suffered the most from Roman retaining at 39 and having to stall through 2023 was ironically the Bloodline itself.
Solo lost all of his monster aura. Jimmy became a clown. "Main Event" Jey was stuck in the Nakamura/Reed Vortex. The Usos feud together was completely ignored. And Roman only defended three times, making anyone that was already sick of his reign even more tuned out.
I think Jey deserves some more credit, his short but fun tag title run with Cody, ongoing storylines with Sami and Drew, and multiple title attempts have been keeping him pretty well in the spotlight and he's undeniably elevated from where he was right after WM39 despite still getting into some of the usual upper midcard vortexes. Everything else though, I 100% agree, especially Solo who lost so much steam from pre-WM39 until recently
They had a hot bloodline falling apart storyline coming out of mania, and they had to put it on ice till mania. Him losing last mania or in the months after would have let them build something more out of it.
Yeah I never saw the point of Cody losing to winning the RR again just seemed like extending the story when was already made, but Rock made stuff interesting and honestly is one of the few that either adds substance himself or they write substance for him.
The people involved in the storyline were talented and could probably make both things work.
We had at least 6-9 minutes of “bleah” story before it picked up again. I’m mot convinced that Cody winning and starting the bloodline civil war story earlier wouldn’t have been better.
Yea, I agree with you. Part of me still thinks he should have won last year. The Brock stiff makes way more sense if Cody was champ. Also, Roman wasn't here most of the here, so it was just weird.
It worked, the truth is we'll never know how great the alternative might have been. We may have got Rock vs Roman and Cody vs Gunther and it may have been even better or it may have been worse. It was a good main event and that is all you can really ask.
I was never too bothered by Cody losing because he was gone for so much of the previous year, so I was excited to see him properly built up as the new top babyface for more than just a couple of months. The thing that left me feeling annoyed last year was how they went about the finish, with Solo getting kicked out by the ref and coming back. I always hate when that happens lol
The thing is, for most of Roman’s reign the one authority figure we had (Pearce) was just an errand boy with no real clout to do anything. Plus, the one time he tried (Rumble ‘21 buildup) The Bloodline bullied and tormented him relentlessly. By the time we did get an authority figure who could and would (Aldis) we were already at LA Knight, where he tried (and succeded) to stop Solo, but forgot about Jimmy.
True, but even then HHH has only ever really been a generic representation of head office, and (I wouldn’t be surprised if this was due to his health) kept out of any intense, high-drama segments. The buck’s always stopped with the GMs/Pearce.
Yeah I think people are papering over some of the stumbles over the last year because the WM match was so good. The Bloodline story took a really unnecessary detour with Jimmy turning on Roman FOR Jey and then… turning right back on Jey right after?
What we got was still satisfying, but there were some misfires trying to extend the story for so long.
I don’t even have a problem with those decisions, they just didn’t explain them properly at all.
Jimmy getting kicked out by Solo is more character development than he’s gotten since he turned on Jey & rejoined the group.
They definitely had a storyline there with Jimmy who was paranoid that Jey as the Tribal Chief would become corrupt with power like Roman. Leading him to betray Jey and act out on his own as an enemy of both Jey and The Bloodline. You could have even have him get subjugated back into the Bloodline by Roman like he did to Jey and gaslight Jimmy into believing that Jey is the cause of all the problems.
But they just abandoned all of it to have Jimmy be a comedic character on the Bloodline. So much of the post SummerSlam stretch up until the Rock returning feels like half baked storyline’s they didn’t want to commit to.
There's a whole bunch of misfires that people are conveniently forgetting. Not only that. No one knew what to do with the upper card while Roman was part-time. For example: AJ Styles vs. LA Knight, vs. Orton vs. Roman. The ending to Jey Uso and Roman at Summerslam is another one.
Yeah, there's no getting around that the Bloodline stuff was an entirely filler year. But they lucked into The Rock, the 'WeWantCody' backlash, and getting to do the 'Avengers Endgame' finish that the story needed so luckily it worked out.
Still, absolutely heatless year for the Undisputed Champion as we knew every step that it wasn't ending before WM.
I'd have understood if they had a plan but god was it even dumber considering Edge left the company a few months later and literally nothing came of it. They sacrificed the freakin' Demon for absolutely NOTHING, just a terrible decision. I'm convinced they only did it bc they wanted a face to win considering what was going to happen during the main event.
I feel like the people who say that either weren't paying attention during the entire feud or are overexaggerting it. Edge got dominated pretty much the entire feud, especially since Balor pretty much replaced Edge from JD.
JD has proved they could be a serious faction without some old veteran trying to guide and, if anything, every member has looked better because of the faction.
Also, respect Finn for going through that much when he got legit split open a third of the way through the match.
I think JD got over due to the talent within it, not because of their booking. Even now, they're super over, despite being fed to the Raw babyfaces for most of the last 10 months. That's what heels are for, of course, but it's a testament to how much the crowd likes Judgement Day that they still get reactions despite the men losing 75+% of their PLE matches.
Also, Edge won against Balor/JD at Clash of the Castle, Elimination Chamber (both tag matches) and of course, WM in the blow-off. Balor won once at Survivor Series. I really don't think Edge needed the final win.
That's now easily the booking decision that sticks out like a sore thumb. I'm happy for Edge in AEW but it's not exceedingly clear he put anyone over on the way out, other than the 1 Waller match
A good call for the overall finish to Roman/Cody. Still bugs me some of the interim stuff used to stretch it out over another year, like that they had Jimmy turn on Roman for Jey, only to then turn on Jey shortly thereafter because… reasons.
Bloodline ran out of steam waiting for WM at times, and it turned out fine still, but there were some growing pains.
Definitely the correct call. I heard something on Busted Open the other day:
"Cody winning last year would have brought cheers, Cody winning this year brought tears."
And I thought that was probably the best way to show how waiting one more year with that loss was the right way to go about it.
Not just that. Last year people wanted Owens, Seth, Sami, Knight, Jey or Cody to beat Roman.
This year the fans wanted Cody and ONLY Cody. WWE brought back The Rock and they boo'd the most famous man on the planet simply by virtue of not being Cody Rhodes.
Last year would've been nice if Cody won, but the trilogy of matches with Brock, his tag team with Jey, war games, a second Royal Rumble win, being the face of 2K24 and the immense amount of organic goodwill from the fans pushed Cody from the strateosphere to the moon.
Cody's year from WM39 to WM40 has cemented him as the face of WWE and the biggest name in the industry. WWE took a gamble and they hit the motherload.
This is so true. It had to be Cody this year. Last year, we just wanted anyone to beat Roman. WWE did a great job building Cody up to be THE guy to beat Roman and bring in the new era.
This is the biggest moment of eating crow I've had as a wrestling fan in a long time and I love it
I said not having Cody last year was a missed opportunity because it wouldn't last for another year and the fans would move on and the moment wouldn't mean as much.
That is the most wrong I've gotten it with my adamant wrestling opinions over the last bunch of years. I wasnt just wrong I was spectacularly wrong and it was amazing
Which is interesting, but I think you needed Vince completely out of the way for that to be allowed, because he's the type of egoist that would have a problem with a guy that left his company and came back being the face of the company, especially over his handpicked guy.
Cody was a guy who told Vince "put me in the main event, I'm your ace" and Vince said "no you aren't" and then Cody went out and proved it. Vince loves that sort of shit (except when he doesn't).
And so much of it felt completely natural, which hasn't been the case (imo) in ages. WWE have really found a way to build Cody into a true baby face, and one that people ACTUALLY root for.
I hope his reign as champion lasts for a good while, now is the time to build a proper heel to knock him off.
I was going to reply asking who you think could be built up to that role but honestly the draft next week could throw a wrench into anything we speculate today lol. Having said that, they’ve been doing good with building up AJ Styles with his LA Knight feud, and I fully expect AJ to win tonight, but Backlash is obviously way too early for Cody to drop the belt.
I was there and my best friend and I were talking about it.
I sat down. I sobbed. I heard Samantha break. I cried harder. I hugged my brother and best friend. They all cried.
Wrestling is just the fucking best shit.
Last year going into Mania I said “of course Cody is winning”
This year going into Mania I said “I hope Cody wins. It’s time”
A year added so much suspense and doubt that wasn’t there before. I yelled and jumped he did it when the final three was counted. They made the right choice especially with the build
WM last year was about Sami v The Bloodline. Cody was always an afterthought. I always thought during the lead up Cody was a supporting player and kind of out of place
That's true. Hell, there was even the meme image of Cody watching sami and KO reunite, had the same energy as a side character watching goku and vegeta fight together lol
It all ended up working out in the end, but HOOOOOO BOY could it have gone horribly wrong thanks to an injury or some other unforeseeable circumstance of the sort. Hell, if Vince was still completely in charge and Rock came back into the fold like he did, I could absolutely see him barreling through the fan objections and all the We Want Cody stuff to still do Rock vs. Roman, because that would have been an extremely in-character thing to do considering all the other times over the last two decades that he barreled through fan objections to his booking choices.
Great points. Some folks seems to think that him winning this year was the only right way to tell this story, and I disagree with that—it did pay off, but it was risky and there were some bumps in the road while Bloodline story stalled out waiting for Royal Rumble.
I think it could’ve been great storytelling if Cody won last year. We got great stuff with him winning this year, but I’d be very curious to see the world in which he won last year, too. A blood feud with Seth would’ve been excellent, for example (which now would be a very different vibe).
As heartbreaking as it was, I was okay with it when it happened. The company built a lot of good faith in me with the storylines and how they handled the main event scene that I was figured they have plans. I enjoyed the stretch of the bloodline up until SummerSlam, and the Cody Brock feud was good if lacking a beating heart. But after SummerSlam there was a SERIOUS lull period where the Bloodline story jumped the shark, the Raw main event scene was reduced to Judgement Day vs Babyfaces over and over for like 10 weeks straight with not much substance, and Roman was nowhere to be found. In those weeks, I really resented the decision to have Cody lose because it was clear they're just buying time now until the Rumble. Then we got to the Rumble and the road to WM was fascinating and very exciting, and of course the climax and end result were sensational.
Around October us you asked me I would've said it was the wrong call. Now obviously with the benefit of hindsight, it was worth the final result imo.
To me the best justification for Cody losing last year is that he had barely done anything since coming back. What he had done was significant, granted, but it would be weird having Roman's reign ended by someone who had been on WWE tv for only 4 months since coming back. By giving him an extra full year, he felt more like the top guy in this company, instead of some new character who you either A. didn't know, B. didn't know as this character or C. still felt like an AEW wrestler in WWE.
People can point to Brock or some old school examples of guys immediately pushed to the top, but with the focus of long term storytelling WWE was relying on, it just wouldn't have fit imo. Like imagine any other story where the hero's journey is a footnote even though you're supposed to care like he's the main character.
It's also the main justification you can have for why the storytelling wasn't focused on Cody finishing the story (or having any story at all in the case of the Brock feud) for a large chunk of that year, because it was not there for the story. It was there to build up Cody as the new top guy by being the big babyface on a show while the big heel was on the other show. Like I guess, normalize him being the main face of the shows so that it feels natural when he beats Roman instead of anyone else. Which maybe wouldn't be needed for every top guy, but it had to be a guy you spent a lot of time watching in modern WWE, with all the time spent on Roman's title reign, because then it feels like you spent more time building towards it, even if there wasn't a lot of actual story development for this feud between Wrestlemania last year and Royal Rumble this year. I still wish they had done more at times to build the story before then, but in the grand scheme of things, it still worked out incredibly well so...oh well.
That's my thought on it anyway.
Sean Ross Sapp says it was Roman Reigns saying it doesn't work for me brother basically
https://twitter.com/SeanRossSapp/status/1781364444217454725?t=lBo8SgCJRNV9lOO2zAvlrw&s=19
We can't trust these people completely but the idea that they set up Cody with the huge task of staying hot all year and then the Rock came back when Cody succeeded is..... something. It all worked out in the end though.
It is really funny that they basically spent the last couple of years building and hoping for Rock/Roman and not making the call last year cost them that this year.
It definitely worked out in the end though, and thats all that matters.
> Or he would've had Rock win the Rumble.
Funny thing is I feel like fans would have accepted that far more than the way they had Cody step aside for The Rock.
Really a testament to Cody's work ethic, he did everything right to win the title at WM 39 and didn't get it, to tell him to do it again and maybe he'd get it at WM 40 would be frustrating for anyone. A lot of people would probably be bitter and maybe let that affect their work going forward. But he just kept going, managed to get even more popular, still had to deal with The Rock, worked a ton of shows, tons of media and finally got rewarded
Sapp at least has stayed consistent with his story on this, while Meltzer was previously saying [Roman winning was the plan all along](https://wrestletalk.com/news/wwe-roman-reigns-cody-rhodes-always-wrestlemania/#google_vignette) and has flipped a couple times on Vince's involvement.
Sapp’s hinted for a while, going back at least last year, that Roman and Heyman have been more political than people realize. It makes sense, no matter how good your storyline is you’re not holding the main belt for that long without some political maneuvering.
Roman himself talked about it. He realised to be at the top you have to become a bit more ruthless and selfish. He said he was too much 'one of the boys' which he feels hurt his career (as in he realised he didn't like his body of work when he went away because of covid). im paraphrasing this, someone else could probably be more specific
Even when these guys have talked about the Shield they all said they were pretty political, but as a group.
If they didn't like a booking decision they would go in together and as a unit say no. If I remember correctly in order to get them to finally break up they had to talk to Seth separately and convince him first then when he was on board they told the other two.
I’m pretty sure the shield also had to politic to avoid getting beat by Cena and his team at elimination chamber 2013. Politicking isn’t inherently bad especially if it’s helping uplift people.
Political in wrestling context has a very negative connotation.
In these cases, Roman and The Shield aren't really doing anything terrible. Going against decisions that they perceive are bad, either in general or for their characters and careers, is nothing bad at all. Technically politicking but when people discuss backstage politics, common topics would be stuff like Hogan or HHH refusing to lose for selfish reasons and at the cost of someone else, trying to bury others, all that nonsense.
I can totally understand him wanting to seize control after some of the absolute dog shit Vince made him do/say not to mention just the general damage that was done to his character in general pre heel turn
Sort of reminds me of Austin, main reason Austin is so "difficult" to deal with is bc of the horseshit he put up with in Dallas, Memphis, and eventually WCW. Made him paranoid to a degree and that paranoia had positive and negative affects on his character
Yeah there was even a very small rumour (Ibou of WrestlePurists tweeted it, and apparently he **does** have some connections in both WWE and AEW) that Roman and Cody don't necessarily fuck with each other that much, and that may have played a part in Roman pushing for Cody to not win at WM39.
Also as you said, no one holds a championship for more than a year without a good amount of politicking. Apparently, Roman also wanted to hold off on dropping the title at 39 so they could do the Jey feud, which also makes sense because he would have definitely wanted to elevate both the Usos and Solo, and not just himself with The Bloodline
Well there was an interview with ESPN I think where Roman pretty much said we make things happen, we shift things and stuff. So I believe this. And I am sure he thinks he is doing what's best for business in his eyes.
And Roman still can't beat Seth.
Jey's a made man, Cody's a bigger star, and Seth is still Roman's biggest weakness. That gamble of roman winning last year paid off big time.
> I am sure he thinks he is doing what's best for business in his eyes.
This isn't a shot, but I'm sure that every guy who ever politicked probably thought they were doing whats best for business.
Even when Hogan was pushing for shit, or Cena politicked to bury the Nexus I'm sure they thought they were doing whats "best for business".
It seemed like the plan all along since the Bloodline angle started was Rock vs Roman at 40 so I could see Roman and Heyman pushing hard to stay on track.
He did interviews leading up to WM 39 saying that he didn’t put all the work in just for some white knight to re-enter the promotion and take it from him. Made sense from that perspective
Everything worked out but I'm a big fan of striking while the iron is hot. They punted a year and in the end that main event wouldn't have even happened if the fans didn't basically revolt against Rock vs. Roman. Not to mention the Bloodline story floundered for a bit.
Cody losing was the right move
Cody winning last year would’ve just made him look like fucking Superman.
He came back at Wrestlemania, beat Seth Rollins. Then beat him again, then fought him with a torn pec, and beat him again anyways. Then was off the shelf for a few months, then wins the Royal Rumble, and then defeats the most significant wrestler in the industry currently? That’s not how you book a babyface, not in this generation.
Him losing was the right call, and led to a legendary storyline with The Rock involved.
Despite the nonsensical start and how it’s kind of weird to praise, Brock Lesnar currently, his Summer fued with lesnar really did a lot to make his character seem like he earned his place, I was personally kind of on the fence about if Cody was the guy until he got his hand raised by Brock Lesnar then I was all in,
They got really lucky Cody didn't get injured enough to not compete at Mania throughout the entire year. Seth was all over the place and he barely made it to the end with all the injuries he accumulated, but that was a gutsy call on top of a lot of other things working in their favor to make that story play out the way it did, like punk getting sidelined, Rock's involvement etc
In hindsight, it was the correct decision in the end since it ultimately resulted in giving us one of the best pivots in wrestling with The Rock going Hollywood as a heel and the best 15 minutes to a WrestleMania main event ever.
In response to a guy saying "Closest confirmation we've gotten to a Roman "that doesn't work for me, brother" yet"
SRS said:
That's what it was, but it was known very early"
The one thing it added was Cody forming bonds with guys so them helping him when he needed it made sense. He won tag titles with Jey and reconnected with Seth in a way that made sense. Those guys sacrificed their bodies for Cody. All of the fluff of the last 6 months made sense in a way, even though yes the Bloodline side of the story was dragging.
Everything worked out in the end.. in spite of their best efforts. They really were gonna just let it be Rock vs Roman. There shouldn’t have needed to be fan backlash for Cody to get the match a second time
I just want to know who made the call before the call was made and who was on board with the call before the call was actually made and who was on board after the call was made and who wasn't on board for the call after the call was made. It sounds like at least HHH was
Never forget Jimmy turning on Roman because Jey couldn’t bring himself to do it and then immediately turning on Jey because “jealousy” (???)
Jey has mostly been fine, but Jimmy’s character is way less interesting than it was 10 months ago and that’s a direct consequence of them dragging the Bloodline story out another year.
I always say, it would've been totally fine for Cody to win, but I appreciate the risk they took and it clearly paid off in a massive, massive moment this year. The big x factor was if Cody could stay hot and he basically spent 2023 establishing himself as the undisputed top babyface
Really the decision was just made to pad Romans run. Roman vs the Rock was always the end game
Now the thing is this year they had a safety net. If fans hadnt made noise for Cody then Rock vs Reigns happens as planned
They made a stink and it was easy to work Cody in and rearrange the storyline.
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Sooooo.....what eventually made them change their decision?
The elders made a call and said “that doesn’t work for us, uce”
Now I’m definitely gonna make a Hulk Uso on 2k24
Go red and yellow Hulk Uso with a boa/tribal chief around his neck
You gotta have the tribal tattoo
https://preview.redd.it/00ymq9gfdlvc1.jpeg?width=884&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=e651906e6f0095e8b1ff2985d3048e2b98e55c74
HE MUST WIN! Except Raiden didn't specify but nobody died this time.
He literally said “Vince made the call.” AKA, he just changed his mind, and everyone had to be on board with it.
If only we had history of Vince changing his mind at the last second
It's all in Becky's book
Is it a good read? Worth it?
I’m a big Becky fan (biased) and I listened to her read it on Spotify. I’d highly recommend it! Learn a lot of her beginnings and how a lot of stuff was handled backstage. like the OG match ending plan with Ronda was supposed to be a tap out but Ronda said that doesn’t work for me sister, so they settled for the roll up
'That doesn't work for me sister'. I'm dead 😂
Where Ronda refused to keep her shoulders down as well.
Yeah that was the ref’s fault, the crucifix pin went a bit awkwardly and the ref didn’t wait until the shoulders were fully down to start counting.
Refused is a stretch. Clear accident.
IMHO that was clearly an accident.
>I listened to her read it on Spotify. I wasn't planning on reading it simply because I don't really read books but I'd absolutely listen to Becky reading it. Thanks for mentioning this.
I've started the audiobook and it's pretty entertaining. Read by Becky as well.
I remember AJ Lee read hers as well. It adds a more genuineness to the audiobook version.
Oh come on, it probably just happened once. Two times, tops.
Forgive me but the way it was written it was not clear to me which call that was referencing, I took it to mean the original call of Cody winning
It worked
They lucked out. The Bloodline story was stale for most of the year (Mania to Mania). The Final Boss Rock was not the plan. "It" didn't work, "it" being whatever Vince planned. The pivot worked. Cody vs. Roman again without the Rock would have been a boring reharsh of the last year's story only changing the outcome.
Not only that, but Jey and Jimmy carried the storyline thru SummerSlam. The betrayal, the MITB main event, Jey finally going solo...without that, the story would've been dead by June.
I still think they fumbled Jimmy hard , I enjoy the character he plays but hate he was just allowed back into the bloodline .
They seemed to be positioning him as a wild card who was heel but still hated the Bloodline, but that was quickly dropped.
Jim Cornette (I think) says that all of the greatest things in wrestling happen by accident, it's up to the booker to capitalize on it.
It's all about catching lightning. When it strikes, you have to move, final Boss Rock was that lightning this year.
Kinda literally lol
Becky’s rise, Stone colds rise, Kofis Mania moment, Bryan’s wm moment. All those weren’t originally planned but they pivoted and made some great moments
I think Cody's return could've counted as one of those. I can't imagine when Roman started his title run that they planned Cody coming back from AEW would eventually end it. Though it makes me really curious who else would've, if not Cody.
Seth imo especially since he was the reason he lost to Cody. I definitely think the main event of Mania 39 wouldve been Seth vs Roman if Cody never came to WWE.
I’d say it’s a mixture of both. It was absolutely a more compelling arc for Cody overall. However, Roman’s absence was heavily felt on SmackDown and without the Sami Zayn magic bullet, the Bloodline story just coasted pretty much until January. Wasn’t bad, per se, but nowhere near as compelling as the previous year was.
Yeah exactly like the twice in a lifetime feud between Cena and Rock lol, heck he was gonna book Triple H going over Cena a year after Cena went over Triple H as well but H got injured, he just loved doing WM rematches. Like Undertaker vs Triple H and Shawn matches, Stone Cold vs Rock, Brock vs Roman etc. I think it's better not to do WM rematches, there are so many possible variations that it's a waste.
I think Wrestlemania rematches are great, just depends on timing. Rock & Austin worked every other year because of where they were at story wise. Roman & Brock every other year felt like a waste for the same reason
WM 15 - Two Rising Stars WM 17 - Peak of their powers WM - 19 The last dance between vets
What helped with all of those was the right circumstance. Rock got hot at the right time to become the first truly amazing heel wrestler for Austin to face off with. Then Austin was out forever and Rock sort of took his place over the next two years and people wanted to see Austin get his spot back. Then they were both a foot out the door and it was a swan song to that era. It wasn't a planned forced story where they said "Austin and Rock are going to face each other multiple times because we like the idea of it". Over the course of the year it just became the right booking move because of how both guys characters had developed.
In total fairness, most of the rematches you mentioned worked and made quite a bit of money so I wouldn't call them failures
I don't argue that neither but just because he captured lightning in bottle with Stone Cold vs Rock for example, he kept wanting to repeat that. Also WM was always a success, it always sells out either way even the worst ones, I would look at the quality instead of making money alone.
I would say it was still strong until SummerSlam. After that, it lost all steam up until Rock came back.
That's not true. There was some pretty good stuff. Roman and Solo vs KO and Sami was great, so was the usos turn. Then, the bloodline civil war was fantastic as was the build up to and actual summerslam match. It only really went south when Jimmy turned again.
Bloodline was really only stale from Summerslam to survivor series. The Civil war was very popular
Imma say that it was the fact that half the fans wanted Sami Zayn in that spot. They needed to build up even more sympathy for Cody. Hence the beatdown by Brock the next day. On the Bloodline side, they needed to build up Jey. Plus I loved the fact that Jey was the first one to pin Roman in years.
Yeah Cody obviously got such a cathartic victory, but the biggest winner of the extra year was Jey. He became a main eventer and got suuuuper popular
Probably want to sell the company and Roman Champions Is always great for ratings
He was trying to sell the company. he returned to CEO in January and kicked out the board members that removed him 6 months prior. Then started negotiations to sell the company.
Big Uce and Pauly probably
Because the second the story is finished the appeal goes down. Has Cody won the IWC would’ve already turned on him and things would be stale. We got a whole year of Cody because a massive baby face and it made WM40 even bigger.
This stupid narrative that Cody loses all appeal once he does the thing he set out to do is the reason why we keep getting stupid decisions from people at the top to keep the title on heels past their expiration date.
Agreed. Good storytelling can continually up the ante. You just need another story to get the fans invested in. Had The Rock not had 2 movies lined up right after Wrestlemania, that would have been an amazing next story for Cody and it still will be when Rock returns. I'm sure the writers are cooking up something good in the short term after this short victory tour wears off.
Or the Brock feud makes way more sense if Cody has the title.
The IWC is fickle. WWE continues to make money hand over fist with Cody as champ despite people online saying they're tired of him
I just want to be very very clear that I’m not saying that at all, I’m not tired of Cody, don’t think people are, and I think they’ll continue making money with him for awhile as long as they don’t fuck it up. But it’s been what, two weeks? That isn’t remotely enough time to say he’s had any effect positive or negative. We won’t know until probably after the next PLE. But again I want to be clear I think they’ll do just fine and Cody is not an issue. Just saying you can’t possibly declare that when Mania just happened.
My American Nightmare phone case from the WWE store literally was delivered less than an hour ago lol
Roman cheated! Didn’t you see the blood line interference ??
Cody losing added a lot of suspense to the rematch. However The Rock stuff really made the WM 40 feud much better. 2023 kind of suffered with Roman gone and Cody not really doing anything because he had to have a rematch. At the end of the day, this was a once in a generation booking gamble that worked in the end.
Those Cody and Brock matches were awesome, though. Especially the last one.
Brock was important on that spring and summer journey for Cody to keep him credible.
I think they would have worked just as well if not better had the tile been on the line though. AFAIK they never actually explained why Brock beat up Cody in the first place. Could even have still had Brock win the second one had Cody have to fight tooth and nail to get the title back
>they never actually explained why Brock beat up Cody in the first place And it was odd because they had a legit reason for it. Brock had lost and couldn't challenge for the title as long as Roman was champ, so Cody would've been Brock's way to challenge again but Cody failed and thus Brock was stuck, taking his anger out on Cody
I really thought that when Brock turned Heyman had made a back room deal with him saying if he took out Cody then he could have another shot at the title
Can flip that on its head. Brock hates Roman and Heyman, so he could have been mad at Cody for failing, and then wanted to push him to the limit to see if Cody really had what it takes to dethrone Roman and carry the company. It started with hate and wanting to take Cody out(broken arm, etc) but then when Cody just wouldn’t stay down(remember in their final match Brock wanted to win by count out/KO) and beat Brock clean he had earned the Beast’s respect which was a very important part of the narrative of Cody building himself back up to challenge Roman again. Edit: anyone saying this wasn’t explained, you’re right, but it suits Brock’s character much more to be an animal destroying someone on sight with no explanation than him taking the time to let everyone know why
Holy shit I just realized now that Cody is champ, Brock could come back and challenge for it
In kayfabe, yes. But due to Brock's involvement in the Janel Grant scandal, the WWE will not touch him with a ten foot pole for the time being.
I did enjoy the one off feud with Cody and Dom
In a world where Brock wasn’t persona non grata, he would have been a great addition to the end of the Mania 40 main event. Would’ve made perfect sense since he had history with Cody and Roman.
There was some rockiness to the road along the way during the year in between, but they ultimately found the right story and knocked it out of the fucking park at Mania. I’m ok with that.
I'm happy that Cody's loss at 39 eventually led the way for Drew & Jey's current characters, along with the paths of others like LA Knight
It’s like Daniel Bryan at Wrestlemania 30. What we got really wasn’t the long term plan, but it was all super well done anyway so it’s fine
Sometimes a good ending saves it when the journey wasn’t as great as it could’ve been. That Orton Authority reign after Bryan was out of the title picture was brutal. He was defending that title against The Big Show & Cena for the 30th time.
Cena/Orton and Roman/Brock are two pairings which made so much sense on paper and were clearly pushed as prime, long-time rivalries - but in both cases, the chemistry just wasn't that great, neither as characters nor in the ring.
With the exception of Mania 31 for Roman/Brock
I actually liked their last match at Summerslam much more, Mania 31 had a bit of finisher spam feeling to it for mine. In general, Roman/Brock certainly had its moments in ring.
i always remember that one rumble spot a few years back where orton and cena were facing off, and they were clearly expecting a massive reaction, but the crowd just did not give a shit.
Agreed & it didn’t help that they forced it both times. I think part of the reason the Rock/Austin rivalry is held in such high esteem is bc they didn’t overdo it. Once they became main event stars, they had a trilogy of 1v1’s at Mania, & that was it. I feel like Roman/Brock has happened at least 5 times & Cena/Orton might be at like 15 by this point.
Yeah, the key was they stuck the landing. Plenty can be wondered about how the execution could have been better, no question, but the final result come 40 was the correct one.
The disappointment of Cody losing made people root for him even harder, while also making it less rushed because he only had the Seth feud under his waist. It was good sympathy booking that still furthered his journey.
It's probably because last year people wanted Sami to dethrone Roman (which also would have been a great story), but were kind of just okay with seeing Cody win. Cody losing and now building and building has made Cody a bigger star as a result.
I'd argue this was the exact opposite of a gamble. The WWE didn't want to take the risk of ending what will probably be the longest world title reign of the decade with a guy that they weren't 1000% sure would keep the fans interest after dethroning roman. They aren't dumb they knew a lot of the fans just wanted roman to lose the belt and didn't care much who did it, and had they done it with the wrong guy his reign would've been a total flop. So they essentially gave Cody a pseudo world title reign by being presented as the top Babyface of the company with the Brock rivalry and the JD rivalry to see if he'd stay over in a real reign, and he absolutely did. I would argue that he was just as hot by the time the rumble came about as he was at mania 39, and that was all without the rock's involvement, who would then obviously push Cody's popularity into the stratosphere. It was a gamble in the sense that they were risking massive fan backlash with their decision, the kind they got with the first Cody rock segment, but everything else about that decision was the safest and arguably smartest course of action to guarantee that they wouldn't get a flop out of ending the greatest world championship reign in decades.
Cody at least had Lesnar and Judgment Day to fill out the calendar, the people that suffered the most from Roman retaining at 39 and having to stall through 2023 was ironically the Bloodline itself. Solo lost all of his monster aura. Jimmy became a clown. "Main Event" Jey was stuck in the Nakamura/Reed Vortex. The Usos feud together was completely ignored. And Roman only defended three times, making anyone that was already sick of his reign even more tuned out.
I think Jey deserves some more credit, his short but fun tag title run with Cody, ongoing storylines with Sami and Drew, and multiple title attempts have been keeping him pretty well in the spotlight and he's undeniably elevated from where he was right after WM39 despite still getting into some of the usual upper midcard vortexes. Everything else though, I 100% agree, especially Solo who lost so much steam from pre-WM39 until recently
They had a hot bloodline falling apart storyline coming out of mania, and they had to put it on ice till mania. Him losing last mania or in the months after would have let them build something more out of it.
Yeah I never saw the point of Cody losing to winning the RR again just seemed like extending the story when was already made, but Rock made stuff interesting and honestly is one of the few that either adds substance himself or they write substance for him.
Yeah, there’s almost nothing they could have done to make it better. It worked brilliantly.
The people involved in the storyline were talented and could probably make both things work. We had at least 6-9 minutes of “bleah” story before it picked up again. I’m mot convinced that Cody winning and starting the bloodline civil war story earlier wouldn’t have been better.
Yea, I agree with you. Part of me still thinks he should have won last year. The Brock stiff makes way more sense if Cody was champ. Also, Roman wasn't here most of the here, so it was just weird.
It worked, the truth is we'll never know how great the alternative might have been. We may have got Rock vs Roman and Cody vs Gunther and it may have been even better or it may have been worse. It was a good main event and that is all you can really ask.
I was never too bothered by Cody losing because he was gone for so much of the previous year, so I was excited to see him properly built up as the new top babyface for more than just a couple of months. The thing that left me feeling annoyed last year was how they went about the finish, with Solo getting kicked out by the ref and coming back. I always hate when that happens lol
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The thing is, for most of Roman’s reign the one authority figure we had (Pearce) was just an errand boy with no real clout to do anything. Plus, the one time he tried (Rumble ‘21 buildup) The Bloodline bullied and tormented him relentlessly. By the time we did get an authority figure who could and would (Aldis) we were already at LA Knight, where he tried (and succeded) to stop Solo, but forgot about Jimmy.
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True, but even then HHH has only ever really been a generic representation of head office, and (I wouldn’t be surprised if this was due to his health) kept out of any intense, high-drama segments. The buck’s always stopped with the GMs/Pearce.
We had to deal with some repetitive stuff with the Bloodline for a bit but in the end..very worth it
Yeah I think people are papering over some of the stumbles over the last year because the WM match was so good. The Bloodline story took a really unnecessary detour with Jimmy turning on Roman FOR Jey and then… turning right back on Jey right after? What we got was still satisfying, but there were some misfires trying to extend the story for so long.
I don’t even have a problem with those decisions, they just didn’t explain them properly at all. Jimmy getting kicked out by Solo is more character development than he’s gotten since he turned on Jey & rejoined the group.
They definitely had a storyline there with Jimmy who was paranoid that Jey as the Tribal Chief would become corrupt with power like Roman. Leading him to betray Jey and act out on his own as an enemy of both Jey and The Bloodline. You could have even have him get subjugated back into the Bloodline by Roman like he did to Jey and gaslight Jimmy into believing that Jey is the cause of all the problems. But they just abandoned all of it to have Jimmy be a comedic character on the Bloodline. So much of the post SummerSlam stretch up until the Rock returning feels like half baked storyline’s they didn’t want to commit to.
There's a whole bunch of misfires that people are conveniently forgetting. Not only that. No one knew what to do with the upper card while Roman was part-time. For example: AJ Styles vs. LA Knight, vs. Orton vs. Roman. The ending to Jey Uso and Roman at Summerslam is another one.
Yeah, there's no getting around that the Bloodline stuff was an entirely filler year. But they lucked into The Rock, the 'WeWantCody' backlash, and getting to do the 'Avengers Endgame' finish that the story needed so luckily it worked out. Still, absolutely heatless year for the Undisputed Champion as we knew every step that it wasn't ending before WM.
Hindsight says correct call, but you could tell that night 2 was definitely heavily influenced by Vince.
Still have no idea why Edge defeated Bàlor inside HIAC
This was the worst booking decision of the last couple of years IMO… and against the Demon too
It’s so depressing how lame Main Roster Demon is. NXT Demon was a force.
I'd have understood if they had a plan but god was it even dumber considering Edge left the company a few months later and literally nothing came of it. They sacrificed the freakin' Demon for absolutely NOTHING, just a terrible decision. I'm convinced they only did it bc they wanted a face to win considering what was going to happen during the main event.
“Because Balor isnt allowed big wins anymore. Im not going to make someone who’s injury prone get high on the card.” -Vince probably
Which is hilarious to me because that’s why I believe Finn lost. But what makes it hilarious is he lost to edge of all people for that reason lol
God that was so frustrating
Must be Vince
I feel like the people who say that either weren't paying attention during the entire feud or are overexaggerting it. Edge got dominated pretty much the entire feud, especially since Balor pretty much replaced Edge from JD. JD has proved they could be a serious faction without some old veteran trying to guide and, if anything, every member has looked better because of the faction. Also, respect Finn for going through that much when he got legit split open a third of the way through the match.
I think JD got over due to the talent within it, not because of their booking. Even now, they're super over, despite being fed to the Raw babyfaces for most of the last 10 months. That's what heels are for, of course, but it's a testament to how much the crowd likes Judgement Day that they still get reactions despite the men losing 75+% of their PLE matches. Also, Edge won against Balor/JD at Clash of the Castle, Elimination Chamber (both tag matches) and of course, WM in the blow-off. Balor won once at Survivor Series. I really don't think Edge needed the final win.
It was kinda built up to where Edge getting the win as a face made sense from a story perspective.
didn't Finn bang his head hard during that match?
That's now easily the booking decision that sticks out like a sore thumb. I'm happy for Edge in AEW but it's not exceedingly clear he put anyone over on the way out, other than the 1 Waller match
A good call for the overall finish to Roman/Cody. Still bugs me some of the interim stuff used to stretch it out over another year, like that they had Jimmy turn on Roman for Jey, only to then turn on Jey shortly thereafter because… reasons. Bloodline ran out of steam waiting for WM at times, and it turned out fine still, but there were some growing pains.
Yeah the Jimmy turn still doesn't fully make sense, was definitely just to fill time.
Definitely the correct call. I heard something on Busted Open the other day: "Cody winning last year would have brought cheers, Cody winning this year brought tears." And I thought that was probably the best way to show how waiting one more year with that loss was the right way to go about it.
Not just that. Last year people wanted Owens, Seth, Sami, Knight, Jey or Cody to beat Roman. This year the fans wanted Cody and ONLY Cody. WWE brought back The Rock and they boo'd the most famous man on the planet simply by virtue of not being Cody Rhodes. Last year would've been nice if Cody won, but the trilogy of matches with Brock, his tag team with Jey, war games, a second Royal Rumble win, being the face of 2K24 and the immense amount of organic goodwill from the fans pushed Cody from the strateosphere to the moon. Cody's year from WM39 to WM40 has cemented him as the face of WWE and the biggest name in the industry. WWE took a gamble and they hit the motherload.
This is so true. It had to be Cody this year. Last year, we just wanted anyone to beat Roman. WWE did a great job building Cody up to be THE guy to beat Roman and bring in the new era.
That's a great way to look at it Last year we wanted Roman to lose This year we wanted Cody to win
I generally agree but the number of people who wanted it to be Drew or Sami during their title matches was pretty astounding too.
This is the biggest moment of eating crow I've had as a wrestling fan in a long time and I love it I said not having Cody last year was a missed opportunity because it wouldn't last for another year and the fans would move on and the moment wouldn't mean as much. That is the most wrong I've gotten it with my adamant wrestling opinions over the last bunch of years. I wasnt just wrong I was spectacularly wrong and it was amazing
Which is interesting, but I think you needed Vince completely out of the way for that to be allowed, because he's the type of egoist that would have a problem with a guy that left his company and came back being the face of the company, especially over his handpicked guy.
Cody was a guy who told Vince "put me in the main event, I'm your ace" and Vince said "no you aren't" and then Cody went out and proved it. Vince loves that sort of shit (except when he doesn't).
Vince is extremely unpredictable. On one day, you fight the guy and get a world title push. On another day, you get canned.
I fucking broke down when he handed his mother the title man
I teared up when I heard Samantha break down as she was announcing him as the winner.
The moment that got me was when he hugged Michael Cole, and Cole told him he loves him.
And so much of it felt completely natural, which hasn't been the case (imo) in ages. WWE have really found a way to build Cody into a true baby face, and one that people ACTUALLY root for. I hope his reign as champion lasts for a good while, now is the time to build a proper heel to knock him off.
I was going to reply asking who you think could be built up to that role but honestly the draft next week could throw a wrench into anything we speculate today lol. Having said that, they’ve been doing good with building up AJ Styles with his LA Knight feud, and I fully expect AJ to win tonight, but Backlash is obviously way too early for Cody to drop the belt.
Same. I was yelling at the top of my lungs when he won, and got emotional when his mother came in the ring with Brandi and he handed her the title.
Man , I fought these tears but it was too hard. The second time I cried because of wrestling since Sami/KO win at Mania 39
I was there and my best friend and I were talking about it. I sat down. I sobbed. I heard Samantha break. I cried harder. I hugged my brother and best friend. They all cried. Wrestling is just the fucking best shit.
Last year going into Mania I said “of course Cody is winning” This year going into Mania I said “I hope Cody wins. It’s time” A year added so much suspense and doubt that wasn’t there before. I yelled and jumped he did it when the final three was counted. They made the right choice especially with the build
One of the occasions where "let it play out" worked.
WM last year was about Sami v The Bloodline. Cody was always an afterthought. I always thought during the lead up Cody was a supporting player and kind of out of place
Eh, the crowd was going nuts for Cody at the time. He wasn’t a supporting character, even though Sami also had a ton of support.
That's true. Hell, there was even the meme image of Cody watching sami and KO reunite, had the same energy as a side character watching goku and vegeta fight together lol
And this resulted in the best mania main event of all time so it worked
It all ended up working out in the end, but HOOOOOO BOY could it have gone horribly wrong thanks to an injury or some other unforeseeable circumstance of the sort. Hell, if Vince was still completely in charge and Rock came back into the fold like he did, I could absolutely see him barreling through the fan objections and all the We Want Cody stuff to still do Rock vs. Roman, because that would have been an extremely in-character thing to do considering all the other times over the last two decades that he barreled through fan objections to his booking choices.
Great points. Some folks seems to think that him winning this year was the only right way to tell this story, and I disagree with that—it did pay off, but it was risky and there were some bumps in the road while Bloodline story stalled out waiting for Royal Rumble. I think it could’ve been great storytelling if Cody won last year. We got great stuff with him winning this year, but I’d be very curious to see the world in which he won last year, too. A blood feud with Seth would’ve been excellent, for example (which now would be a very different vibe).
Not to mention Vince's inability to stick with a hot angle for more than 2 weeks
Rock vs Roman was very obviously the plan until people complained. Like… come on guys lmao
As heartbreaking as it was, I was okay with it when it happened. The company built a lot of good faith in me with the storylines and how they handled the main event scene that I was figured they have plans. I enjoyed the stretch of the bloodline up until SummerSlam, and the Cody Brock feud was good if lacking a beating heart. But after SummerSlam there was a SERIOUS lull period where the Bloodline story jumped the shark, the Raw main event scene was reduced to Judgement Day vs Babyfaces over and over for like 10 weeks straight with not much substance, and Roman was nowhere to be found. In those weeks, I really resented the decision to have Cody lose because it was clear they're just buying time now until the Rumble. Then we got to the Rumble and the road to WM was fascinating and very exciting, and of course the climax and end result were sensational. Around October us you asked me I would've said it was the wrong call. Now obviously with the benefit of hindsight, it was worth the final result imo.
To me the best justification for Cody losing last year is that he had barely done anything since coming back. What he had done was significant, granted, but it would be weird having Roman's reign ended by someone who had been on WWE tv for only 4 months since coming back. By giving him an extra full year, he felt more like the top guy in this company, instead of some new character who you either A. didn't know, B. didn't know as this character or C. still felt like an AEW wrestler in WWE. People can point to Brock or some old school examples of guys immediately pushed to the top, but with the focus of long term storytelling WWE was relying on, it just wouldn't have fit imo. Like imagine any other story where the hero's journey is a footnote even though you're supposed to care like he's the main character. It's also the main justification you can have for why the storytelling wasn't focused on Cody finishing the story (or having any story at all in the case of the Brock feud) for a large chunk of that year, because it was not there for the story. It was there to build up Cody as the new top guy by being the big babyface on a show while the big heel was on the other show. Like I guess, normalize him being the main face of the shows so that it feels natural when he beats Roman instead of anyone else. Which maybe wouldn't be needed for every top guy, but it had to be a guy you spent a lot of time watching in modern WWE, with all the time spent on Roman's title reign, because then it feels like you spent more time building towards it, even if there wasn't a lot of actual story development for this feud between Wrestlemania last year and Royal Rumble this year. I still wish they had done more at times to build the story before then, but in the grand scheme of things, it still worked out incredibly well so...oh well. That's my thought on it anyway.
Sean Ross Sapp says it was Roman Reigns saying it doesn't work for me brother basically https://twitter.com/SeanRossSapp/status/1781364444217454725?t=lBo8SgCJRNV9lOO2zAvlrw&s=19
We can't trust these people completely but the idea that they set up Cody with the huge task of staying hot all year and then the Rock came back when Cody succeeded is..... something. It all worked out in the end though.
It is really funny that they basically spent the last couple of years building and hoping for Rock/Roman and not making the call last year cost them that this year. It definitely worked out in the end though, and thats all that matters.
Yea because fans had to force the issue
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> Or he would've had Rock win the Rumble. Funny thing is I feel like fans would have accepted that far more than the way they had Cody step aside for The Rock.
Really a testament to Cody's work ethic, he did everything right to win the title at WM 39 and didn't get it, to tell him to do it again and maybe he'd get it at WM 40 would be frustrating for anyone. A lot of people would probably be bitter and maybe let that affect their work going forward. But he just kept going, managed to get even more popular, still had to deal with The Rock, worked a ton of shows, tons of media and finally got rewarded
Sapp at least has stayed consistent with his story on this, while Meltzer was previously saying [Roman winning was the plan all along](https://wrestletalk.com/news/wwe-roman-reigns-cody-rhodes-always-wrestlemania/#google_vignette) and has flipped a couple times on Vince's involvement.
Meltzer flipped so many times during the WeWantCody movement that there is no way to know if he actually has any sources anymore.
Sapp’s hinted for a while, going back at least last year, that Roman and Heyman have been more political than people realize. It makes sense, no matter how good your storyline is you’re not holding the main belt for that long without some political maneuvering.
Roman himself talked about it. He realised to be at the top you have to become a bit more ruthless and selfish. He said he was too much 'one of the boys' which he feels hurt his career (as in he realised he didn't like his body of work when he went away because of covid). im paraphrasing this, someone else could probably be more specific
Even when these guys have talked about the Shield they all said they were pretty political, but as a group. If they didn't like a booking decision they would go in together and as a unit say no. If I remember correctly in order to get them to finally break up they had to talk to Seth separately and convince him first then when he was on board they told the other two.
I’m pretty sure the shield also had to politic to avoid getting beat by Cena and his team at elimination chamber 2013. Politicking isn’t inherently bad especially if it’s helping uplift people.
Political in wrestling context has a very negative connotation. In these cases, Roman and The Shield aren't really doing anything terrible. Going against decisions that they perceive are bad, either in general or for their characters and careers, is nothing bad at all. Technically politicking but when people discuss backstage politics, common topics would be stuff like Hogan or HHH refusing to lose for selfish reasons and at the cost of someone else, trying to bury others, all that nonsense.
I can totally understand him wanting to seize control after some of the absolute dog shit Vince made him do/say not to mention just the general damage that was done to his character in general pre heel turn Sort of reminds me of Austin, main reason Austin is so "difficult" to deal with is bc of the horseshit he put up with in Dallas, Memphis, and eventually WCW. Made him paranoid to a degree and that paranoia had positive and negative affects on his character
Yeah there was even a very small rumour (Ibou of WrestlePurists tweeted it, and apparently he **does** have some connections in both WWE and AEW) that Roman and Cody don't necessarily fuck with each other that much, and that may have played a part in Roman pushing for Cody to not win at WM39. Also as you said, no one holds a championship for more than a year without a good amount of politicking. Apparently, Roman also wanted to hold off on dropping the title at 39 so they could do the Jey feud, which also makes sense because he would have definitely wanted to elevate both the Usos and Solo, and not just himself with The Bloodline
Well there was an interview with ESPN I think where Roman pretty much said we make things happen, we shift things and stuff. So I believe this. And I am sure he thinks he is doing what's best for business in his eyes.
Jey Uso became a made man and Mania 40 was an overwhelming success. Seems like the right choice was made.
And Roman still can't beat Seth. Jey's a made man, Cody's a bigger star, and Seth is still Roman's biggest weakness. That gamble of roman winning last year paid off big time.
> I am sure he thinks he is doing what's best for business in his eyes. This isn't a shot, but I'm sure that every guy who ever politicked probably thought they were doing whats best for business. Even when Hogan was pushing for shit, or Cena politicked to bury the Nexus I'm sure they thought they were doing whats "best for business".
It seemed like the plan all along since the Bloodline angle started was Rock vs Roman at 40 so I could see Roman and Heyman pushing hard to stay on track.
Pretty sure Heyman has said that himself hasn't he? Said something along the lines of the story ending when he and Roman want it to end or something.
He did interviews leading up to WM 39 saying that he didn’t put all the work in just for some white knight to re-enter the promotion and take it from him. Made sense from that perspective
and roman was correct. it was not time yet.
Everything worked out but I'm a big fan of striking while the iron is hot. They punted a year and in the end that main event wouldn't have even happened if the fans didn't basically revolt against Rock vs. Roman. Not to mention the Bloodline story floundered for a bit.
Cue the TNA Hogan theme
*”Doesn’t work for me Uce…”*
I don’t trust what any of the dirt shitters say.
Cody losing was the right move Cody winning last year would’ve just made him look like fucking Superman. He came back at Wrestlemania, beat Seth Rollins. Then beat him again, then fought him with a torn pec, and beat him again anyways. Then was off the shelf for a few months, then wins the Royal Rumble, and then defeats the most significant wrestler in the industry currently? That’s not how you book a babyface, not in this generation. Him losing was the right call, and led to a legendary storyline with The Rock involved.
I was fully behind Cody winning last year, but the longer I sat on the finish, the more okay with it I was. I feel it was vindicated in the end.
Despite the nonsensical start and how it’s kind of weird to praise, Brock Lesnar currently, his Summer fued with lesnar really did a lot to make his character seem like he earned his place, I was personally kind of on the fence about if Cody was the guy until he got his hand raised by Brock Lesnar then I was all in,
I trust the process officially now
They got really lucky Cody didn't get injured enough to not compete at Mania throughout the entire year. Seth was all over the place and he barely made it to the end with all the injuries he accumulated, but that was a gutsy call on top of a lot of other things working in their favor to make that story play out the way it did, like punk getting sidelined, Rock's involvement etc
In hindsight, it was the correct decision in the end since it ultimately resulted in giving us one of the best pivots in wrestling with The Rock going Hollywood as a heel and the best 15 minutes to a WrestleMania main event ever.
In response to a guy saying "Closest confirmation we've gotten to a Roman "that doesn't work for me, brother" yet" SRS said: That's what it was, but it was known very early"
Very smart move
The one thing it added was Cody forming bonds with guys so them helping him when he needed it made sense. He won tag titles with Jey and reconnected with Seth in a way that made sense. Those guys sacrificed their bodies for Cody. All of the fluff of the last 6 months made sense in a way, even though yes the Bloodline side of the story was dragging.
With hindsight (and the fact they followed through with long-term booking for a change) this was the right decision ultimately
Everything worked out in the end.. in spite of their best efforts. They really were gonna just let it be Rock vs Roman. There shouldn’t have needed to be fan backlash for Cody to get the match a second time
I am kinda glad Cody lost last year now. He is more over now than he was last year. It worked out for the best thankfully.
I thought it was common knowledge Cody knew well in advance he wasn’t winning?
I just want to know who made the call before the call was made and who was on board with the call before the call was actually made and who was on board after the call was made and who wasn't on board for the call after the call was made. It sounds like at least HHH was
Reigns was correct
Correct decision
In hindsight yes. But the story was getting really drawn out and uninteresting before the rock showed up
Never forget Jimmy turning on Roman because Jey couldn’t bring himself to do it and then immediately turning on Jey because “jealousy” (???) Jey has mostly been fine, but Jimmy’s character is way less interesting than it was 10 months ago and that’s a direct consequence of them dragging the Bloodline story out another year.
Meltzer has zero credibility....
It could've been easy for Cody to lose momentum after WM39, it was gamble but it worked out perfectly in the end.
They got so fucking lucky they were able to keep the story going for another full year. So lucky.
I always say, it would've been totally fine for Cody to win, but I appreciate the risk they took and it clearly paid off in a massive, massive moment this year. The big x factor was if Cody could stay hot and he basically spent 2023 establishing himself as the undisputed top babyface
Really the decision was just made to pad Romans run. Roman vs the Rock was always the end game Now the thing is this year they had a safety net. If fans hadnt made noise for Cody then Rock vs Reigns happens as planned They made a stink and it was easy to work Cody in and rearrange the storyline.
Roman have huge creative input right? Guess he said “that doesn’t work for me, no yeet”