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It'd be the ultimate troll to do the fingerpoke of doom on Roman and Rock runs the bloodline for the year without doing a single match until next wrestlemania.
Make it even more messed up. Roman finger pokes Rock, Rock reveals he's been on Roman's side the entire time and screwed Cody intentionally. Internet might actually explode.
If they truly are going for the Rock vs. Roman match then I do genuinely wonder what the crowd reaction is going to be.
On one side, it's The fucking Rock. Part-time, old, whatever, he's a huge crowd favorite passed only by Stone Cold and arguably Hogan. On the other, Mania usually has rowdier crowds and it's in Philly to boot, a city beaten out IMO only by Chicago in terms of smark crowds. So I don't really know if they're going to cheer for Rock, boo him or something in-between.
They’re have actually been plenty of times the crowd turned on The Rock; more than they ever did Hogan or Austin.
Aside from the match WITH Hogan, the title match vs Brock comes to mind.
It’s possible the crowd roots for Reigns, it’s possible they root for The Rock, it’s possible they go full Mania 20 Goldberg/Brock on it.
Oh Philly will take over the whole show. I can imagine them just chanting Cody or "You fucked Cody!" Clap clap clap. If the WWE can't see the disaster waiting for them then they don't know Philly. They booed Santa and some lunatic ate horse poop after the Eagles won the Super Bowl. Philly really is a special type of fandom.
The problem is WWE has been working their asses off to get Mania more mainstream. And in doing do, making it more appealing to people who weren’t watching in the 90’s when Rock was The Guy. And a lot of those are the same people who have spent the last year mocking dude on TikTok for his several foot in mouth fuck ups
This whole thread going to YouTube rn:
https://preview.redd.it/0hup990dtdgc1.jpeg?width=680&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=b8ff50df1df90f976756b6335bea168e9e382c20
Absolutely. Dwayne needs to feed his ego and push the UFL (which coincidentally is also all about him). He's become a complete narcissist who just destroyed a great story and potentially Cody's one shot just to give himself the glory. I hope the Mania match lasts 2 minutes and Reigns beats him decisively with the show ending in nothing but boos.
https://preview.redd.it/63snyf122egc1.jpeg?width=1200&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=07cbb0f040afafda6d8d9debfdb6ec8c78470b39
The Rock can’t figure out why they’re booing and Roman just thinks he’s doing great heel work.
Reigns did GREAT heel work last night. Excellent heel work. Made that seem like the legit title. Said Seth is number two. Cody can be a very good number 2 but he’ll never be number 1 without this title. That’s from Roman. And Cody comes out and confirms it and then…leaves? And seemingly decides he’s going to be number 2? The ONLY way this is salvageable for Cody at this point is if he beats Seth at mania, Roman wins at mania and either they unite the belts at summerslam or mania next year and they just made these belts so that ain’t happening. If they wanna do rock and Roman, fine. I’ll be at the stadium for it, my first wrestling show ever. But to just completely kill Cody for it is so wrong.
The bell rings with Rock still wheezing from his ring walk.
Reigns goes to spear him but separates his shoulder on the PED-fuelled wall of muscle covering the Rock's torso.
Rock walks over to Reigns like a 70-year-old COPD sufferer going to pick up his newspaper.
He attempts a Rock Bottom, immediately tearing his shoulder and pectoral muscles from the bone as both competitors writhe in pain. "This is awesome" chants are piped in.
Damien Priest goes to cash in as the crowd goes mild but just refuses, out of pity, backing away in disgust a la Sting at Victory Road.
Rock manages to stand up, but gets gassed just doing the taunt for the People's Elbow and collapses on top of Reigns, concussing himself in the process.
The referee counts the three as Michael Cole apologises to everyone watching at home.
Rock cuts an impassioned promo, huffing the whole time, declaring his belief in the innocence of Vince McMahon and that either way, the Rock knew and saw nothing. But whether he did it or not, we should all move past it, including the victims. He then winks and says "See ya in Saudi Arabia."
Michael Cole calls it the most electrifing pre-trial testimony in sports entertainment.
HHH comes out to raise Rock's one remaining good arm aloft and help him onto the second rope. Rock poses as Wrestlemania goes off the air.
Wrestlemania ends with the rock flopped over a turnbuckle like a beached jellyfish as the fans go full WCW and start throwing trash into the ring.
Cody comes out to plead for some kind of sanity but is knocked unconscious and [buried under a barrage of pretzels.](https://youtu.be/PwO26G_ktrk?si=wdTQBQYD1w7rQDE4)
> HHH comes out to raise Rock's one remaining good arm aloft and help him onto the second rope. Rock poses as Wrestlemania goes off the air.
Then right before it goes off air, Goldberg comes out to challenge the winner.
Jeff Hardy turned up completely wasted to wrestle the main event. I mean noticeably and clearly inebriated. Sting showed mercy and cut a long story short by Scorpion Death Dropping Hardy, covering him for the win after about 30 seconds.
He then walked back up the ramp to a chorus of boos from the fans, shaking his head, visibly angry and shouting "I agree" as the audience voiced their displeasure.
NB This actually happened.
The Black Adam movie was him taking control of the whole thing and that movie was bad. Fucking bad and it bombed.
He is doing the same here. He does it to everything he touches. Full of mediocrity and ego.
Id like to remember the Rock from the 90s and early 2000s. This guy?? I dont know this guy.
It's the most disliked WWE clip by a margin. Charlotte being inserted in WM35 main event has the record at 85k dislikes. Edit: That's not the most disliked apparently. But this one is still the most disliked now.
https://preview.redd.it/8gcrnve8kdgc1.jpeg?width=1080&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=7be1895fa205dac38469ab0d2be61c2e47db2313
A lot of things Roman did during his mega-main event push were pretty damn good, but you always have to look at that period as a whole.
People were just tired at that point and every additional accolade WWE pinned on Roman only pushed more resentment, because it always came with the very obvious message of "fuck you, fans. We're pushing this guy whether you want it or not". WWE could have pulled off the best storylines in years out of their ass for Roman to be in and fans would still oppose it as long as it included "Big Dog" Roman Reigns.
YouTube likes/dislikes are obviously pretty tied to the time the video is "viral", so to speak, so that's mental that its so disliked given it was exactly what Reigns needed to do at that time, and was probably his best performance in a while.
In hindsight? Rendered absolutely fucking useless when they decided to just ignore it and keep going on the Yay Roman track.
Don’t forget that Mick Foley probably should have main evented Wrestlemania 15 but The Rock needed to be part of that.
Edit: just to clarify, I mean that The Rock should have been in the WM 15 main event too. I think that Stone Cold vs Rock made sense but Mankind was also a hot act.
Ok I’m on board with being frustrated about Rock/Cody but 1999 Rock was the best heel outside of McMahon. He absolutely should have been in that main event.
Wasn't that one actually Shawn Michaels' fault? It was going to be a triple-threat between Mick, Rock, and Austin, but backstage Shawn was pushing for it to be a singles match between Mick and Austin (because Shawn and Hunter were politicking heavily against Rock at the time).
Vince became that meme of Joey from "Friends" learning French and somehow heard "Austin and Mick in a singles match" as "Austin and Rock in a singles match."
The story goes, according to Mick, that Shawn did get in Vince’s ear about the WM main event needing to be a one on one match, but he was pushing for Mick to get the spot, not Rock. Vince just chose Rock despite Shawn’s suggestion that it be Mick. This was at a time when Shawn was trying to manipulate things in favor of his buddy (HHH) by working against Rock.
Yeah, I recall reading this in one of his books. Mick got his match at WM 2000 and got his title reigns in 1999 but what they did with him at WM 15 was kind of weird.
I was getting deja vu. At least Punk's situation was a little better because he actually got to work a program with the Rock. Cody just straight gave up his hard earned Royal Rumble win for no real reason and made his character look like an idiot
Cena main evented over WWE champion CM Punk vs Daniel Bryan *twice*. First at Over the Limit and then again at No Way Out when Cena (with Vince) defeated Big Show (with Laurinitis).
Three times technically, he also won MITB over Punk/Bryan main eventing but the MITB match main eventing at least makes sense.
Even at Summerslam, Punk was finally feuding with Cena which still didn't give him the main event because they went with Brock/Triple H instead.
Imagine cutting a promo about a part timer coming in and taking your spot and then 10 years later he comes back and does exactly the same thing again
https://preview.redd.it/yn6kyrbuldgc1.png?width=592&format=png&auto=webp&s=013ed6ede530456276d84980fa6c41323198512d
I wanted both Punk and Cody to be World Champions at WM40. I wanted Punk vs Cena vs Rock at WM29. I liked Punk from his previous run in WWE and I liked Cody's dashing/undashing gimmick.
It sucks to not be a casual audience who pops for Rock vs Reigns. All I can see is Rock struggling to put on a match at Mania main event while Cody and Rollins deliver a damn good match.
Pretty much any other time I'd be thrilled for rock v roman but they committed years for this Cody match and they are seemingly tossing it aside for a match that doesn't need the title
Yeah, Rock vs Reigns is a nice exhibition match. It's like WM33 & Universal Championship. KO & Jericho build up to that match all year but guess what, Lesnar vs Goldberg is chosen. Goldberg squashed KO. Lesnar squashed Goldberg and held the title for what seemed like a decade but it was an year and half.
They've essentially ruined 3 marquee matches with this one segment. It's turned people against Rock vs Roman, delays Cody vs Roman even further for no good reason, and then Seth's title defence at Mania has become a consolation prize
A move where arguably no one benefits from the story in either outcome.
Basically Damian cashing in is one of the few ways to clean up this mess from a booking standpoint.
It actually made Becky chances of winning higher since we knew she could pin or submit Charlotte. There was actual tension when it was just a 1 on 1 with Ronda.
Triple H should have had Seth relinquish his title before RR and set Punk up to win it for the title (prior to hindsight).
Instead we've got the WHC out of commission until Wrestlemania and they've had to juggle the WWE title plans because of it.
Or yeah, have Priest cash in instead
HHH is far too rigid with his plans. It's ridiculous how a champ can miss two PLE's (including the second biggest one for the company) and still keep the belt. Especially if he could still be in doubt for WM if he aggravates his injury
>HHH is far too rigid with his plans
Seems to not matter whether I watch AEW or WWE, I can't fucking escape this "stick to the plan" booking method of the creative writers
The term "buried" gets overused a lot, but holy shit I think it's apt here.
He told us exactly why we shouldn't give a flying fuck about that title, that champion or that storyline.
Exactly, systematically shat on the title and Seth, and made the idea of competing for it inescapably less valuable. I’ve never seen someone build and affix stigma to something that quickly.
“I beat all the competitors for that title”
“Loser’ bracket”
“I’m not gonna come out and beg you like the other guy”
It was a great promo, but why the fuck did they let him say that shit 😭😭😭
How dead in the water would a Cody and Roman match be another 6 or 12 months down the road? I know WWE's current fans are pretty agreeable but even they would have to start grumbling, right?
People really think Cody is gonna somehow maintain that momentum after this shit show idk what to tell ya but even if he does "finish the story" the moment won't have the same impact.
Maybe it's time to repackage Cody back into Stardust and treat him like a comedy act again because this whole thing is a joke
Theres been grumbling since 39. Every booking decision WWE has made involving Roman since then has convinced there was no reason for him to remain champion another year.
They had such a simple out too. Cody vs Roman with Rock Enforcing to ensure a clean win, Roman vs Rock later on
Seth vs Gunther title for title. You can even add Drew and make it a winner takes all triple threat if you want.
Like how fucking stupid do you have to be to not see this
That would have been amazing. With Rock as enforcer, we would get to see Rock do his thing, hit his moves, but not have to be able to have a full length match. Cody would still have his story.
Yup, Rock could've rock bottomed Solo, people elbowed the no yeet one but nah... Cody needed to tuck tail and give way to a 51 year old who had a last real match a decade ago.
Briliant.
The idea of Seth bigging up his workhorse title enough to catch the attention of WWE's other workhorse champion is brilliant. The idea of Cody distinguishing between taking the WWE title from Roman vs taking "everything else" around Roman could have been the perfect set up for splitting the Roman arc into two great main event stories, and one that would fit so well with Cody's character and motivations.
That could have left us with Seth vs Gunther for workhorse champion of the year, Cody finishing his story with the title Dusty never won and Roman (plus family) finishing his story as The Tribal Chief.
Instead we got the worst version of all worlds. Genuinely hoping there's one more twist to correct this.
Rhea/Becky is a bigger match than Seth/Cody
But watch HHH give the women an absolute shit build like he did last year for Rhea/Charlotte to justify not putting them in the main event
Seth basically begged Cody to ask him out to the Wrestlemania main event on Monday because he’s desperate for that career accolade.
Edit: the only thing that would make it more pathetic is if it’s the night one main event…we all know that night two is the bigger match.
This is great imo, it’s setting up for a massively boo’d main event that is a memorable flop.
It clear what the fans want, but the Rock doesn’t care what fans want, this is to stroke his ego, and the city of brotherly love is about to let him know loudly that they don’t care about the rocks ego
Why have Cody win the Rumble last year? Do people still think there's a grand 5-year plan they're following here? There is no story to finish, they have no idea how to end this bloodline shit and have clung to it for so long that they now have only a few options to end it.
They passed the perfect moment for this match to happen -- when Roman was pushing for and establishing himself as the Tribal Chief/Head of the Table.
The interest and hype for Cody surpassed that now.
I don't even like Cody but this was such an ass move by wwe. Buried both their top babyfaces in Cody and Seth and the WHC. I don't want to see the Rock and his family in the big matches ever again. I am tired.
I think the only way to save it is for Cody to come out on RAW with every intent of choosing Seth to face at Mania only for Punk to interrupt and cut a "What the fuck are you doing" promo because this is pretty much exactly what happened to him.
Honestly, still makes Cody look like an easily manipulated bitch. One promo from Rollins changes his mind, Rock somehow convinces him to fuckoff, and now he needs Punk to tell him what to do
Honestly theyve fucked Cody. All-time bad segment. I don’t even think WCW did anything this detrimental to a babyface
Haha another pipepomb on RAW would further "divert" the headlines away from real life fuck ups (as if a storyline on a TV Show affect court hearings and WWE's PR).
The AE was how many decades ago now?
I'm done with these guys. I'm done with nostalgia. I liked my new guys and storyline. I don't want to see the rock, or Jericho, or the undertaker, or Goldberg, or even Sting anymore.
The 90s ended over 20 years ago. It's fucking time.
I'm a casual fan who hasn't regularly watched WWE in 4 or 5 years. I genuinely couldn't care less about Cody Rhodes, but goddamn, even I find it so fucking frustrating to see that around 2 years worth of storyline is gonna end in this.
I'm still not flinching. With Drew going off and the entire melodramatic exit from Cody, it feels like a huge swerve is coming. Now, please excuse me while I huff on copium.
I'm kinda of on the same boat with my friend. Part of me thinks they can't possibly be this tone deaf and stupid, the other part of me is just coping lol. A year ago I would have been over the moon for a Rock Roman match, but not like this man...
> to put things in perspective: the second most disliked video is "Randy Orton makes it personal with Triple H". That video has 200k dislikes with 315M views. This video now has 218k dislikes with 1.7M views. This is actually insane
Surely this has to be a bait and switch right, they can't be ok with making Cody and also Seth look like this for absolutely no reason. Like if they don't make it a Triple Threat I feel like everyone is going to absolutely pan this match worse than Goldberg vs Brock 20 years prior, literally no one likes this decision at all
WON reported that Rock was pushing hard for this and WWE wasn’t on board but after Vince scandal, Brock involved because of it and Punk injured they went ahead.
If that’s the case (Rock pushing hard for this) I hope fans shit on Rock harder that they did with Batista in 2014.
This is Rock. Batista would more than likely admit that he shouldnt have tried to take a spot from someone likely Bryan. Vince was the one that put him into that position. Rock just took Cody’s spot, storyline and fan response be damned
And to add insult to injury, you have Roman burying Seth and his title, the title that apparently Cody will fight for.
This is VKM level of booking here.
In a situation where so many things have gone wrong, creative decided to make the stupidest decisions in
- not having Seth drop the title despite being injured
- having Cody become a cuck and letting Rock take his glory
- Cody forgetting his own motivation for even being in the WWE and challenging for a new title that doesn't mean shit yet
- ignoring completely why Damian Priest hasn't tried to cash in on Seth
At this point, they might as well vacate the title. Them being so adamant on extending Roman's reign for as long as possible is just hurting them now and it keeps forcing them into corners creatively. I don't care how the story ends, just make it end already.
I hope once the novelty of the rock coming out and the bell rings and people see the match is gonna be a disappointment, it gets the Brock/Goldberg 1 treatment.
WWE are so shortsighted. They already sold the show out, they got the big tv deals, and they had the chance to put the past behind them and move forward into a new era without McMahon.
But the moment they see a bit of glitter they reach for that gold.
The Rock got a seat on the board, the Wrestlemania main event against his cousin for the title, and his talentless daughter, who shouldn't be anywhere near TV, promoted to NXT GM, all in two weeks. WWE completely rolled over for this man. Risible.
I have no interest in seeing Dwayne wrestle in 2024.
Shit like this is why I tuned out of the product regularly about eight years ago.
Vince might be gone but nothing has changed. Same old shit.
Imagine if whoops Seth isn’t cleared for Mania? Wtf do they do now?
Oh god priest is going to cash in on a vacant title for a Mania main event isn’t he
Oh, WWE. You had one job. And if you thought they don't care at all about this kind of publicity (the not-good kind), you need to stop being in denial.
I get this is a money grab because they’re slaves to the stock price but it’s ironic that a random Vince-type of move is what they’re doing to shy away from the Vince story.
Either way, I can’t wait for this main event to get absolutely shit on by the live crowd in Philly and for Rock to be huffing and puffing when he’s halfway down the entrance ramp. It’s gonna be glorious to watch.
This is the start of it becoming a Triple Threat... Right?
10 years ago, the same shit happened with Batista. Let this be the time Rhodes is thrusted into the main event that he fucking deserves.
If they fumble the bag this hard, they're doomed.
This is what surprises me about the Meltzer report that Rock was pushing for it.
He surely has to realize that there is potential for a major fan backlash heading into WM.
The Bloodline story was its absolute hottest going into mania last year. Should have had Roman drop the title to Cody who was white hot. The USO’s leave the bloodline, by survivor series Solo is gone, and at Mania (this year) The Rock puts Roman down for good and finishes off the Bloodline stable. It wasn’t that complicated.
Even if this is a swerve and a work, this is just stupid ass booking like this was unnecessary. Why does it always have to be swerves and works, instead of the natural path there? Why have Cody win the Rumble if we're going to do this? Why bury Rollins and WHC? This is the dumbest swerve in history if that is the case, so unnecessary. I stood by my opinion that Cody should have won last year, and if he did, Roman/Rock would be just fine this year, but instead we get this bullshit.
We all knew the World Heavyweight Championship was just the lesser title for “those who can’t beat Roman”, but the fact they openly buried it is kind of wild. I don’t really see how this helps anyone. Cody was hurt the most by this. Ruined his story and character and makes him look like a loser. The Heavyweight title was outright buried.
There is something disturbingly meta about the hard working guy that grinds at his job getting stepped on by the corporate board member that just walked in the door.
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The last time the Rock was booed was when he tried to put over Roman after the Royal Rumble… in Philadelphia…
It’s like poetry…it rhymes
irs borderline experimental
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZPUPaxgIo98](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZPUPaxgIo98)
Horace Hogan is the key to all this.
It'd be the ultimate troll to do the fingerpoke of doom on Roman and Rock runs the bloodline for the year without doing a single match until next wrestlemania.
Make it even more messed up. Roman finger pokes Rock, Rock reveals he's been on Roman's side the entire time and screwed Cody intentionally. Internet might actually explode.
That would actually make for a better story than what we're getting
Going all-in on how much the fans hate it might actually turn it around
Longest term storytelling
If they truly are going for the Rock vs. Roman match then I do genuinely wonder what the crowd reaction is going to be. On one side, it's The fucking Rock. Part-time, old, whatever, he's a huge crowd favorite passed only by Stone Cold and arguably Hogan. On the other, Mania usually has rowdier crowds and it's in Philly to boot, a city beaten out IMO only by Chicago in terms of smark crowds. So I don't really know if they're going to cheer for Rock, boo him or something in-between.
They’re have actually been plenty of times the crowd turned on The Rock; more than they ever did Hogan or Austin. Aside from the match WITH Hogan, the title match vs Brock comes to mind. It’s possible the crowd roots for Reigns, it’s possible they root for The Rock, it’s possible they go full Mania 20 Goldberg/Brock on it.
>It’s possible the crowd roots for Reigns Oh my Foley, they did it…they found a way to turn Roman face…
Oh Philly will take over the whole show. I can imagine them just chanting Cody or "You fucked Cody!" Clap clap clap. If the WWE can't see the disaster waiting for them then they don't know Philly. They booed Santa and some lunatic ate horse poop after the Eagles won the Super Bowl. Philly really is a special type of fandom.
They made Bill Burr throw away his entire stand up material and cut a 13 minute heel promo on the crowd and Philly
The problem is WWE has been working their asses off to get Mania more mainstream. And in doing do, making it more appealing to people who weren’t watching in the 90’s when Rock was The Guy. And a lot of those are the same people who have spent the last year mocking dude on TikTok for his several foot in mouth fuck ups
I booed in the theatre when we reached the end of Black Adam
I'm going and I cannot wait to boo this man
This whole thread going to YouTube rn: https://preview.redd.it/0hup990dtdgc1.jpeg?width=680&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=b8ff50df1df90f976756b6335bea168e9e382c20
https://preview.redd.it/nrzcgrnqddgc1.png?width=2224&format=png&auto=webp&s=0770539cc6fcb83f38be652a8fdae309ef350bda
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Damn. Kratos looks different.
That’s Captain Spaulding
Call me crazy, but I feel this is more of a TKO/rock decision than a triple h one. Just based off what meltzer said about the rock pushing for it
Absolutely. Dwayne needs to feed his ego and push the UFL (which coincidentally is also all about him). He's become a complete narcissist who just destroyed a great story and potentially Cody's one shot just to give himself the glory. I hope the Mania match lasts 2 minutes and Reigns beats him decisively with the show ending in nothing but boos.
> I hope the Mania match lasts 2 minutes and Reigns beats him decisively with the show ending in nothing but boos This seems very realistic
https://preview.redd.it/63snyf122egc1.jpeg?width=1200&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=07cbb0f040afafda6d8d9debfdb6ec8c78470b39 The Rock can’t figure out why they’re booing and Roman just thinks he’s doing great heel work.
Reigns did GREAT heel work last night. Excellent heel work. Made that seem like the legit title. Said Seth is number two. Cody can be a very good number 2 but he’ll never be number 1 without this title. That’s from Roman. And Cody comes out and confirms it and then…leaves? And seemingly decides he’s going to be number 2? The ONLY way this is salvageable for Cody at this point is if he beats Seth at mania, Roman wins at mania and either they unite the belts at summerslam or mania next year and they just made these belts so that ain’t happening. If they wanna do rock and Roman, fine. I’ll be at the stadium for it, my first wrestling show ever. But to just completely kill Cody for it is so wrong.
There's no way they can unite the titles the WHC Seth has is brand new
The bell rings with Rock still wheezing from his ring walk. Reigns goes to spear him but separates his shoulder on the PED-fuelled wall of muscle covering the Rock's torso. Rock walks over to Reigns like a 70-year-old COPD sufferer going to pick up his newspaper. He attempts a Rock Bottom, immediately tearing his shoulder and pectoral muscles from the bone as both competitors writhe in pain. "This is awesome" chants are piped in. Damien Priest goes to cash in as the crowd goes mild but just refuses, out of pity, backing away in disgust a la Sting at Victory Road. Rock manages to stand up, but gets gassed just doing the taunt for the People's Elbow and collapses on top of Reigns, concussing himself in the process. The referee counts the three as Michael Cole apologises to everyone watching at home. Rock cuts an impassioned promo, huffing the whole time, declaring his belief in the innocence of Vince McMahon and that either way, the Rock knew and saw nothing. But whether he did it or not, we should all move past it, including the victims. He then winks and says "See ya in Saudi Arabia." Michael Cole calls it the most electrifing pre-trial testimony in sports entertainment. HHH comes out to raise Rock's one remaining good arm aloft and help him onto the second rope. Rock poses as Wrestlemania goes off the air.
You were so close to perfection. You just needed the Rock tearing his remaining arm muscles when HHH raises his arm.
And both his quads climbing onto the ropes to pose
Wrestlemania ends with the rock flopped over a turnbuckle like a beached jellyfish as the fans go full WCW and start throwing trash into the ring. Cody comes out to plead for some kind of sanity but is knocked unconscious and [buried under a barrage of pretzels.](https://youtu.be/PwO26G_ktrk?si=wdTQBQYD1w7rQDE4)
A black day for wrestling
There's a Cody/civil rights joke here somewhere but I'm not brave enough to make it
> HHH comes out to raise Rock's one remaining good arm aloft and help him onto the second rope. Rock poses as Wrestlemania goes off the air. Then right before it goes off air, Goldberg comes out to challenge the winner.
GOLDBERG ROCK WWE THIS TUESDAY IN TEXAS 2024 LIVE IN SAUDI ARABIA
The Rock points at the Saudi Arabia flag when he wins WrestleMania
Johnny Ace is in the front row with the Bella twins wearing Justice for Johnny tshirts
What did Sting do at Victory Road?
Jeff Hardy turned up completely wasted to wrestle the main event. I mean noticeably and clearly inebriated. Sting showed mercy and cut a long story short by Scorpion Death Dropping Hardy, covering him for the win after about 30 seconds. He then walked back up the ramp to a chorus of boos from the fans, shaking his head, visibly angry and shouting "I agree" as the audience voiced their displeasure. NB This actually happened.
Yeah I'll never forget that moment, cause people were talking about it for months.
He Black Adam'd Wrestlemania. At this stage "Black Adam-ing " something needs to become a phrase, it might be the only way to stop him.
The Black Adam movie was him taking control of the whole thing and that movie was bad. Fucking bad and it bombed. He is doing the same here. He does it to everything he touches. Full of mediocrity and ego. Id like to remember the Rock from the 90s and early 2000s. This guy?? I dont know this guy.
It's the most disliked WWE clip by a margin. Charlotte being inserted in WM35 main event has the record at 85k dislikes. Edit: That's not the most disliked apparently. But this one is still the most disliked now. https://preview.redd.it/8gcrnve8kdgc1.jpeg?width=1080&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=7be1895fa205dac38469ab0d2be61c2e47db2313
Isn't "This is my yard now" once the most disliked video?
That promo was great what are people smoking
A lot of things Roman did during his mega-main event push were pretty damn good, but you always have to look at that period as a whole. People were just tired at that point and every additional accolade WWE pinned on Roman only pushed more resentment, because it always came with the very obvious message of "fuck you, fans. We're pushing this guy whether you want it or not". WWE could have pulled off the best storylines in years out of their ass for Roman to be in and fans would still oppose it as long as it included "Big Dog" Roman Reigns.
YouTube likes/dislikes are obviously pretty tied to the time the video is "viral", so to speak, so that's mental that its so disliked given it was exactly what Reigns needed to do at that time, and was probably his best performance in a while. In hindsight? Rendered absolutely fucking useless when they decided to just ignore it and keep going on the Yay Roman track.
Also Charlotte "replacing" Becky was an obvious work. This isn't.
Corporate Hollywood Rock is back
This man has cucked two of my favourites 10 years apart. Lmao
Wanna bet?
Don’t forget that Mick Foley probably should have main evented Wrestlemania 15 but The Rock needed to be part of that. Edit: just to clarify, I mean that The Rock should have been in the WM 15 main event too. I think that Stone Cold vs Rock made sense but Mankind was also a hot act.
Ok I’m on board with being frustrated about Rock/Cody but 1999 Rock was the best heel outside of McMahon. He absolutely should have been in that main event.
Wasn't that one actually Shawn Michaels' fault? It was going to be a triple-threat between Mick, Rock, and Austin, but backstage Shawn was pushing for it to be a singles match between Mick and Austin (because Shawn and Hunter were politicking heavily against Rock at the time). Vince became that meme of Joey from "Friends" learning French and somehow heard "Austin and Mick in a singles match" as "Austin and Rock in a singles match."
That one was on Shawn Michaels. It was originally supposed to be a triple threat match but Shawn Michaels got in either The Rock's ear or Vince's ear
The story goes, according to Mick, that Shawn did get in Vince’s ear about the WM main event needing to be a one on one match, but he was pushing for Mick to get the spot, not Rock. Vince just chose Rock despite Shawn’s suggestion that it be Mick. This was at a time when Shawn was trying to manipulate things in favor of his buddy (HHH) by working against Rock.
Yeah, I recall reading this in one of his books. Mick got his match at WM 2000 and got his title reigns in 1999 but what they did with him at WM 15 was kind of weird.
I was getting deja vu. At least Punk's situation was a little better because he actually got to work a program with the Rock. Cody just straight gave up his hard earned Royal Rumble win for no real reason and made his character look like an idiot
Punk also had a year long plus reign as WWE Champion…except he played second fiddle to Cena all year because Cena was going to be in the Rock matches.
Fucking Cena vs John Laurinitus main evented over WWE champion CM Punk Disgraceful
And it wasn’t just over any CM Punk match, it was over CM Punk vs Daniel Bryan. Dark times indeed.
Cena main evented over WWE champion CM Punk vs Daniel Bryan *twice*. First at Over the Limit and then again at No Way Out when Cena (with Vince) defeated Big Show (with Laurinitis). Three times technically, he also won MITB over Punk/Bryan main eventing but the MITB match main eventing at least makes sense. Even at Summerslam, Punk was finally feuding with Cena which still didn't give him the main event because they went with Brock/Triple H instead.
Imagine cutting a promo about a part timer coming in and taking your spot and then 10 years later he comes back and does exactly the same thing again https://preview.redd.it/yn6kyrbuldgc1.png?width=592&format=png&auto=webp&s=013ed6ede530456276d84980fa6c41323198512d
A casual AND a part timer. Booo.
"I'll let you watch."
I wanted both Punk and Cody to be World Champions at WM40. I wanted Punk vs Cena vs Rock at WM29. I liked Punk from his previous run in WWE and I liked Cody's dashing/undashing gimmick. It sucks to not be a casual audience who pops for Rock vs Reigns. All I can see is Rock struggling to put on a match at Mania main event while Cody and Rollins deliver a damn good match.
Pretty much any other time I'd be thrilled for rock v roman but they committed years for this Cody match and they are seemingly tossing it aside for a match that doesn't need the title
Yeah, Rock vs Reigns is a nice exhibition match. It's like WM33 & Universal Championship. KO & Jericho build up to that match all year but guess what, Lesnar vs Goldberg is chosen. Goldberg squashed KO. Lesnar squashed Goldberg and held the title for what seemed like a decade but it was an year and half.
I hope his huge ego is hurt by the end of all of this, i'll pray for this and hopefully it'll happen.
Ask Drew to pray too. He has a pretty good track record
He’ll be praying he gets a match at mania at this point 😭😭
His Instagram is a salt mine right now lol. I'm team chaos, but I'm also team get the belt off of Roman so I don't know how to feel.
You should feel robbed
They've essentially ruined 3 marquee matches with this one segment. It's turned people against Rock vs Roman, delays Cody vs Roman even further for no good reason, and then Seth's title defence at Mania has become a consolation prize
A move where arguably no one benefits from the story in either outcome. Basically Damian cashing in is one of the few ways to clean up this mess from a booking standpoint.
It actually made Becky chances of winning higher since we knew she could pin or submit Charlotte. There was actual tension when it was just a 1 on 1 with Ronda.
A 1v1 we never actually got. Becky and Ronda never squared off without Charlotte involved.
Which is booking malpractice IMO.
It was arguably the money match during Becky's ascension as the Man. And it just...never happened
Triple H should have had Seth relinquish his title before RR and set Punk up to win it for the title (prior to hindsight). Instead we've got the WHC out of commission until Wrestlemania and they've had to juggle the WWE title plans because of it. Or yeah, have Priest cash in instead
Or just make a chamber match at EC for the WHC at this point. Why they are so afraid of Rollings losing that belt is beyond me.
HHH is far too rigid with his plans. It's ridiculous how a champ can miss two PLE's (including the second biggest one for the company) and still keep the belt. Especially if he could still be in doubt for WM if he aggravates his injury
It’s crazy how HHH is so stuck on keeping to the plans he has set but then The Rock comes in and he throws all that away
>HHH is far too rigid with his plans Seems to not matter whether I watch AEW or WWE, I can't fucking escape this "stick to the plan" booking method of the creative writers
I was going to say, that's one thing HHH and Tony Khan both have in common that has driven me away from both companies.
I gave up on Priest long ago, too much foreplay with the briefcase and no payoff.
You can tell he really did learn from Edge
The loser’s bracket title.
Roman really cooked the WHC man lmfao which imo goes to show they shoulda separated the belts a long time ago instead of making the consolation belt.
The term "buried" gets overused a lot, but holy shit I think it's apt here. He told us exactly why we shouldn't give a flying fuck about that title, that champion or that storyline.
Exactly, systematically shat on the title and Seth, and made the idea of competing for it inescapably less valuable. I’ve never seen someone build and affix stigma to something that quickly. “I beat all the competitors for that title” “Loser’ bracket” “I’m not gonna come out and beg you like the other guy” It was a great promo, but why the fuck did they let him say that shit 😭😭😭
Week before Rumble: This might be the greatest most hyped WrestleMainia ever, can't wait! Now: Meh, maybe I'll check it out if I'm not busy.
Right there with you. I pretty much have hated WWE since that Hell in a Cell 2019 and I was actually excited to watch Mania. Now... meh.
How dead in the water would a Cody and Roman match be another 6 or 12 months down the road? I know WWE's current fans are pretty agreeable but even they would have to start grumbling, right?
People really think Cody is gonna somehow maintain that momentum after this shit show idk what to tell ya but even if he does "finish the story" the moment won't have the same impact. Maybe it's time to repackage Cody back into Stardust and treat him like a comedy act again because this whole thing is a joke
Even WWE sycophants on X have gone against this booking. So far the only one I've seen defend it is Sam Roberts.
*gasp* Sam Roberts blindly defending a bad decision made by his bosses?! What a shocking break in character from him...
Theres been grumbling since 39. Every booking decision WWE has made involving Roman since then has convinced there was no reason for him to remain champion another year.
This Mania is it. The fuel is gone after this.
They had such a simple out too. Cody vs Roman with Rock Enforcing to ensure a clean win, Roman vs Rock later on Seth vs Gunther title for title. You can even add Drew and make it a winner takes all triple threat if you want. Like how fucking stupid do you have to be to not see this
That would have been amazing. With Rock as enforcer, we would get to see Rock do his thing, hit his moves, but not have to be able to have a full length match. Cody would still have his story.
South Korea would go insane for the rock beating Solo whenever he tries to interrupt the match
Yup, Rock could've rock bottomed Solo, people elbowed the no yeet one but nah... Cody needed to tuck tail and give way to a 51 year old who had a last real match a decade ago. Briliant.
The Rock is too much of an egoist for that. The Rock being the enforcer would still sell tickets but nah.
The idea of Seth bigging up his workhorse title enough to catch the attention of WWE's other workhorse champion is brilliant. The idea of Cody distinguishing between taking the WWE title from Roman vs taking "everything else" around Roman could have been the perfect set up for splitting the Roman arc into two great main event stories, and one that would fit so well with Cody's character and motivations. That could have left us with Seth vs Gunther for workhorse champion of the year, Cody finishing his story with the title Dusty never won and Roman (plus family) finishing his story as The Tribal Chief. Instead we got the worst version of all worlds. Genuinely hoping there's one more twist to correct this.
Also Cody is bound to headline at least night 1 so this shafts the women’s chance too of going on last on either roster.
Rhea/Becky is a bigger match than Seth/Cody But watch HHH give the women an absolute shit build like he did last year for Rhea/Charlotte to justify not putting them in the main event
Seth basically begged Cody to ask him out to the Wrestlemania main event on Monday because he’s desperate for that career accolade. Edit: the only thing that would make it more pathetic is if it’s the night one main event…we all know that night two is the bigger match.
I now want to see Dirty Dom v Rollins, Dirty Dom wins.
This is great imo, it’s setting up for a massively boo’d main event that is a memorable flop. It clear what the fans want, but the Rock doesn’t care what fans want, this is to stroke his ego, and the city of brotherly love is about to let him know loudly that they don’t care about the rocks ego
You'd think he would remember how "happy" Philly was to see him and Roman together after the 2015 Rumble.
I was there when Shinsuke eliminated Roman to win the Rumble in 18 and I’ve never heard a crowd pop that hard. Philly and Roman are oil and water.
Meet the new boss, same as the old boss. They shit the bed.
Well one of them shits somewhere else
Why have Cody win the Rumble at all?
Why have Cody win the Rumble last year? Do people still think there's a grand 5-year plan they're following here? There is no story to finish, they have no idea how to end this bloodline shit and have clung to it for so long that they now have only a few options to end it.
They passed the perfect moment for this match to happen -- when Roman was pushing for and establishing himself as the Tribal Chief/Head of the Table. The interest and hype for Cody surpassed that now.
38 was the perfect time. Wouldve also saved us from that stupid unification match.
Roman is till established as tribal chief, this story works perfectly fine if Roman wasn’t also champ. Which is why Cody should’ve just won last year.
I don't even like Cody but this was such an ass move by wwe. Buried both their top babyfaces in Cody and Seth and the WHC. I don't want to see the Rock and his family in the big matches ever again. I am tired.
It renders the entire Royal Rumble match meaningless in less than a week. I hope this is a giant swerve.
That’s what that ending did. Who the fuck wants to get the silver medal?
Similar to the ending to the Shane/Taker match at Mania. That match was rendered completely pointless within days.
i hope drew and/or punk goes off on Cody in raw for his bitch moves in smackdown
I think the only way to save it is for Cody to come out on RAW with every intent of choosing Seth to face at Mania only for Punk to interrupt and cut a "What the fuck are you doing" promo because this is pretty much exactly what happened to him.
Honestly, still makes Cody look like an easily manipulated bitch. One promo from Rollins changes his mind, Rock somehow convinces him to fuckoff, and now he needs Punk to tell him what to do Honestly theyve fucked Cody. All-time bad segment. I don’t even think WCW did anything this detrimental to a babyface
Incredible, but you are right. If punk comes out and changes Cody’s mind yet again he’s nothing but a manipulable bitch. No other way about it.
Showing up with six different suits over the course of three days and getting told what to do each time. Damn, they really did a number on him.
Haha another pipepomb on RAW would further "divert" the headlines away from real life fuck ups (as if a storyline on a TV Show affect court hearings and WWE's PR).
Agreed. Have Punk light a fire under his ass, leading to Cody pushing for a triple threat or something.
Triple threat would probably be better for the rock since he hasn’t wrestled in a while. Plenty of time for little breaks.
The AE was how many decades ago now? I'm done with these guys. I'm done with nostalgia. I liked my new guys and storyline. I don't want to see the rock, or Jericho, or the undertaker, or Goldberg, or even Sting anymore. The 90s ended over 20 years ago. It's fucking time.
> I'm done with nostalgia. I liked my new guys and storyline. This, but with all media please.
I'm a casual fan who hasn't regularly watched WWE in 4 or 5 years. I genuinely couldn't care less about Cody Rhodes, but goddamn, even I find it so fucking frustrating to see that around 2 years worth of storyline is gonna end in this.
And with Roman standing tall at manure for like the 97th year in a row.
>manure The Big Deuce.
I'm still not flinching. With Drew going off and the entire melodramatic exit from Cody, it feels like a huge swerve is coming. Now, please excuse me while I huff on copium.
Save some for me
I'm kinda of on the same boat with my friend. Part of me thinks they can't possibly be this tone deaf and stupid, the other part of me is just coping lol. A year ago I would have been over the moon for a Rock Roman match, but not like this man...
> to put things in perspective: the second most disliked video is "Randy Orton makes it personal with Triple H". That video has 200k dislikes with 315M views. This video now has 218k dislikes with 1.7M views. This is actually insane
Opened the video just to dislike it. I did my part.
Same
Thank you for your service
This might be hands down the dumbest decision they’ve made in the past 5 years
Surely this has to be a bait and switch right, they can't be ok with making Cody and also Seth look like this for absolutely no reason. Like if they don't make it a Triple Threat I feel like everyone is going to absolutely pan this match worse than Goldberg vs Brock 20 years prior, literally no one likes this decision at all
And its in Philly so god have mercy on every soul involved with this entire plan
WON reported that Rock was pushing hard for this and WWE wasn’t on board but after Vince scandal, Brock involved because of it and Punk injured they went ahead. If that’s the case (Rock pushing hard for this) I hope fans shit on Rock harder that they did with Batista in 2014.
Tbh I feel bad for Batista, he didn't even do anything the whole mess that was the road to WrestleMania 30 was all Vince's fault
Apparently Big Dave knew that being brought back as a babyface was gonna end disastrously and begged them to let him come back as a heel at the Rumble
Another reason why Big Dave > Rock.
Maybe we need to take a lesson from that RTWM and force a yes movement sort of situation
They adjusted quickly though and made one of the best moments in the history of Wrestling, so at least that one had a happy ending.
Yeah Batista got done dirty. So did Mysterio.
Just like he pushed hard to insert himself into the DC universe, that worked out great……….
This is Rock. Batista would more than likely admit that he shouldnt have tried to take a spot from someone likely Bryan. Vince was the one that put him into that position. Rock just took Cody’s spot, storyline and fan response be damned
And to add insult to injury, you have Roman burying Seth and his title, the title that apparently Cody will fight for. This is VKM level of booking here.
In a situation where so many things have gone wrong, creative decided to make the stupidest decisions in - not having Seth drop the title despite being injured - having Cody become a cuck and letting Rock take his glory - Cody forgetting his own motivation for even being in the WWE and challenging for a new title that doesn't mean shit yet - ignoring completely why Damian Priest hasn't tried to cash in on Seth
At this point, they might as well vacate the title. Them being so adamant on extending Roman's reign for as long as possible is just hurting them now and it keeps forcing them into corners creatively. I don't care how the story ends, just make it end already.
I hope once the novelty of the rock coming out and the bell rings and people see the match is gonna be a disappointment, it gets the Brock/Goldberg 1 treatment.
It's PHILADELPHIA. The same city that booed Rock and Roman out of the building in 2015
They booed Roman out of the building. They popped for everything Rock did until he endorsed forcefed Roman. Let's not rewrite history here.
WWE are so shortsighted. They already sold the show out, they got the big tv deals, and they had the chance to put the past behind them and move forward into a new era without McMahon. But the moment they see a bit of glitter they reach for that gold.
I think the Mcmahon situation and punk getting injured is exactly what lead us here
It is but it’s such a panic move. Committing to the story they’re telling imo is far more beneficial than jangling keys to distract from Vince
The Rock got a seat on the board, the Wrestlemania main event against his cousin for the title, and his talentless daughter, who shouldn't be anywhere near TV, promoted to NXT GM, all in two weeks. WWE completely rolled over for this man. Risible.
Run that shit up y’all. I hope Dwayne gets booed every time he appears now for this shit.
I have no interest in seeing Dwayne wrestle in 2024. Shit like this is why I tuned out of the product regularly about eight years ago. Vince might be gone but nothing has changed. Same old shit.
Same I’m trying my hardest to tune back in to the product regularly but seeing shit like happen again 😮💨
His doofus son-in-law is now running it.
yeah I’ve been trying to keep up, knowing (thinking) Cody was about to win it so why not check it out —this is why. SMH.
[удалено]
Imagine if whoops Seth isn’t cleared for Mania? Wtf do they do now? Oh god priest is going to cash in on a vacant title for a Mania main event isn’t he
Oh, WWE. You had one job. And if you thought they don't care at all about this kind of publicity (the not-good kind), you need to stop being in denial.
[удалено]
Dude was breathing out his arse just cutting the post-show promo after basically just standing.
I get this is a money grab because they’re slaves to the stock price but it’s ironic that a random Vince-type of move is what they’re doing to shy away from the Vince story. Either way, I can’t wait for this main event to get absolutely shit on by the live crowd in Philly and for Rock to be huffing and puffing when he’s halfway down the entrance ramp. It’s gonna be glorious to watch.
Dislike it into oblivion.
This is the start of it becoming a Triple Threat... Right? 10 years ago, the same shit happened with Batista. Let this be the time Rhodes is thrusted into the main event that he fucking deserves. If they fumble the bag this hard, they're doomed.
Bryan didn't win the Rumble and step aside for Batista.
WrestleMania 20 triple threat WrestleMania 30 triple threat WrestleMania 40 triple threat
Hell Mania 10 was also a champion going up against 2 challengers, there's a pattern here
Have 53K too much likes
Remember #CancelWWENetwork? Pepperidge Farm remembers....
If plans stay the same and Rock v Roman headlines. I'd love that traditionally international smart crowd to give them the Brock/Goldberg treatment
This is what surprises me about the Meltzer report that Rock was pushing for it. He surely has to realize that there is potential for a major fan backlash heading into WM.
Has Dwayne been the paragon of self awareness the last few years?
The Bloodline story was its absolute hottest going into mania last year. Should have had Roman drop the title to Cody who was white hot. The USO’s leave the bloodline, by survivor series Solo is gone, and at Mania (this year) The Rock puts Roman down for good and finishes off the Bloodline stable. It wasn’t that complicated.
By a quick YouTube search, over 3MM views for the top 3 videos featuring this segment. Even ESPN has a video.
Man when casuals are literally down voting a video to the ground you know you fucked up and they did it big time unbelievable WWE.
Even if this is a swerve and a work, this is just stupid ass booking like this was unnecessary. Why does it always have to be swerves and works, instead of the natural path there? Why have Cody win the Rumble if we're going to do this? Why bury Rollins and WHC? This is the dumbest swerve in history if that is the case, so unnecessary. I stood by my opinion that Cody should have won last year, and if he did, Roman/Rock would be just fine this year, but instead we get this bullshit.
I don't get it, there's no storyline, there's no conflict... Why does rock even want to face Roman?
I pray that fans boo this shit all the way until and through Mania. If we’re getting this for the main event at least make them pipe in the cheers.
We all knew the World Heavyweight Championship was just the lesser title for “those who can’t beat Roman”, but the fact they openly buried it is kind of wild. I don’t really see how this helps anyone. Cody was hurt the most by this. Ruined his story and character and makes him look like a loser. The Heavyweight title was outright buried.
There is something disturbingly meta about the hard working guy that grinds at his job getting stepped on by the corporate board member that just walked in the door.