WWE Wrestlemania Scandal: February 2024
The Rhode to Wrestlemania: headed towards history or disaster?
By now, we’ve all heard about it. It was the slap heard around the world. Sure, the Oscar’s slap in 2022 was big, but this has easily caused just as much of a stir. The Rock slapping Cody Rhodes was trending in the top spot on X (formerly Twitter) for 72 whole hours as fans reeled from what unfolded at the Wrestlemania press conference on Saturday (US time).
I gotta say. What. A. Scandal. Where to even begin? We know that Cody has won the Royal Rumble, and has therefore earned the right to challenge Roman Reigns to a match at Wrestlemania XL. Pretty straightforward, right? Well no, apparently not. Safe to say I did not expect to see the events of last weekend coming.
Image courtesy of WWE
I normally have big respect for The Rock, so this isn’t me being fired up for the sake of it. It’s the principle: you can’t just walk in out of nowhere and challenge the reigning champ to the title match without earning the chance to do so. Seriously, the man’s last match was in 2019. So why would he think it’s okay to take this opportunity away from Cody Rhodes who has worked so hard for it? Not only that, but Cody has such a history behind his journey to the title match, that it almost shows total disrespect for his path to finishing a storyline that started years before he even entered the ring. The man is fighting for his chance to bring victory to the Rhodes family name, and he has definitely earned every moment of it.
Image courtesy of WWE
The thing about The Rock, is that yeah, he’s a great wrestler. But, he’s had his time to shine. He enjoyed a great stretch of glory and popularity back in the day, and it kind of feels like he’s trying to re-live this, and not giving fresh blood the chance to take WWE into a new era.
We don’t need to bring back old wrestlers, we need the chance to enjoy the new talent that is emerging to create a new set of wrestling icons. In Roman’s case, he is such an exceptional wrestler in his own right, that he doesn’t need the help of the bloodline to become one of WWE’s greats.
Image courtesy of WWE
It’s really disappointing that something so straightforward ended up being so complicated and contentious. When Cody, as expected, challenged Roman to the title match (as he had every right to do after winning Royal Rumble), the tension really came to a head when Cody drew attention to this bloodline connection, and it set The Rock off in a big way. Both wrestlers are deeply connected to their families, and so the emotions spilled over into The Rock slapping Cody in the face after feeling that his was attacked. This was absolute mayhem. And it didn’t stop there.
As The Rock and Roman walked away from the arena, they walked past Triple H being interviewed and there was some pretty colourful language used when telling him he needs to fix the situation. With The Rock being on the TKO board of directors, it’s crazy to see these leaders of WWE in such a tense standoff. It’s especially crazy to see Roman Reigns go up against his Creative Director Triple H like this.
Footage courtesy of WWE (screenshot)
To be honest, I would be fine with this all happening at the next Wrestlemania, with no title on the line, but this year there is a lot at stake. I was in shock… How could they let this happen? It appears that a lot of other fans felt the same way, too. This situation absolutely blew up the internet, especially because of the injustice towards Cody and the sacredness of fighting your way to the top.
Image courtesy of WWE
Thank goodness the powers that be were listening, because they decided to reverse the decision pretty quickly to allow Cody to have his chance. The man was in tears over the situation, so I can only imagine how relieved he must have been with this. It’s definitely restored a lot of peace across the global fanbase.
This is the craziest I’ve seen the IWC go ever, and it was quite cool, in a way, to see the passion for good wrestling still alive and well. In addition to the news of Scott D’Amore’s termination from TNA, it’s definitely been a huge week of news for wrestling fans.
