Cody Rhodes Went Against Plans During Controversial Segment with The Rock

At WWE WrestleMania 40 Sunday, Cody Rhodes won the biggest bout of his career by dethroning Roman Reigns as the Undisputed WWE Champion. However, none of this was certain just a couple of months prior after Rhodes relinquished his spot to The Rock. In light of this, Cody Rhodes genuinely went against plans for that particular segment.

After winning the 2024 Men’s Royal Rumble Match, The American Nightmare Cody Rhodes seemed poised to challenge Roman Reigns for the second consecutive year. However, Rhodes surprised many by confronting the leader of The Bloodline and informing him that he would not be his opponent at this year’s Show of Shows and instead gave up his spot to The Rock initially. Obviously, this led to a ton of backlash from fans for good reason.

Brian Gewirtz of Seven Bucks Productions recently appeared on The Ringer Wrestling Show, where he discussed the segment involving Cody Rhodes and The Rock where Rhodes forfeited his WrestleMania 40 spot.

Gewirtz noted that Cody Rhodes was supposed to be more enthusiastic about the forfeiture but ended up looking depressed, similar to how Julius Randle appears when the New York Knicks are winning but he doesn’t show much excitement. Gewirtz emphasized that he doesn’t blame Cody Rhodes for this because it reflects his authenticity as a human being.

”I will say Cody (Rhodes) is a human being who is genuine and real and he wears his heart and emotions on his sleeve and I will say, in Alabama, certainly, even if you tell me, dude, that will never work. That’s stupid to even propose it. But the idea was supposed to be, again — it’s like a Nixon-Kennedy debate a little bit where it’s like if you read the transcript, you’re like, oh, Nixon kicked his ass. If you watch the actual footage, you go, ah, it was a sweaty, terrible mess. Because Cody, it was supposed to be, in some form, like, yeah! F*ckin’ A! Go get ‘em Rock! You’re gonna get your ass kicked Roman! Let’s do this! And kind of this uplifting promo and instead, he looked like someone shot his dog in the face in the parking lot.

Like you said, just look at his expression and by the way, someone else who even when the team wins, sometimes looks forlorn and upset and despondent, Julius Randle. Hey. So yeah, that, I don’t think helped matters. It might not have changed, it might not have affected anything. But certainly on paper — and by the way, I don’t even blame Cody for that because he’s real, he’s one of the realest people I’ve ever met so yeah, it’s like, he said what he had to say in the promo. But you couldn’t mask what he was really feeling and I think the fans felt that a lot. I think the fans felt like he doesn’t mean a word of this. This is being forced for him to say. He’s despondent. He’s literally doing the Michael Cera-Arrested Development-Charlie Brown walk out of the arena, when he’s supposed to be on cloud nine so, I think that had a lot to do with it and the conversation.”

Cody Rhodes also revealed his legitimate thoughts while forfeiting his WrestleMania 40 spot to The Rock. Regardless, all’s well that ends well and Rhodes is the Undisputed WWE Champion, which is what fans truly care about right now.

Are you happy to see Cody Rhodes finishing his story after The Rock initially got his opportunity instead? Sound off in the comments section below!