Tomorrow night, we’ll finally get to seeWWE’s behind-the-scenes documentary about how WrestleMania 40’s main events came together.
Cody Rhodes is one of the men who was in both those matches. He ended up being the star of that April weekend in Philadelphia, finishing his story on night two by ending Roman Reigns’ historic WWE title run and capturing the belt that eluded his Hall of Fame father throughout his career.
He’s dropped some tidbits in the past about how he went from winning the Royal Rumble to momentarily stepping aside for Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson to that moment. And we heard from Johnson’s creative partner Brian Gewirtz that Rhodes was supposed to be more enthusiastic about giving up his second straight ‘Mania main event so The Rock could have his dream match against Reigns.
Now, ahead of the WWE doc’s release, Rhodes shared another advance peak behind the curtain with Super Bowl champ-turned-sports talk star Ryan Clark and the rest of The Pivot podcast crew.
It comes when the former Pittsburgh Steelers Pro Bowl safety asked Cody why he said he’s not a fan of The Rock.
I grew up a huge fan. I have a lot of respect for The Rock — maybe more than anybody in any locker room, because when I made eye contact with The Rock for the very first piece of business we ever did, I got an instant understanding of who he is. And he’s not a movie star. He’s not a potential Presidential nominee — which would be great at this point, I’m all about anything else. He’s not a businessman with all these partnerships.
“When I looked at him in the eyes, I saw exactly what he is: He’s a pro wrestler. He’s a pro wrestler who understands the nature of, ‘I’d like this crowd to be really excited, then I’m gonna get them really upset, then I’m gonna get them as excited as they’ve ever been, then I’m gonna get them telling their friends to come back.’ So in that moment, I had the utmost respect for him, because in my heart, that’s how I feel. I could do a bazillion other things, but I’m a wrestler. That’s what I am, and to see that from the biggest movie star on the planet — so a lot of respect.
“Where we would butt heads is in the idea that you could just come back in the midst of a story that was taking place, and just because you’re The Rock, you can step into the starting lineup and take WrestleMania for yourself. And a lot of people will say, ‘He’s The Rock, he can do whatever he wants.’ I even saw this fun podcast with two wrestling heads just talking back and forth, and they had said, ‘I’m sure Cody’s fine stepping aside for WrestleMania and then doing it later in the year.’
“And in my mind I’m thinking, ‘That’s insane.’ That’s the Super Bowl for what we do. To get to the Sunday, the last day of WrestleMania, the last match, is our literal Super Bowl… The idea that somebody thought I would just be cool with it is — They don’t know me. That’s nonsense. I worked my whole life for this.
“Rock should know I wouldn’t be cool with it. Maybe that’s an understanding that him and I have, is he found out, hey, I’m not cool with it. That’s a good thing. Cause you know who wasn’t cool with The Rock was Steve Austin. And they made magic together. They rubbed together so much it created diamonds, they made magic together. So, I do have a lot of respect for him.”
The angle Triple H & WWE’s creative team came up with (along with the players and their people) involves a lot of real world elements like Johnson’s seat on the Board of WWE’s parent company TKO, so it’s impossible to rule out how their presentation of the “real” story will be enhanced, manipulated, or even made up to fuel future business they want to do. And a Rock/Rhodes singles match is absolutelyone piece of business all involved want to do.
What I’m saying is, I’m not buying this — or whatever we get in the documentary — whole cloth. But Cody’s doing his job well here, because the story he’s offering has me more excited for the WrestleMania XL: Behind The Curtain documentary. And the doc should in turn get me more excited for those future pieces of business.
But that’s me. What do you make of this, Cagesiders?