One week ago, Cody Rhodes (Cody Runnels) won his 2nd straight Royal Rumble, becoming the 1st man since Stone Cold Steve Austin in 1997-8 to repeat, and the 4th man overall (Hulk Hogan 1990-1, Shawn Michaels 1995-6). The Peacock broadcast ended with Rhodes locking eyes on Universal champion Roman Reigns, who was in a skybox with Paul Heyman.
Six nights later, Rhodes is going in another direction heading in to Wrestlemania, taking place April 7-8 in Philadelphia.
As Smackdown closed out Friday, Rhodes was made to look like a chump, giving up his chance---for now, anyway----to avenge his loss to Reigns last year...
Just 10 days after being appointed to TKO Holdings' Board of Directors, Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson stepped in, and, online, fans have rebelled against the People's Movie Star for denying Rhodes his "rightful place" and opportunity to "finish the story", which has been the central theme since Rhodes returned two years ago from AEW. The more paranoid among fans would believe Johnson, also a co-owner of the UFL, due to relaunch a week before Wrestlemania, used his newfound power to leverage his way into the match. Endeavor's Ari Emanuel is looking at maximizing his bottom line, as any businessman would do, but in this instance, he has proven to be just as tone deaf as his disgraced predecessor, Vince McMahon.
The consolation prize for Rhodes would be to face Seth Rollins, provided Rollins is cleared to go come April after suffering a torn MCL and a partially torn meniscus nearly three weeks ago.on Raw.
What fans are hoping for, though, is that Rhodes (and WWE Creative, led by Paul Levesque) would accelerate his timetable, and enter the Elimination Chamber in three weeks in Australia. Some argue that's a waste due to the early starting time for that event (5 am ET). Take the title from Reigns there, and Reigns vs. Rock would not be for the Universal title, as Rock doesn't need it, and WWE needs to shut down Reigns' 3 year, now nearly 3 1/2 year, title reign, which has been pockmarked with outside interference in several title defenses, making Reigns look weak, not as dominant as the hype machine would have you believe.
What makes fans even more salty is that this bumped aside a storyline in the women's division as Bayley (Pamela Martinez), who won the women's Rumble, was bounced from Damage CTRL, the group she founded a year and a half ago. It was a classic set-up. She overheard Asuka, Kairi Sane, & IYO SKY conversing in Japanese behind her back, and she learned enough of the language to figure out their plans.
This recalls Levesque, as Triple H, plotting against Evolution teammate Batista after the latter won the 2005 Rumble, only for the future movie star to overhear the "Cerebral Assassin"'s plans, and act accordingly. We know how that story played out.
The wild card is New Zealand's Dakota Kai, who is recovering from a torn ACL herself, but the recovery, while slower than expected, may now be just storyline. We'll have to see in the coming weeks on Smackdown.
WWE had a chance, after the Vince McMahon sex trafficking scandal hit the headlines a week ago, to change the story, and have Reigns lose his title, but chose not to, and it led to another match that had outside help, but kept to a minimum. The lazy man's schedule Reigns has, like Brock Lesnar before him, is a hindrance on creative that needed to be expunged, but fans are convinced Reigns remains champion in order to erase another disgraced icon, Hulk Hogan, from the record books.
I say, no. You stop at Elimination Chamber, because WWE has no choice now.
No comments:
Post a Comment