A couple weeks ago, I wrote my thoughts on the main event of the Elimination Chamber between Sami Zayn and Roman Reigns. That article covers a lot more than just that main event, though, as the history of The Bloodline is discussed, including the Blood In/Blood Out nature of Roman’s relationship with Jey Uso in particular, along with Sami’s entire WWE tenure. For extended thoughts on this whole situation, please check that out.
This article is not re-hashing that (not directly, anyway). This is about the WrestleMania main event between Cody Rhodes and Roman Reigns, on the heels of their first face-to-face segment on the March 3rd episode of Smackdown.
Before the Elimination Chamber, we had a Cody Rhodes vs. Paul Heyman promo that discussed Heyman’s relationship with Cody’s father, Dusty. My issues with the promo are outlined in that other article, so, again, there is no need for a re-hashing here. The essence of the chat was Heyman helping Dusty out 20+ years ago and what that meant to Dusty, and a young Cody. Then Heyman did what he does best by turning the sincerity it on its head by saying Dusty admitted that Roman Reigns – a protégé of Dusty’s in the old FCW/NXT days – was the son he always wanted, not Cody. It was a great promo line and an interesting line to take with Cody, trying to get him over-emotional and off his game, so to speak.
It does present a wrinkle in the Reigns character. For the most part, he’s steamrolled his competition for a year and a half now (or more) and he’s not had to do it by playing mind games. Whether it was Cesaro, Finn Balor, Edge, Logan Paul, or Kevin Owens, maybe Heyman would try to run his mouth a bit, but Reigns would, more or less, just show up, smash them, pin them, and walk out. That Reigns feels the need to stoop to this level to get some gamesmanship on Rhodes means he sees him as a different challenge than those who came before. For Roman’s character, it’s something we haven’t really seen, at least not to this level, and it jibes with the crumbling Bloodline around him.
Fast forward to the March 3rd Smackdown and the Reigns/Rhodes promo. It was a lot more of the same. It was Cody putting over Roman as the unquestioned Top Guy, but that Cody was the guy to climb the mountain no one else could. On the other side, it was Roman continuing the Heyman mind games by bringing up Dusty and reinforcing the notion that Dusty didn’t care about Cody and preferred Roman.
This is the part where I interject that I am not a Cody Rhodes guy. First off, as a Canadian, the American Hero gimmick doesn’t resonate. It didn’t resonate with Hulk Hogan, it didn’t resonate with John Cena post-Thuganomics, and it doesn’t resonate now. For Americans, I can understand that it’s a whole different kettle of fish for and it’s a big reason why he’s so over with American audiences (he’s also clearly over in Canada, and this is just my personal opinion). He’s an excellent pro wrestler but speaking just for myself, he fits into the Daniel Bryan/Young Bucks category of “they’re clearly great at what they do but they’re not wrestlers I personally look forward to seeing every week”. In that sense, my personal excitement about the main event is less than a lot of other people.
Setting that aside, here is my problem with this main event: to Cody, it doesn’t matter that Reigns is holding the belts. It wouldn’t matter if it were Reigns, or Zayn, or Lesnar, or Lashley, or Rollins, or anyone else. All that matters is the belts themselves. Cody has made it clear on numerous occasions that he’s here for his legacy, his father’s legacy, and the championship(s) that neither of them could ever attain. That it’s Roman Reigns that has the title is incidental, and this is making the Dusty portion of the promos feel really forced. Does WWE think no one remembers the product? Does no one really remember Dusty, Cody, and Dustin Rhodes teaming up to take down Roman Reigns and The Shield? This picture is from after the match, in which Dusty’s kids just beat Reigns and his Shield buddies:
This is a picture of a father hugging his sons in victory, with tears in his eyes, after beating the guy he secretly wanted as his son all along? That is what we’re meant to believe here? And Cody is not only believing all this, or at least considering it, but is getting over-emotional about it? How does Cody not just laugh this off as a blatantly stupid attempt to get in his head? If this is the crux of the main event, it sure rings hollow because it makes no fucking sense.
(As a completely unrelated aside, this is what makes the Kevin Owens character so great. His character, at its essence, is “angry French-Canadian that watches WWE and remembers stuff” and I relate to it greatly.)
And that brings us full circle to the main event of ‘Mania, or the main event that isn’t coming. For Cody, he could face anyone because for his story, it’s about the title and not about Roman. It never was, and it never will be. For Sami Zayn, the title is almost irrelevant. What is important is bringing down Roman Reigns, which is what the story should be not only because of the Sami/Bloodline story, but because of Roman’s dominance for at least a year and a half, if not nearly three years. Sami even referenced that on Smackdown doing his promo among the fans: this is about the end of the Bloodline and Roman’s dominance. Roman Reigns needs to lose and the fact that he has the belts is just a bonus.
This is kind of the problem with the whole build. This is being billed as the Top Guy vs. the Next Guy but to the Next Guy, the Top Guy doesn’t matter. It is what the Top Guy is in possession of that matters. And if the Next Guy honestly believes all the Roman Was His Favourite Son shtick about his father, he’s dumb as fucking dirt considering he was in the storyline less than 10 years ago that showed the exact opposite. Conversely, to Sami, it is the Top Guy that matters more than anything. With that in mind, going to a Cody/Roman match feels very underwhelming if the build is going to be around a story that makes less than no sense. Cody could have faced anyone for the titles at WrestleMania – he just needs to walk out with the titles. At the other end, the (very real in kayfabe) animosity between Zayn and Reigns is what legendary matches are made of. Not in the chain-wrestling-five-star-rating sense of legendary, but showdowns fans remember forever. People will remember Cody beating Roman not because of the build to this one match, but because of the work done by Roman and The Bloodline in the prior 30 months.
Facing down the main event of WrestleMania, WWE has done what it has done for years now and that’s just shoehorn its favourites into the prime spots. We saw it with Reigns 7-8 years ago when he wasn’t over like he is now, we saw it with the Becky/Charlotte/Ronda triple threat, and we’re seeing it again with Cody. Not that they can necessarily be blamed as Rhodes is going to be the top star once he beats Roman and Reigns becomes a very part-time wrestler. But they had a whole slew of options to make this a compelling story and they went the route that tries to build a connection but is so very obviously fraudulent. The point of pro wrestling is to suspend belief and if we’re meant to believe that the guy pictured above loved Reigns more than the son he’s hugging, then maybe we really do deserve what we get from WWE.
Cliffy's hell-hole 