Multiple Changes Made To Cody Rhodes’ WrestleMania Creative

Chaos has surrounded Cody Rhodes backstage.

When Cody Rhodes won the 2024 men’s Royal Rumble all seemed quite clear and straightforward. As he celebrated that victory he yelled at Roman Reigns seemingly setting up a huge rematch and a chance for Rhodes to “finish the story” by pinning his rival and winning the Undisputed WWE Universal Title at WrestleMania 40.

However, little did fans know, creative was changing and changing fast, leading to complete mayhem as WWE tried to prepare for its biggest show of the year.

At the WrestleMania Kick-Off Event, Rhodes challenged Reigns again, and that match has now been officially announced. But that announcement came just days after Rhodes seemed to step aside on SmackDown to let The Rock challenge Reigns instead. This was done without explanation, and fans remain confused about why Rhodes won the Rumble if The Rock was scheduled to face Reigns, why in storyline Rhodes chose to step to the side, and why he then challenged Reigns again anyway.

According to Dave Meltzer in the Wrestling Observer Newsletter, the on-screen picture appeared muddled, because creative plans were changing rapidly behind the scenes.

There were reportedly some within the company who were pushing for Rhodes to face Reigns at WrestleMania, with a match between Reigns and The Rock scheduled for later in the year, likely in Saudi Arabia. However, The Rock was “adamant” about his match being at WrestleMania.

Meanwhile, the plans for Raw, were for CM Punk to win the Elimination Chamber and go on to face Seth Rollins at WrestleMania. With Punk going after Rollins and The Rock facing Reigns, this left Rhodes on the sidelines, but plans changed and the creative scrapped when CM Punk got injured at the Royal Rumble.

The segment on the February 2nd episode of SmackDown where Rhodes moved aside and endorsed The Rock was said to be Triple H’s idea. But even that segment was changed significantly.

Meltzer reports that Triple H wanted to run an injury angle where The Bloodline took out Rhodes, this would have played into an announcement for Rock vs. Reigns at the Kick-Off event. However, with Punk hurt, Rhodes was lined up as an opponent for Rollins, this was said to be a backup plan as creative around The Rock kept changing.

The story is that Levesque scrambled behind the scenes to keep Rhodes at all times.

The Levesque idea was said to be to shoot an injury angle where the Bloodline would take out Rhodes on the 2/2 show in Birmingham. This would lead to the official announcement of Reigns vs. Rock at the press conference in Las Vegas. In the end Rhodes would return and he should win the title.

After it became clear that Rock wouldn’t be accepted as a beloved babyface following the fan backlash to the angle on February 2nd, he reportedly pitched to turn heel. This saw WWE lean into the controversy around Rhodes seemingly being overlooked.

The Rock then pitched a tag team match between himself and Roman Reigns against Seth Rollins and Cody Rhodes.

Cody Rhodes Set For Elimination Chamber

It’s been announced that Cody Rhodes and Seth Rollins will come face to face on a special episode of the Grayson Waller Show at Elimination Chamber.

The news came just days after Rollins had delivered a passionate speech to Rhodes on Raw about how he won’t be fighting Reigns and The Bloodline alone.

Seth Rollins will face the winner of the men’s Elimination Chamber match at WrestleMania.