Cody Rhodes Winning At WrestleMania Not “Smart Business” Says Road Dogg
WWE executive Road Dogg has defended the company’s decision to have Roman Reigns defeat Cody Rhodes in the WrestleMania main event and stop Rhodes from finishing his story.
At WrestleMania 39, many fans expected Cody Rhodes to finish his story and win the Undisputed WWE Universal Championship from Roman Reigns, but a Samoan Spike from Solo Sikoa and a Spear from Reigns was enough to dash Rhodes’ dreams and turn his night into a nightmare. While many fans were unhappy with the booking decision, Road Dogg wasn’t one of them.
Speaking on his Oh, You Didn’t Know? podcast, Road Dogg explained why he thinks the company made the right decision in holding off on Cody Rhodes’ massive title win and thinks The American Nightmare needs to face some more adversity before getting the gold:
“The argument is a legitimate one to go back now that history has told that story and go, ‘Okay. Should he have got it then? Should he have won it then?’ Like, man, I don’t think that’s smart business. I think that’s great booking if you’re a fan, but I don’t think it’s smart business. If you tell the story and go, ‘The end,’ close the book. Then, ‘Okay, now we got to start over,’ I just feel like this was just a chapter closing.
“He came in, and this has been said by some people that speak about wrestling that kinda know what they’re talking about, he came in, and he had no adversity. He went right through the Rumble, right through everybody, and right to the champion.
“So the argument could be made, ‘Man if you just give it to him now, did he earn it?’ Yes, he has over the extension of his career, for sure, if you can tell that whole story, and they have tried to tell that whole story as much as they could if you see in the promos, they talk a lot about what all he’s done because that’s a really cool part of his story is what he has accomplished in this industry.
“By himself, you know what I mean? Like, I mean, yes, he’s had some help. Yes, his father was a wrestler, his brother, all that. Man, he came in and changed the game a little bit, and kudos to him for that.”
“So really, it’s a bigger picture conversation. Whether he has the title around his waist right now or not, let’s just stop and think about what Cody’s done and accomplished from a human standpoint. Holy mackerel, this dude’s an entrepreneur in the industry of sports entertainment, and that has never existed before.”
Cody Rhodes looks set to move on from Reigns for now and has challenged Brock Lesnar to a huge match for Backlash with reports suggesting the real reason WWE has booked that match.