SUMMARY
- The Rock took the spot of Cody Rhodes in the February 2, 2024, episode of WWE SmackDown.
- The Reigns-Rock segment received severe backlash from fans, leading to the "We Want Cody" trend on social media.
On the February 2, 2024, episode of WWE SmackDown, Cody Rhodes and Roman Reigns came face-to-face. During that, fans were speculating that Cody would be challenging Roman to a match at WrestleMania 40. However, that didn’t happen, and The American Nightmare instead introduced The Rock.
With that, Dwayne Johnson and Roman Reigns had a staredown inside the ring to mark the end of the episode. Also, this apparently indicates that The Rock will be facing Roman at WrestleMania instead of Cody. This led to the Reigns-Rock segment receiving severe backlash from the fans. Also, fans stood by Rhodes as the “We Want Cody” trend over social media.
Meanwhile, a report by Wrestling Observer Radio has now come into the spotlight. According to that, after the Roman-Rock segment, WWE expected Rhodes to turn into Daniel Bryan, aka Bryan Danielson. This is because WWE management expected that the switch-up would turn Cody into a martyr. Also, they expected it would make him an even bigger babyface in WWE.
However, after the report came into the spotlight, several fans took to their ‘X‘ handles to comment on the matter. Some of them seemed enthusiastic about the matter. One fan stated, “Triple H knows what he is doing, trust the process.” While others expressed their wish to see Rhodes in the main event of WrestleMania. Another fan wrote, “Lovley but get him in the main event.”
Thus, it seems WWE expected Cody to turn into a bigger babyface, and that is exactly what happened. With that, it remains to be seen what the Stamford-based promotion has in store for The American Nightmare in the upcoming days.
What happened with Daniel Bryan?
According to the latest report by Wrestling Observer Radio, WWE expected Cody Rhodes to turn into Daniel Bryan after the Roman Reigns and Dwayne Johnson staredown segment. With that, many fans have been wondering what exactly happened with Daniel Bryan.
In that regard, it is to be noted that previously at WrestleMania 30, WWE was forced to change its plans. This was because of the fan support for Daniel Bryan to be in the main event of WrestleMania. With that, WWE became concerned that the fans would create chaos if the decision was taken otherwise.
I feel with the backlash that’s unfolding, we might just experience a “Daniel Bryan at WrestleMania 30” situation. https://t.co/jRp0bgg3q7
— Ryan | Dukey 2K (@Duuukey) February 3, 2024
This led to Daniel Bryan emerging as a babyface and also led to his being added to the main event of WrestleMania 30. Not only that, the former WWE Superstar also won the WWE Championship in a Triple Threat match against Randy Orton and Batista. Meanwhile, it remains to be seen if WWE will take a page out of its history to give The American Nightmare his WrestleMania moment.
WWE is reportedly monitoring the fan responses
The idea of The Rock replacing Cody Rhodes in the main event of WrestleMania to face Roman Reigns brought a lot of backlash from the fans. It even gave rise to a “We Want Cody” social media trend as fans stood by The American Nightmare. On top of that, the Reigns-Rock segment received record-breaking dislikes on YouTube.
With that, it has now been reported that WWE is closely monitoring the fan responses surrounding The Rock, Roman Reigns, and Cody Rhodes. The latest report by PWInsider states, “WWE was absolutely monitoring the responses.” It now remains to be seen if there will be changes introduced in the creative plans, just like in the Daniel Bryan scenario.
WWE’s absolutely monitoring the responses surrounding Roman Reigns, The Rock & Cody Rhodes.
— PWlnsider pic.twitter.com/0hifOzEibs
— Wrestle Ops (@WrestleOps) February 4, 2024
Now fans will look forward to the official announcement of the match. With that, it will be really interesting to see who will be the ultimate challenger for Roman Reigns’ Undisputed WWE Universal Championship. Whatever the case, fans will definitely look forward to the highly anticipated Premium Live Event of the year.