How Roman Reigns vs Cody Rhodes Has Taken WrestleMania 40 To A New Level

Sportskeeda Wrestling

Please Subscribe: https://bit.ly/SKWrestling Roman Reigns vs. Cody Rhodes, Part 2, at WrestleMania 40 is undoubtedly one of the most hyped matches in a long time. The additions of both The Rock and Seth Rollins to this feud have made it a must-watch. With WrestleMania just days away, in this video, we're going to take a look at how Roman Reigns vs. Cody Rhodes became the biggest WrestleMania match in years.  Make sure you like this video and subscribe to Sportskeeda Wrestling for more wrestling content.  You can also visit our site: https://www.sportskeeda.com/wwe  For more updates on Wrestling, follow us on: -WrestleBinge By Sportskeeda Wrestling: https://www.youtube.com/c/WrestleBingebySportskeeda - Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/SKWrestling - Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/SKWrestling_ - Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/skwrestling_ - TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@sportskeedawrestling?lang=en - Podcast: https://open.spotify.com/show/749eMMNor7wIl85MnSrSII  #romanreigns #codyrhodes #therock #sethrollins #wrestlemania40 #wwe #sportskeedawrestling

Transcript

00:00 Roman Reigns and Cody Rhodes, the two undisputed top stars of WWE in the 2020s.

00:07 So far, they are set to clash for the second consecutive WrestleMania main event.

00:13 What did these two formidable men have in common?

00:18 They both come from two families that are considered royal families in professional wrestling.

00:24 And they also have a connection through Dusty Rhodes, of course,

00:28 Cody's Hall of Fame father, one of the most influential figures in the history of professional wrestling.

00:33 He was also influential in the early days of Roman Reigns' career.

00:37 When he was still training to be on the main roster in NXT,

00:41 Dusty was working with an up-and-coming developmental name,

00:45 and many of them are now top stars in WWE, like Roman Reigns.

00:49 Roman was definitely one of Dusty's kids in WWE NXT.

00:55 And Dusty recognized the "it" factor early on, as he was one of the subject of promos between

01:01 Roman and Cody Rhodes in the build-up to WrestleMania 39 in Los Angeles in 2023.

01:07 You know who's gonna have an issue with that?

01:09 One of Dusty's actual kids.

01:12 So let's dive into the relatively recent history between the American Nightmare

01:16 and the Tribal Chief, and how it's defined a generation of WWE.

01:21 This is Sportskeeda Wrestling.

01:23 I'm Kevin Kellum. Let us know who you're picking.

01:26 Is it Team Cody or Team Roman?

01:29 Let us know in the comments below.

01:30 Roman Reigns has been playing the mind games to sustain his WWE Universal Championship.

01:36 He's been the puppet master of his own family, who've helped him keep that championship now

01:41 for years as one of the longest-reigning world champions in modern professional wrestling.

01:47 And he wanted to play those same mind games with Cody,

01:50 the challenger for him at WrestleMania 39, fresh off a big win at the Royal Rumble.

01:55 That promo where Roman Reigns said Dusty Rhodes wished HE was his son instead of Cody built a

02:03 deep level of animosity that made it more than just another title match.

02:09 Apart from the common ground from them both being second-generation wrestlers

02:14 in their families, the Onoahes and the Rhodes, it was clear that the two

02:20 were different type of personalities. They were fighting different ways with different ethics.

02:25 If you look at their wrestling journey, there's quite a contrast, yet that familiar connection

02:30 of them being brought up in the business.

02:32 Cody was raised in it, around it all the time, and had a period of success in the midcard in WWE.

02:39 Roman Reigns, though, never had to leave WWE.

02:43 He, unlike the prodigal son Cody, never had to stray away from the multi-million dollar nest

02:49 to truly spread his wings and become a future superstar.

02:53 Even when the segment of the audience that hated Roman as a positioned-on-a-pedestal

03:00 babyface hero, the next John Cena, between 2015 and 2018, he was never really in a bad spot in

03:08 WWE. He was in the driver's seat from day one, and although it's a stretch to say he was always

03:14 going to be modeled after Cena as a successor, the idea seemed to come to those higher up early on

03:22 before maybe even he started that main roster run. Some have speculated about that.

03:28 WWE put Roman on that pedestal, and he's stayed there ever since.

03:33 To his credit, he has reinvented himself since 2020, evolving into the wrestling equivalent

03:38 of Darth Vader with his Tribal Chief reboot in 2020, which started his historic, hubris-driven

03:45 WWE Universal title reign, which is still going as I speak and record these words right now,

03:51 let alone launching the Bloodline, which is probably one of the greatest factions in the

03:55 last 20 years or so. For Cody Rhodes, it started in a similar fashion, entering right away into

04:02 WWE in the mid-2000s, introduced to most fans while inducting his legendary father into the

04:09 Hall of Fame. He would go on to be featured on screen with greats like Randy Orton in the Legacy

04:14 Group, capture the Tag Team titles, evolve into various incarnations of truly expressive wrestling

04:21 characters, whether they were dashing or deranged, he was in the midcard, a true standout who was

04:27 never too far away from the WWE Intercontinental Championship, but never too close to the world

04:33 title. He had emotional, memorable triumphs alongside his brother Goldust as a tag team,

04:39 but those wins simply were not satisfying his true single superstar desires. He had to go through

04:46 frustration and claws way out of the outlandish, face-painted Goldust knockoff character Stardust.

04:53 In May of 2016, he went online and said he requested his release from WWE. Though many

05:01 thought he would be a lifer with the company, he seemingly wanted to carve his own creative path

05:06 in rings beyond the realm established, so to speak. Boy, did that change everything,

05:13 not just his wrestling career, but the careers of many others.

05:18 Crafting his own brand as the American Nightmare, he turned himself into one of the hottest stars

05:23 in all of wrestling, not just outside of WWE, and he ended up making seven figures not too

05:29 long outside of WWE after connecting with another advantageous group, the Young Bucks.

05:35 He had to compete in some of the biggest promotions in pro wrestling, with a brief stint in TNA,

05:40 dominating a ring of honor, playing the Tokyo Dome with New Japan Pro Wrestling, and many,

05:45 many more. He was proving that he had something that WWE had slept on, and he was drawing money

05:50 with it everywhere he went. And then there was AEW, All Elite Wrestling, where he was one of

05:58 the figureheads and executive vice presidents of the first really well-financed challenger brand

06:04 in pro wrestling, the first one to step up against WWE since 2001 with the fall of WCW.

06:11 He was a key figure in that, and helped take them to the point of becoming wrestling's

06:15 undisputed number two company. He didn't just create a new path,

06:19 he helped foster the growth of a whole new kingdom in pro wrestling.

06:23 Come 2022, he rolled the dice once again, another risky but very successful decision,

06:29 when he decided to leave the world of All Elite and return to his home planet, if you will. Yes,

06:37 Cody Rhodes was not simply just coming back to WWE, WWE was coming back to him.

06:45 It says a whole lot when then WWE boss Vince McMahon personally flew out to negotiate with

06:51 Cody Rhodes to get him back in the fold and have him come home to reclaim the original kingdom.

06:59 Roman Reigns may have headlined WrestleMania 38 in 2022 and left it still champion,

07:04 but that weekend in Texas, which also saw the much-anticipated return of Stone Cold Steve Austin,

07:10 was really one that had fan conversation centered around one name, Cody Rhodes.

07:16 He had one of the most memorable, goose-bumping, inducing returns in WWE history on the grandest

07:22 scale imaginable, coming out with rumor and speculation, no direct advertising as the

07:28 mystery man to face Seth Rollins, and he came out to his own music, his own logo, all crafted away

07:35 from the WWE machine, with that same machine now very much steaming behind him. Cody Rhodes would

07:43 conquer Seth Rollins and steal the headlines of WrestleMania from Roman Reigns. And many people

07:49 thought this was it for Cody, he could be the guy to take down Roman. The animosity and the

07:54 slow burn in their feud finally boiled into the match, where once again, yeah, the air got sucked

08:01 out of an open-air stadium in SoFi, with the Roman Empire not falling, no, everybody from the

08:08 bloodline interfered again. The second the bell rang, even the most dialed-in fans that were there,

08:13 I was one of them, knew we were going to have to wait maybe a whole year until the next WrestleMania

08:18 to feel like Roman was in any danger of losing that title. Another path to redemption for Cody

08:24 Rhodes started the next night on Monday Night Raw, right after WrestleMania, he demanded an

08:28 immediate rematch, only to get sidetracked, a big sidetrack, in the form of the Beast Brock Lesnar.

08:34 When Cody demanded that rematch, the seed was planted for WrestleMania 40, a whole year in

08:41 advance. The story still needs to be finished. To WWE's credit, they did a great job of rebuilding

08:48 Cody Rhodes. Just one night after WrestleMania 39, he entered into a feud with Lesnar and hanged in

08:54 there with a great trilogy of matches over the course of four months. And he had the better of

09:00 the record, two of one, yeah, in that trilogy. After that, he would enter a feud with the very

09:05 troublesome Judgment Day, who came up on the ranks on Monday Night Raw, away from the bloodline on

09:10 SmackDown, and he would team up with Jey Uso, who defected from the bloodline, and they would become

09:15 undisputed tag team champions. They only got to hold it for a whopping nine days, though.

09:19 There was a clever long-term reason for Cody Rhodes to become one half of the undisputed tag team

09:24 champions. It allowed you to freely roam amongst WWE, not locked to any brand, from Raw to SmackDown

09:30 to NXT. And almost immediately after winning the belts, there was a moment on SmackDown, yes,

09:35 Roman's Realm, where Cody and Roman stared at each other, with GM Nick Aldis trying his best to keep

09:43 them apart. After that, Cody would enter War Games, yes, his father's great creation, alongside

09:50 former rival, maybe still rival, Seth Rollins, Jey Uso, and Randy Orton to take on the purple and

09:56 black Judgment Day in a sold-out Survivor Series in Chicago. Before he had a brief feud with Shinsuke

10:03 Nakamura to close out 2023 and open 2024, Roman Reigns was on the trail of destruction, only

10:11 defending his title a few times. Yeah, but he's the greatest champion of all time. Sure, that's a

10:16 different video. But like Michael Cole, WWE commentators said, if you don't want to see him

10:21 defend the title part-time, then beat him. Good point, Michael. Vintage Michael Cole there.

10:27 Before you enter the Valley of Mania and get on the road to WrestleMania, you must scale the

10:32 Mountain of Royal Rumble, and Cody Rhodes did that for the second consecutive year in a row,

10:37 winning the Royal Rumble in 2024 and being the first man to win it back-to-back, yes,

10:43 in the 21st century, the first ever to do it in 26 years, and only the fourth ever to do it,

10:48 joining Hulk Hogan, Shawn Michaels, and Stone Cold Steve Austin. Not very bad company there,

10:54 rarefied air for Cody, and this meant that he indeed had another shot, as he pointed at Roman

11:01 at the end of the night. It looked like we were gonna get Roman versus Cody too at WrestleMania,

11:07 but there would be a twist. And by twist, we mean the twist of an eyebrow upwards,

11:13 and that eyebrow belongs to The Rock. The Rock returned, and it seemed like Cody was gonna give

11:18 up his WrestleMania match against Roman Reigns for The Rock. Yeah, that's the way it was presented,

11:26 but the social media backlash to it was loud. #WeWantCody went viral for over 72 hours,

11:34 following the SmackDown cliffhanger that saw The Rock come back out of nowhere

11:38 and showdown with Roman Reigns. Holdover segments that featured Seth Rollins,

11:42 the World Heavyweight Champion, maybe trying to get Cody to face him for his title at WrestleMania,

11:48 were felt with their own form of backlash. The fans wanted Cody versus Roman again.

11:53 Even The Rock, the most popular movie star in the world, wasn't something they wanted more than

11:59 Cody versus Roman too. #WeWantCody found themselves in a very interesting situation,

12:04 with a lot of anticipation as to what this was actually gonna play into. Were we gonna get

12:09 Rock versus Roman and Cody versus Seth? What's going on here? We find ourselves in Las Vegas,

12:15 a few days before the Super Bowl, WWE, with a big WrestleMania kickoff press conference event.

12:22 Cody officially interrupts The Rock, who's trying to say that the

12:26 "Bloodline" family tree is so special, here we go, oh, all the history, which is not deniable.

12:32 We will get Rock versus Roman. Uh-uh. But not for Cody, because he's calling bulls**t on all of this

12:38 and says he will indeed face Roman. Cody officially chooses Roman and got slapped by The Rock for

12:45 interrupting the family plan, while Seth Rollins joined in on the entire thing.

12:50 So the battle lines have been drawn, and it has come to this. We will get a scenario that has

12:55 played out over the past couple weeks, with The Rock going fully heel, the WWE following what the

13:01 audience told them to do, The Rock adding his star power to everything, Cody feeling like nothing can

13:07 stop him in his pursuit of Roman Reigns and the title he wishes to put on his family's mantle,

13:13 the WWE Undisputed Universal Championship. Roman Reigns is shaking in his boots,

13:20 and we're finding our way into Philadelphia coming up this April.

13:24 Night one will see The Rock and Roman Reigns defend the honor of the Bloodline, where if they

13:29 defeat Cody and Seth Rollins in a tag team match, then that means the title match between Cody and

13:35 Roman night two will be under Bloodline rules. Now, if Cody and Seth are able to be victorious,

13:42 that means no member of the Bloodline will be at ringside night two for that big anticipated title

13:50 match, leaving some to think that it would give Cody the actual chance to finish the story.

13:55 For Cody and Roman, there is going to be a career-defining clash at Wrestlemania 40,

14:02 where the American Nightmare looks to indeed finish his story, and maybe write the ending

14:10 of the Tribal Chief. 30 years ago at Wrestlemania 10 in Madison Square Garden, Bret Hart was crowned

14:17 in an underdog overcoming the odds moment. 20 years ago, we saw the same thing in a big triple

14:22 threat match. A decade ago, Daniel Bryan and his Yes Movement rerouted what we thought the plan

14:30 was for Wrestlemania 30. And this year, it looks like we're gonna get the same rerouting for Cody.

14:38 Imagine saying all of this, and Wrestlemania ends with Roman Reigns retaining his title again.

14:44 We don't think that's how it's gonna play out, but only time will tell.

14:49 This match may be one of the most consequential Wrestlemania made events we've seen in such

14:54 a long time. Everything feels like it's on the line.

14:59 What do you think? Let us know in the comments below. Thank you for watching.

15:08 [outro music]

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