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[PepS]

With the emphasis on the 'long-term storytelling' angle, I'm thinking Rock may not even wrestle at Mania this year now. I can see them going with him aligning with Roman up until his showdown with Cody at Mania and then slow burn to their eventual fallout leading to the match-up between the two at next years mania.

 

[Spider-Fan]

The option I like most is just have Cody vs Roman. You have Rock in the Bloodline now, but when he's around he kind of acts like he is in charge. But he is in Roman's corner. Full on heel Rock. But over time, Rock's presence annoys Roman. Then something happens in the match, maybe Rock is in the ring and tells Roman to do something. Then Roman screams that he is the Tribal Chief and slaps Rock. Then Rock hits him with the Rock Bottom, helps with the other member of the Bloodline. Then Cody wins. Now we finished the story and setup Rock vs Roman whenever

 

[AndrewGilkison]

Him slapping Cody screams Triple threat to me... Now all 3 don't like each other and all 3 have a reason...

Rock and Roman left with each other, so I don't think that is where they are going.

 

[Lobo]

What if it's Seth vs Rock night 1 and Cody vs Roman night 2?

Rock wins promotes the new title, Roman loses and starts getting dogged on by the Rock for losing creating tension between them for a future match?

 

[DOBSON10]

Rock and Roman left with each other, so I don't think that is where they are going.

That's a fair point... I did find that interesting... Watching that segment under normal circumstances that easily sets up Rock/Roman vs. Seth/Cody, but Seth can't go right now... There are actually alot of ways they can go with this...

Say whatever you want about Rock injecting himself into this, I don't think you can argue that it's way more interesting now than it would have been... Definitely for me personally, I had zero interest in a Roman Vs. Cody rematch... Now I'm interested to see where this goes...

 

[chamber-music]

I guess cody vs roman is back on. I'm guessing the rock is going to son roman which leads to a feud between those two.

 

[DeadlyWest]

There are absolutely questions that need answering for this situation to make sense in storyline, discounting the obvious real life backpedaling

But this is a far better situation to be in, a far nor interesting match and a far more interesting story than what we thought it would be last Friday. We have over a month to develop from here, those questions can be answered. But to put it plainly, this entire story now has both my interest and anticipation for Wrestlemania again. Two things that the initial course we seemed destined for last Friday absolutely did not generate within me

 

[Spider-Fan]

I am more interested than I was last Friday, that's for sure. But that doesn't change that the writing here is complete nonsense, lol

 

[BatLobster]

I kind if like some level of uncertainty, but make it make sense WWE, MAKE IT MAKE SENSE!!!! So if this was Cody's endgame, as a character, why involve Rock at all? Especially if this ends up a Triple Threat. Why make the match harder on you...intentionally! Just none of this makes sense within the framework of a story. I hate that aspect

I think it's really pretty simple. It's one of those storyline where the lines of reality and work can blur, which often leads to the best stuff in wrestling IMO. But in "canon", the story could be as simple as...

Rock is now on the TKO board. He uses his stature in the biz, overall star power AND his new direct influence in the company to pressure Cody out of the match, because Rock vs. Roman is the "big money" of course some ego on The Rock's part. Cody reluctantly agrees to take one for the team. (Which miiiight be kinda what actually happened)

Then the fans rally behind Cody. Cody has more time to think it over and decides, screw this, I'm gonna push back. This is still my story after all. Plus now you can have heel Rock trolling the "Cody Crybabies".

I think that's really it. They aren't shying away from Rock's new role as an executive, the panel brought it up. Rock's bit backstage scolding Triple H to "fix this" is leaning to the new power dynamic.

I think it totally works, whether they go triple threat or just have Rock circling the match in some capacity (eg. Mike Tyson at WrestleMania 14).

 

[chamber-music]

Cody is the white meat baby face vince wanted for years. Unlike Cena cody is beloved by kids and the smark crowd (for leaving and going to the indies/japan/creating aew). The guy also does the top guy baby face stuff outside the ring with his charity work and media appearances.

If you are going to let anyone carry the belt after roman then it is probably cody.

I think night 1 will be roman vs the rock with roman going over. Night 2 will be cody vs roman with cody going over. Heel rock might try and interfere but seth comes out and helps cody.

 

[blue scholar]

Cody is the white meat baby face vince wanted for years. Unlike Cena cody is beloved by kids and the smark crowd (for leaving and going to the indies/japan/creating aew). The guy also does the top guy baby face stuff outside the ring with his charity work and media appearances.

If you are going to let anyone carry the belt after roman then it is probably cody.

I think night 1 will be roman vs the rock with roman going over. Night 2 will be cody vs roman with cody going over. Heel rock might try and interfere but seth comes out and helps cody.

I like that scenario.

Seth vs The Rock at SummerSlam then, which would be cool. But will most likely be a tag team match between Seth and Cody vs Roman and The Rock

 

[Spider-Fan]

I think it's really pretty simple. It's one of those storyline where the lines of reality and work can blur, which often leads to the best stuff in wrestling IMO. But in "canon", the story could be as simple as...

Rock is now on the TKO board. He uses his stature in the biz, overall star power AND his new direct influence in the company to pressure Cody out of the match, because Rock vs. Roman is the "big money" of course some ego on The Rock's part. Cody reluctantly agrees to take one for the team. (Which miiiight be kinda what actually happened)

Then the fans rally behind Cody. Cody has more time to think it over and decides, screw this, I'm gonna push back. This is still my story after all. Plus now you can have heel Rock trolling the "Cody Crybabies".

I think that's really it. They aren't shying away from Rock's new role as an executive, the panel brought it up. Rock's bit backstage scolding Triple H to "fix this" is leaning to the new power dynamic.

I think it totally works, whether they go triple threat or just have Rock circling the match in some capacity (eg. Mike Tyson at WrestleMania 14).

It's definitely turned into some Vince Russo style booking here after the fact. Which sometimes that worked. Other times it was baffling. See Bash at the Beach 2000. I just hope they make it make sense, lol!

 

[Lobo]

Kudos to Seth for actually answering questions about the lawsuit and Vince.



Also whenever and wherever we do get Seth vs Punk, it's going to slap so hard. I just know they'll give us an instant classic.

As for Cody, he can say that he knows how important family is, and the Rock told him he needed to handle family business, but then as the days went on, he realized they were in cahoots. Simple as that.

 

[Shinobi Shaw]

That's a fair point... I did find that interesting... Watching that segment under normal circumstances that easily sets up Rock/Roman vs. Seth/Cody, but Seth can't go right now... There are actually alot of ways they can go with this...

Say whatever you want about Rock injecting himself into this, I don't think you can argue that it's way more interesting now than it would have been... Definitely for me personally, I had zero interest in a Roman Vs. Cody rematch... Now I'm interested to see where this goes...

I actually am too now.

And you know what, I really hope Roman is booked to win their rematch just to see how pissed off the IWC can really get. I so see the Rock being the one to interfere and cost Cody the match, leading to a match between them all the while allowing Roman to continue with the belt for the foreseeable future.

I really believe the goal isn't to finish the story, but to break Hogan's record, and I would be okay with that.

 

[Dr. Evil]

If the Rock replaces Vince McMahon on screen as the evil corporate character, I do hope it doesn't lead to a third match with John Cena.

 

[DeadlyWest]

I actually am too now.

And you know what, I really hope Roman is booked to win their rematch just to see how pissed off the IWC can really get. I so see the Rock being the one to interfere and cost Cody the match, leading to a match between them all the while allowing Roman to continue with the belt for the foreseeable future.

I really believe the goal isn't to finish the story, but to break Hogan's record, and I would be okay with that.

I really wouldn't

Hogan's record only worked because it was a far different time. Both in wrestling and in real life. Because of the lack of social media, people weren't as exposed to A: how long somebody would hold a title for and B: wrestling as a whole. This is an era, globally, of oversaturation. So we have felt every solitary second that Reigns has been champion.

And for me personally, ever since WM 39? It really has felt like I've felt every solitary second.

Reigns winning via outside interference is now boring for the same reason that Cena or Hogan winning with the moves of doom got boring. I would genuinely have a more positive opinion of Reigns' title reign were it not for how overplayed of a finish it is. I'm fine with it sporadically. It makes sense a title run as long as his can't last that long without some (literal) outside interference. But I'm just flat out bored and annoyed when I see Roman Reigns now. Gold glove Reigns, meanwhile, was the literal Final Boss of WWE.

If (and I do mean goddamn if) Reigns were to retain, a part of me would genuinely rather it was cleanly lost (as harmful to Cody as it would be) or at the very least lacks the "X wrestler is gonna get the 1-2-3 but Bloodline interference prevents it" trope. It's so played out it's genuinely stupid.

And that's why I'm so insistent on wanting Cody to win. The past 10 years of world title reigns have been far overpopulated by partimer reigns who essentially only keep their title because they defend it maybe 6 months out of 12. I wanna see a fighting champion, with The title again. Will that eventually get stale? Absolutely. That's the nature of the business and I will gladly state it's time for Cody to drop the title. But as of right now, in the present?

Reigns' reign has run its course. And any concept of it not ending at Wrestlemania just does not make sense. Breaking Hogan's record means virtually nothing because of the differences in the times, both in wrestling and generally.

 

[Shinobi Shaw]

I really wouldn't

Hogan's record only worked because it was a far different time. Both in wrestling and in real life. Because of the lack of social media, people weren't as exposed to A: how long somebody would hold a title for and B: wrestling as a whole. This is an era, globally, of oversaturation. So we have felt every solitary second that Reigns has been champion.

And for me personally, ever since WM 39? It really has felt like I've felt every solitary second.

Reigns winning via outside interference is now boring for the same reason that Cena or Hogan winning with the moves of doom got boring. I would genuinely have a more positive opinion of Reigns' title reign were it not for how overplayed of a finish it is. I'm fine with it sporadically. It makes sense a title run as long as his can't last that long without some (literal) outside interference. But I'm just flat out bored and annoyed when I see Roman Reigns now. Gold glove Reigns, meanwhile, was the literal Final Boss of WWE.

If (and I do mean goddamn if) Reigns were to retain, a part of me would genuinely rather it was cleanly lost (as harmful to Cody as it would be) or at the very least lacks the "X wrestler is gonna get the 1-2-3 but Bloodline interference prevents it" trope. It's so played out it's genuinely stupid.

And that's why I'm so insistent on wanting Cody to win. The past 10 years of world title reigns have been far overpopulated by partimer reigns who essentially only keep their title because they defend it maybe 6 months out of 12. I wanna see a fighting champion, with The title again. Will that eventually get stale? Absolutely. That's the nature of the business and I will gladly state it's time for Cody to drop the title. But as of right now, in the present?

Reigns' reign has run its course. And any concept of it not ending at Wrestlemania just does not make sense. Breaking Hogan's record means virtually nothing because of the differences in the times, both in wrestling and generally.

I hear you, I honestly do, but I strongly disagree that breaking Hogan's record means nothing.

It'll go down in history as a champion who is a POC and (for now and hopefully always) has a good, clean, off-camera image. Hogan is a racist opportunist who's legacy is tainted, so if Roman's reign can eclipse that, I welcome it. That would be great optics for the company too, considering you have Vince's saga hanging over it now.

As far the Mania match, I mean either way you slice it, it'll be predictable. Some of us are going in expecting Roman to win again, a lot of us just know that Cody has to finish his story or else there will be a riot. But I just say all that to say, I think it would make more of an impact to have the champ continue on and feed on to his legacy. Roman is their stalwart, and there's plenty of time for Cody to have a title run.

 

[AndrewGilkison]

To me, its time to pull the trigger on Cody. Having him fail two years in a row would kill his babyface character and put him in that Lex Luger "can't win the big one" category. And Reigns has held the title for three years. Its just time.

 

[DeadlyWest]

I hear you, I honestly do, but I strongly disagree that breaking Hogan's record means nothing.

It'll go down in history as a champion who is a POC and (for now and hopefully always) has a good, clean, off-camera image. Hogan is a racist opportunist who's legacy is tainted, so if Roman's reign can eclipse that, I welcome it. That would be great optics for the company too, considering you have Vince's saga hanging over it now.

As far the Mania match, I mean either way you slice it, it'll be predictable. Some of us are going in expecting Roman to win again, a lot of us just know that Cody has to finish his story or else there will be a riot. But I just say all that to say, I think it would make more of an impact to have the champ continue on and feed on to his legacy. Roman is their stalwart, and there's plenty of time for Cody to have a title run.

In the long run, I don't disagree. The issue is that there absolutely is a short term that needs to be looked at.

Firstly, while correct, Hogan's legacy is forever tainted because of his...character in reality, the best way to deal with that is quite simple and it is the exact same method they used as with Chris Benoit

you do not acknowledge his legacy, at all.

It's good optics for the company in the long run, but at the expense of the main thing people pay money to see which is the storytelling within the wrestling. While yes, Cody winning 100% is predictable and I will not dispute that, the anticipation comes from what happens after. The possibilities, the feuds, the evolution of Cody Rhodes, all of that is endless. Reigns winning is the more unpredictable outcome, absolutely, but it is the outcome which in the long term has no anticipation to it whatsoever. We have seen virtually everything a Roman Reigns title run has to offer. It has absolutely been stellar. But it's run its course and as Andrew says, Cody losing again would be 2003 HHH levels of burial. There's far more long term potential in Cody Rhodes (which will forever be the thing that generates long term profit in the industry) winning than Reigns winning. Reigns winning just results in the same story we have been watching for the past literal three years. And while I do agree that in retrospect, everything you're mentioning to do with Reigns being a POC and a good person outside of the business would be fantastic for his legacy, it comes too much at the expense of the product and the long term storytelling which is the entire reason people tune in to watch. In my personal opinion, at the very least. What you're talking about, with regards to Roman Reigns' legacy, is not worth sacrificing the entertainment of the product itself. And to me, Reigns winning again and stretching his reign beyond Hogan's would absolutely do so. Furthermore, I honestly already think Reigns has already accomplished what you've said. He is without a shadow of a doubt one of the greatest champions this industry has ever seen. He's got a place on Mount Rushmore. He doesn't need to beat Hogan's record to have this legacy as a POC. He's already done it.

 

[TheFuture]

The option I like most is just have Cody vs Roman. You have Rock in the Bloodline now, but when he's around he kind of acts like he is in charge. But he is in Roman's corner. Full on heel Rock. But over time, Rock's presence annoys Roman. Then something happens in the match, maybe Rock is in the ring and tells Roman to do something. Then Roman screams that he is the Tribal Chief and slaps Rock. Then Rock hits him with the Rock Bottom, helps with the other member of the Bloodline. Then Cody wins. Now we finished the story and setup Rock vs Roman whenever

It has to be a clean finish for Cody. If Rock turns on Roman it has to before or after, not during the match.

 

[DeadlyWest]

It has to be a clean finish for Cody. If Rock turns on Roman it has to before or after, not during the match.

I mean the finish is quite easy

Rock just...doesn't help Reigns in the way he's had help every match. He openly stares at Reigns and walks up the ramp as the ref counts. Reigns' lucky streak finally comes to an end, Rock vs Reigns setup for SS or WM 41, clean finish to make Cody look good

 

[Spider-Fan]

It has to be a clean finish for Cody. If Rock turns on Roman it has to before or after, not during the match.

I dont think it has to be. Roman has lived off feeding off his henchmen, so the irony of Rock turning on him would be more than fine and it would setup a future Rock vs Roman match.

 

[Lobo]

For me the only thing missing from the press conference was Bayley.

 

[Shinobi Shaw]

In the long run, I don't disagree. The issue is that there absolutely is a short term that needs to be looked at.

Firstly, while correct, Hogan's legacy is forever tainted because of his...character in reality, the best way to deal with that is quite simple and it is the exact same method they used as with Chris Benoit

you do not acknowledge his legacy, at all.

It's good optics for the company in the long run, but at the expense of the main thing people pay money to see which is the storytelling within the wrestling. While yes, Cody winning 100% is predictable and I will not dispute that, the anticipation comes from what happens after. The possibilities, the feuds, the evolution of Cody Rhodes, all of that is endless. Reigns winning is the more unpredictable outcome, absolutely, but it is the outcome which in the long term has no anticipation to it whatsoever. We have seen virtually everything a Roman Reigns title run has to offer. It has absolutely been stellar. But it's run its course and as Andrew says, Cody losing again would be 2003 HHH levels of burial. There's far more long term potential in Cody Rhodes (which will forever be the thing that generates long term profit in the industry) winning than Reigns winning. Reigns winning just results in the same story we have been watching for the past literal three years. And while I do agree that in retrospect, everything you're mentioning to do with Reigns being a POC and a good person outside of the business would be fantastic for his legacy, it comes too much at the expense of the product and the long term storytelling which is the entire reason people tune in to watch. In my personal opinion, at the very least. What you're talking about, with regards to Roman Reigns' legacy, is not worth sacrificing the entertainment of the product itself. And to me, Reigns winning again and stretching his reign beyond Hogan's would absolutely do so. Furthermore, I honestly already think Reigns has already accomplished what you've said. He is without a shadow of a doubt one of the greatest champions this industry has ever seen. He's got a place on Mount Rushmore. He doesn't need to beat Hogan's record to have this legacy as a POC. He's already done it.

I'm actually shocked at the company still occasionally throwing Hogan in the mix, but then again it's WWE so I shouldn't be.

But again I hear you about the evolution of Cody. I have nothing against him, I think he's a superstar and clearly the people dig him, but I just personally don't get it. Probably because I've been under Roman and the Bloodline's thrall for so long lol.

 

[Spider-Fan]

I have enjoyed Roman, until last year. The entire Bloodline Saga after MITB last year has been pretty bad and the Roman matches themselves beyond stale. It's the same match. I am ready for a new champion lol