#and to return to the ring

[buttdawg]

Dwayne

If you can believe Twitter, everyone hates The Rock now. Twitter renamed itself X eight months ago, but the URL is still "twitter.com", so you can't always trust what you hear there.

Still, the impression I get is that WWE fans are upset about this week's TV, where Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson returned and basically usurped Cody Rhodes' WrestleMania 40 match with Roman Reigns. I didn't see this happen, so I don't know the exact details, but the whole thing sounds like a rumor, because fans have been talking about Roman/Rock for years, and they've been talking about Cody/Roman II ever since their last match at WrestleMania 39. Now, it seems like the stars have finally aligned for both matches, so WWE has to pick one or the other.

Some guy on Twitter posted a picture of Rock and Roman staring each other down, and asked users to describe the image in three words. My caption is "business as usual".

WWE's always had trouble making big decisions. In the final years of my viewership, I quit watching Raw and Smackdown because the shows never seemed to matter. Much of the airtime was spent haggling over the PPV matches and speculating over who would fight who. So I just started watching the PPV's only, since those decisions would already be made. Then the James Khahshoggi murder happened, and WWE had to decide whether to go forward with the 2018 Crown Jewel show. It took them three weeks to figure it out, and then they just did the show anyway. I canceled my WWE Network subscription and never looked back. Those who stuck around got to see Crown Jewel 2018, which absolutely sucked, so WWE ended up pleasing no one.

After Vince McMahon stepped down in 2022, there was a renewed optimism about WWE's product, which was dampened by Vince's return in early 2023, but there still seemed to be an improvement in morale. There was a lot of frustration over Cody vs. Roman at Mania 39, because it seemed like Cody was due to "finish the story", but Roman defeated him to retain his title. But at least WWE made a decision. They didn't do some bullshit double-DQ, or a no-contest, or have Hulk Hogan come out to win the title in an impromptu match, or send Seth Rollins out to make it a three-way. They just had Roman beat Cody. The end. Cody will have to try again next time.

That might have been the wrong call, but at least WWE made a call and stuck with it. Roman's record-breaking title reign is kind of incredible for modern WWE. Back when I was watching, everyone knew WWE wanted to book Roman as a top guy, but they kept getting in their own way, spoiling all of his triumphs in a vain effort to set up some bigger triumph that they could never quite get right. Now that's he's finally been established, I can appreciate WWE's reluctance to change the status quo. Roman represents stability.

But now it's starting to look like WWE has the same problem in the opposite direction. One of these days, someone needs to upset Roman to win his title, but they can't seem to decide who that person is, or when it should happen, or how it should happen.

The way I remember it, Rock vs. Roman was something WWE wanted to do for a while now, and it seemed like WrestleMania 39 was a good time to go for it, except the Rock couldn't make it so they had to shelve those plans. So Cody got the spot instead, and fans really got behind that idea. Maybe he should have won the title then, but you could argue that it builds to an even bigger rematch at WrestleMania 40 this way. And that seemed to be the idea, since he won the Royal Rumble. Except this year the Rock seems to be available, so here we are.

The dilemma here is that fans had a whole year to get invested in Cody's quest for a rematch, while the Rock is this super-megastar who only comes around once in a great while. He's 51, so if they don't do this Rock/Roman thing soon, they may never make it happen. Cody will still be around for a while, but it strains credibility to have him chase Roman for three years. It also doesn't make much sense for him to just pass up a title shot at WrestleMania when he has first dibs on it.

Instead, Cody seems to be pivoting to a match with Seth Rollins for the World Heavyweight Championship. This leads to speculation that he might win that match and try to unify the belts or something, but it says a lot that any of this is an option. Over the past twenty-two years, WWE has established two "brands" and two world titles. Sometimes they recombine them, only just just split them off again. These days there's even two nights of WrestleMania, so it shouldn't matter that Rock and Cody are kind of occupying the same spot. There's plenty of main event space for both of them.

And yet, the fans still appear unsatisfied. Cody was going after Roman specifically. He wanted his title. That was the way the story was presented, right until the Rock showed up and then Cody graciously stepped aside.

I think it's that stepping aside that ticks the fans off. It reminds me a lot of when Batista came back in 2014, and fans booed him out of the building because they wanted Daniel Bryan to win the title, not him. And WWE did the smart thing and worked Bryan into the match, but I'm not sure that would work here. In 2014, Batista won the Royal Rumble, and Bryan defeated Triple H to get into the main event. So they each had a claim to challenge for the title. But in 2024, Cody won the Royal Rumble, and he's the guy everyone wanted. What claim does the Rock have to any of this?

I mean, he's a big celebrity, sure, but there's a lot of fans who are too young to remember his heyday. They grew up with the Rock being this guy who comes out sometimes to beat up heels and lead the crowd in silly chants like "Kung Pao Bitch" or "Tofu Anus". Cody's actually on TV every week. I think WWE may have been so starstruck by the Rock that they failed to notice that their active roster has a greater rapport with the fans.

This could all work out in the end. I think the best bet would be to do some Double-Gold Double Dash thing like they did at WrestleKingdom in 2020. Do Rock/Roman and Cody/Seth at Night 1, and then do Cody/Roman in a unification match at Night 2. That ought to please everyone, and maybe WWE's going there, but they can't reveal i yet because the story just started.

But it says a lot to me that they invented all these extra shows and extra titles and extra events just to give themselves wiggle room, but it still feels like threading a needle every time. Everything has to be done a certain, exact way, or we have to scrap everything and wait another year to get it right.

Personally, I'd just have Cody beat Roman at Summerslam and get it over with. WrestleMania is overrated, and they run a dozen other PPV's with the same roster, so just do a big moment at one of them for a change. Not everything has to happen at WrestleMania.

[rohirriiim]

And no more despair.

REST IN PEACE BERNARD HILL (1944–2024)

[maddneys]

REST IN PEACE, BERNARD HILL (1944–2024) THE LORD OF THE RINGS: THE RETURN OF THE KING (2003)

[autistook]

Bernard Hill

1944 - 2024

[imsupposedtobestudying-whoops]

🗡That will depend on the manner of your return 🏹

[dilfgifs]

Viggo Mortensen as Aragorn  The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (2003)

[theladyeowyn]

I just want to help my friends.

[sbeep]

Forth, and fear no darkness!

[velvet4510]

NEW VERSION. :)

[mithrandirl]

Then suddenly he beheld his sister Éowyn as she lay, and he knew her. He stood a moment as a man who is pierced in the midst of a cry by an arrow through the heart; and then his face went deathly white, and a cold fury rose in him, so that all speech failed him for a while. A fey mood took him.

[optional]

The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (2003)

[davinaclare]

Bernard Hill as King Théoden in The Lord of the Rings Trilogy

[rohirriiim]

#invented feminism

[hansoeii]

thorin

[tolkiengif]

Then the heart of Éowyn changed, or else at last she understood it. And suddenly her winter passed, and the sun shone on her.

[uncursedswan]

Every time I rewatch The Lord of the Rings I oscillate violently between “it’s important to show men having close, supportive friendships and I’m so glad Peter Jackson chose to show all the male characters being loving and physically affectionate with one another in a healthy, platonic way” and “damn, these bitches gay. good for them, good for them”