The Rock believes his rivalry with Cody Rhodes doesn’t have to follow typical wrestling conventions.
Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson shook up WrestleMania season with his last-minute appearance on the latest SmackDown. As reported ahead of the show, The Rock announced that WrestleMania 42 will be coming to New Orleans next year.
But that wasn’t the only reason for his sudden WWE return. Johnson went on to call out Undisputed WWE Champion Rhodes and made an unexpected proposal to The American Nightmare.
The Final Boss asked Rhodes to become “his champion”, seemingly proposing that Rhodes become a corporate champion. In exchange, he would open doors for Rhodes through his power and influence, particularly as a TKO Group Holdings board member.
Johnson ended the segment by announcing he’ll be appearing at Elimination Chamber, where he’ll be expecting Rhodes’ response, before proclaiming that he wasn’t interested in Rhodes’ world championship, but rather ‘his soul’.
The Rock Claims Rivalry With Cody Rhodes Doesn’t Need To End With A Match
After SmackDown went off the air, The Rock hosted a press conference where he fielded questions from the media about WrestleMania returning to New Orleans. At one point, he was asked about his segment with The American Nightmare during the show,
Johnson dropped various teases about his proposal to the Undisputed WWE Champion before discussing the unique situation between himself and Rhodes as he believes their feud doesn’t necessarily need to end with a match.
In the world of pro wrestling, as we all know, everything will culminate to a match. Whatever happens, it’ll end up in the ring. What I really love about this rare air space that we’ve gotten to with the character of the Final Boss it’s like this white whale unicorn in that with the Final Boss and Cody Rhodes.
It’s not about the WWE title, it’s not about having a match….it never has to culminate to a match. That’s a really special place to be I think creatively and just think character-wise and how much fun you can have.
To be able to have a storyline and two characters who are very popular, to never have to get into the ring for a match but yet still hold this really unique, compelling, off-putting, kind of weird…he wants his soul, what does that mean? I love it and loved every minute of it.
h/t to F4WOnline