WWE fans were very surprised by The Rock and Cody Rhodes’ brawl on Raw.
The closing segment of the March 25th episode saw the extended beatdown of Cody Rhodes by The Rock, declaring that he is The Final Boss and that The American Nightmare made a monumental mistake by getting involved in The Bloodline’s business. As the camera briefly cut away from Rhodes, fans were shocked to see the Raw star bleeding when he was once again shown on camera. The blood continued to flow from Rhodes’ head after it was smeared onto Rock’s weight belt, meaning that Rhodes had bladed to get colour.
For over a decade, intentional bleeding has been strictly outlawed in the PG era and stars have been fined heavily for disobeying orders. With this in mind, what has changed to allow blading on TV?
As reported in the Wrestling Observer Newsletter, a key factor is the departure of Vince McMahon and the new ownership by Endeavor. It is stated that blood will be used very rarely in the future and the fact that it was part of a segment featuring The Rock played a large part:
“With blood, the key is that this is no longer Vince McMahon’s company. We were told that going forward it will be used very rarely. There are no plans to turn it into AEW where it’s used more liberally. But if Johnson wants it in his angle, he’s like Lesnar in the Vince administration, and has more power than Lesnar had then, and he’s going to be able to do what he wants in his angles and matches.”
The Rock Responds To WWE Report
With The People’s Champion being one of the biggest stars in the world, it should come as little of a surprise that Rock is allowed to have more creative freedom with the nature of his segments, especially in regard to what language can be used. However, a report was published that claimed there was a double standard with others in the company being unhappy with the amount of leeway the Hollywood star has. Responding to an incorrect aggregation of the report, The Rock described it as “horsesh*t.”
In a new interview, a top WWE star credited The Rock for making them a better wrestler.