When Cody Rhodes returned to WWE at WrestleMania 38 it appeared that his rise to the top of the company would be swift and welcomed by fans.
The star was victorious in his first high-profile feud against Seth Rollins and pledged to win the WWE Championship, a title his father, the great Dusty Rhodes failed to capture. This naturally led fans to believe that the American Nightmare would eventually face and defeat long-reigning World Champion Roman Reigns. However, no one, even those within the company accounted for Sami Zayn while there were also rumours about Dwayne Johnson and Steve Austin.
It is no secret that WWE were hoping to get Johnson to agree to face Reigns at WrestleMania, while they also offered a potential Reigns match to Austin.
While Rhodes was out injured, the story between Roman Reigns and Sami Zayn took on a life of its own. This led to Rhodes’ crowning moment at the Royal Rumble where he won the Rumble match being overshadowed in the eyes of many by the angle between Zayn and Reigns. At the end of the show, Zayn finally stood up for himself and turned on Reigns before being beaten down.
This has created a scenario where anything less than Zayn overthrowing Reigns will be seen as a disappointment by a large of fans.
Cody Rhodes WrestleMania Main Event In Doubt?
Writing in the Wrestling Observer Newsletter, Dave Meltzer broke down the situation. Meltzer concluded that the fact WWE seemingly pitched a WrestleMania main event spot to both Steve Austin and The Rock, shows that they were not set on Rhodes being involved.
The issue got so hot that from a fans perspective, Reigns-Zayn and really a title change for the singles belt would have been the perfect climax to the angle.
This was acknowledged by a few internally that they didn’t see coming in how hot this would be, and it should be changed, but were also told that neither Vince McMahon nor Paul Levesque saw Zayn as a guy who could headline WrestleMania and that the scenario of Zayn challenging in Montreal and moving it to WrestleMania because he got hot, which WWE did previously for Kofi Kingston when he got hot and got the spot planned for Owens in 2019 was not going to happen.
Plus, the entire storyline that brought Rhodes to WWE did almost have to result in him winning the title his father never could win. But that didn’t have to take place at Mania, just had to take place at some time.
The fact WWE wanted Dwayne Johnson in the spot, and even contacted Steve Austin for the spot, tells you they weren’t married to the idea of Rhodes having to headline the show or win the title, at least from Reigns.”
Meanwhile, it has been reported that Sami Zayn will meet Roman Reigns at Elimination Chamber on February 18th in his hometown of Montreal, Canada.