Why WWE Replaced Cody Rhodes With The Rock For WrestleMania 40

Cody Rhodes didn't think The Rock was the type of person who would come in and meddle with him finishing the story at WrestleMania 40. Unfortunately for Cody, The Rock has reportedly done exactly that. 

Cody Rhodes looked nailed on to 'finish the story' at WrestleMania 40 following his Royal Rumble win on January 27. Rhodes even pointed directly at Roman Reigns following the Rumble win and made it clear in the post-show press conference that he would be challenging WWE's top star for the Undisputed WWE Universal Championship at WrestleMania. Rhodes even joked about seeing a lot of memes of him not finishing the story on social media. 

There was then a slight trickle of doubt about WWE's WrestleMania plans following the withdrawal of Brock Lesnar from all WWE creative plans due to the Vince McMahon lawsuit and CM Punk's injury in the men's Royal Rumble match, with Seth Rollins pleading for Rhodes to challenge him for the World Heavyweight Title at WrestleMania 40 instead.

Rhodes was set to give an answer on Friday's SmackDown and after coming face to face with Roman Reigns, the American Nightmare said he wanted to take everything from Roman Reigns before stating he would win the Undisputed WWE Universal Title, just not at WrestleMania 40. Cody Rhodes then introduced The Rock as Cody began to look more and more miserable, with SmackDown going off the air with a staredown between Roman Reigns and The Rock. 

It has since emerged that Dwayne Johnson "pushed hard" to face Roman Reigns at WrestleMania 40, with WWE's plans for the main event changing in recent days. 

In an update from Mike Johnson of PWInsider, it was confirmed The Rock did push hard to headline WrestleMania. Some within WWE believe he did so to "save WrestleMania" after Punk and Lesnar were unable to work the show. Others within WWE, however, believe The Rock would have likely pushed to main event WrestleMania 40 regardless of Punk and Lesnar being able to work the show as his $30 million in TKO shares is contingent on Johnson reaching certain milestones, one of which is him wrestling in 2024. The Rock pushed for the match to happen sooner rather than later as he felt Rock vs. Reigns was "the far bigger attraction for the company." 

The Rock received TKO shares after being appointed to the organisation's board of directors in January. The change in WrestleMania 40 plans has been described as TKO executives acquiescing to The Rock's wishes, with Johnson receiving the backing of TKO CEO Ari Emanuel, WWE President Nick Khan, and others for the WrestleMania main event to change as they believed "it would be a greater attraction for the mainstream and also help push some positive momentum for the company" over Cody Rhodes vs. Roman Reigns. 

The WrestleMania change reportedly wasn't done maliciously to politic Cody Rhodes out of the WrestleMania main event but WWE and TKO simply believe The Rock "was the best idea to make money now and respect his new position with the company's parent company." Another source states that even Triple H, the WWE Chief Content Officer, would have "lost that power struggle with Johnson at this point."

The situation has been compared to The Rock's attempts to gain creative control of the DC Extended Universe after he was cast as Black Adam, with Dwayne Johnson having reportedly pushed to have his own movie (which he ultimately got) over fighting Shazam despite Black Adam being the superhero's greatest villain. Johnson then wanted to have a showdown with Superman in a future movie and went over the heads of executives to have his ideas approved. Johnson's ambitions ultimately crumbled after Warner Bros. Discovery handed the keys of the DCEU to James Gunn and Peter Safran. 

For Cody Rhodes, the plan is for him to challenge Seth Rollins for the World Heavyweight Championship at WrestleMania 40 and not finish the story. The creative plans have since been overwhelmingly rejected by WWE fans on social media. If WWE will find themselves in a similar situation as 2015 when fans wanted Daniel Bryan to main event WrestleMania over Roman Reigns remains to be seen.