WWE's Original Plans For Cody Rhodes To Finish The Story Revealed

Although Cody Rhodes will main event WrestleMania 40 and challenge Roman Reigns for the Undisputed WWE Universal Championship, that wasn't the original plan for the American Nightmare. 

As covered in recent weeks, the originally scheduled main event of WrestleMania was Roman Reigns vs. The Rock, a match that was set up after Dwayne Johnson agreed to join the TKO Board of Directors in early January. The Rock nixed that match, though, following the backlash to Cody Rhodes stepping aside for him on the February 2 episode of Friday Night SmackDown. Rocky decided to turn heel instead and pitched for him to team with Reigns against Rhodes and Seth Rollins at WrestleMania, a match that looks set to be made official in the coming weeks. 

According to Dave Meltzer of the Wrestling Observer Newsletter, Cody Rhodes was told he would be facing Roman Reigns in the Autumn of 2024 and that is when he would have challenged for the Undisputed WWE Universal Title. Rhodes was not informed about plans for The Rock vs. Roman Reigns at WrestleMania until the day of the Royal Rumble, when Cody was told he would be winning the men's Royal Rumble match. Rhodes would have then been written out of the Mania main event on TV by a Bloodline beatdown on the February 2 episode of SmackDown before later returning and beating Reigns for WWE's top championship. 

The current situation came about after the company found out CM Punk had torn his triceps in the Royal Rumble. Punk was planned to challenge Seth Rollins for the World Heavyweight Championship at WrestleMania 40 and WWE switched to Cody as Rollins' opponent following Punk's injury, which is why the company had Cody step aside for The Rock instead of him being taken out by the Bloodline on February 2. The stepping aside, ultimately, went down terribly with WWE fans.