The Bloodline made their presence known on last night’s episode of WWE SmackDown. The Rock, fully embracing his Hollywood Rock persona, called out Cody Rhodes and the “Cody Crybabies” and noted that his story is ending, but theirs is just beginning. He appeared to declare himself a part of the group as he stood side by side with Reigns, Jimmy Uso, Solo Sikoa and Paul Heyman. During the memorable moment, Rock held his finger up for the trademarked symbol that Reigns is known for but instead he held out an “L.” This led to many fans theorizing whether or not Rock was doing it on purpose to show he was eventually going to turn on the Bloodline or if it was simply a coincidence.
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It didn’t stop the internet from making jokes, though, including Austin and Colten Gunn of AEW’s Bullet Club Gold stable. Austin first posted a zoomed in screenshot of The Rock holding up the symbol that highly resembles BCG’s gun signal. Austin captioned the photo “GUNNS UP” and his brother Colten followed up with a quote post, “everyone wants to be in the bang bang gang…sorry kid, clubs full,” he said.
The Rock is Cooking
At the beginning of the year, Rock returned on the Day 1 episode of WWE Raw where he hinted at potentially sitting at the head of the table. That simple phrase sent fans into a frenzy, clamoring for the highly-anticipated match between Rock and Reigns that has been in the works for years. It was said to take place at WrestleMania 39 but it was shelved because they couldn’t come to a consensus on the storyline. After Rhodes won the Royal Rumble, Reigns’ path to WrestleMania seemed clear: he’d face Rhodes in a rematch for the Undisputed WWE Universal Championship.
Rock then appeared on SmackDown where he seemingly hinted at being the one to face Reigns for the championship. Rhodes walked off upset and it led fans to trending “#WeWantCody” on social media and it ended up trending for several days straight. The WWE Universe also made the SmackDown segment WWE’s most disliked YouTube video in the history of their channel. Whether this forced them to pivot or the plan was already in place remains to be seen, but at the WrestleMania 40 press conference in Las Vegas fans got a bit of a better idea at what’s to come. After making a big deal out of their bloodline and stressing how important it is to their culture, Rhodes threw disrespect in both of their directions which saw Rock align with Reigns instead. Rock slapped Rhodes which caused things to get heated on stage and World Heavyweight Champion Seth Rollins to get involved.
