The long-awaited confrontation between The Rock and Roman Reigns could not have come at a worse time. This past Friday on WWE SmackDown, Men’s Royal Rumble winner Cody Rhodes seemingly gave up his WWE WrestleMania 40 title shot at Undisputed WWE Universal Champion Roman Reigns, stepping aside for Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson. WWE SmackDown went off the air with a visibly frustrated Rhodes exiting the ring as Rock and Reigns stared each other down. While WWE has yet to announce that The Rock will challenge Reigns at WWE WrestleMania 40, the company is expected to make the match official this Thursday during a WWE WrestleMania 40 press conference.
Will WWE Change WrestleMania 40 Plans?
As they say in the wrestling business, plans can always change.
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As reported by PWInsider, WWE is “monitoring the responses” to The Rock replacing Cody Rhodes as Roman Reigns’s opponent at WWE WrestleMania 40.
WWE’s YouTube upload of Rock and Reigns’s WWE SmackDown segment shattered the company’s record for most disliked YouTube video, beating the previous all-time marker within nine hours of being uploaded. It currently sits at over 500,000 dislikes. Beyond that, the hashtag #WeWantCody trended worldwide for the majority of the weekend. The topic currently has over 321,000 tweets, while #WeWantRocky sits at just over 50,000.
Second “Yes Movement” Imminent?
The entire situation is reminiscent of Daniel Bryan’s (AEW’s Bryan Danielson) groundswell of fan support en route to a definitive world title victory at WWE WrestleMania 30. Fans rallied behind Bryan throughout 2013, eventually seeing him capture the WWE Championship at WWE SummerSlam 2013. He would be screwed out of the title minutes later when Triple H attacked him and Randy Orton cashed in his Money in the Bank to steal the gold.
Support for Bryan carried into 2014, as fans hijacked WWE Royal Rumble when Bryan was not involved in the titular battle royal. “Yes!” and “Daniel Bryan!” chants became too deafening to ignore, and WWE elected to pivot WWE WrestleMania 30 plans by having Bryan inserted into the headlining WWE Championship bout between Orton and Batista. Bryan went on to win the match, celebrating in front of a raucous New Orleans crowd in a moment commentator Michael Cole dubbed the “miracle on Bourbon Street.”
Rhodes is scheduled to face former rival Shinsuke Nakamura in a bull rope match tonight on WWE Monday Night Raw. It remains to be seen as to if Rhodes will address the events of WWE SmackDown on the broadcast.
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