Bruce Prichard's Latest WWE WrestleMania Comments Potentially Shed Light on Why Roman Reigns Beat Cody Rhodes
It's been over a month since Roman Reigns beat Cody Rhodes in the main event of WrestleMania 39 to retain the Undisputed WWE Universal Championship. It's a booking decision that many WWE fans are still loudly questioning as Reigns and The Bloodline's have been spinning their wheels ever since while Rhodes has been stuck in a feud with Brock Lesnar that has yet to be fully explained and delivered mixed reactions at last weekend's Backlash pay-per-view.
A number of arguments regarding the decision have emerged from within the company. Paul "Triple H" Levesque implied in the WrestleMania post-show press conference that Rhodes' notion of "Finish the Story" was misguided from the jump. "Road Dogg" Brian James echoed the sentiment Rhodes (somehow) hasn't faced adversity to be crowned world champion, while Paul Heyman defended the decision as good promoting.
Bruce Prichard, who still holds a prominent backstage position within WWE, made a comment during the latest Something to Wrestle podcast that helped shed some light on the situation. While talking about the In Your House: Revenge of the Taker event that took place following WrestleMania 13, Prichard explained how WrestleMania is often viewed as either the beginning or finale of major storylines rather than just the latter.
"Different people look at WrestleMania in different ways," Prichard said (h/t Fightful). "Some people look at it as the end. Some people look at it as the beginning. So, there's a lot of both. You try to have that variety where you're not just ending stories, but you're starting new ones, and that's that fine line that you have to walk to make sure that, 'Alright, you're gonna build something up for the big climax, and we also have to build something up for the first one where you want to see a lot more of that going further.' So it's a Catch-22."
Considering that Reigns vs. Rhodes is already being considered for the main event of WrestleMania XL and the SummerSlam main event could also feature a rematch between these two, it's entirely possible that WrestleMania 39 was merely viewed as the starting point for Rhodes' journey to becoming world champion rather than the end. Do you agree? Tell us your thoughts in the comments!