10 Things WWE Wants You To Forget About WrestleMania 39

8. THAT Finish

John Cena WrestleMania
WWE

Obviously, they want you to remember the finish. It was the finish to the main event of one of the most important shows they have ever promoted and they thought it was a good idea. They booked it.

But.

The implication of it is something they don't want you to think about. Dressed up as a cliffhanger, it conceals a far more disturbing truth.

It's one thing for WWE not to have gone with Sami Zayn, if you have to be realistic or cynical about it. He doesn't look like the tall square-jawed face of the company. He publicly campaigns for political causes that collide with the values of one of WWE's biggest paymasters.

Cody was different; a fancy-talking, suit-wearing, gregarious, media-friendly figure, he was exactly what WWE were - apparently - looking for when John Cena wound down his schedule. He is a megastar who has drawn very impressive house show gates and TV ratings. If he wasn't the man to beat Roman, and Sami wasn't, who can WWE fans possibly get behind?

You'll get the dreamers online, moving the goalposts, who believe this is Jey Uso's story, but Jey Uso did a job to Angelo Dawkins in seven minutes on Raw last year to build a tag match with the Street Profits. He jobbed to Kevin Owens to build the Royal Rumble match with Roman Reigns. He might look at Roman like he isn't really happy with his lot, but his role here is to one day refuse to cheat on Roman's behalf and allow the babyface to dethrone him. Jey isn't doing the dethroning himself. WWE, clearly, hasn't decided who that person is yet.

The Bloodline saga is too lucrative to worry about a simple storytelling maxim like figuring out the ending first and plotting the most interesting route to it.

Contributor
Contributor

Michael Sidgwick is an editor, writer and podcaster for WhatCulture Wrestling. With over seven years of experience in wrestling analysis, Michael was published in the influential institution that was Power Slam magazine, and specialises in providing insights into All Elite Wrestling - so much so that he wrote a book about the subject. You can order Becoming All Elite: The Rise Of AEW on Amazon. Possessing a deep knowledge also of WWE, WCW, ECW and New Japan Pro Wrestling, Michael’s work has been publicly praised by former AEW World Champions Kenny Omega and MJF, and current Undisputed WWE Champion Cody Rhodes. When he isn’t putting your finger on why things are the way they are in the endlessly fascinating world of professional wrestling, Michael wraps his own around a hand grinder to explore the world of specialty coffee. Follow Michael on X (formerly known as Twitter) @MSidgwick for more!