4 Ups & 5 Downs From WWE WrestleMania 39 Night 2 (Review)

2. Cody Can’t Finish The Story

Roman Reigns Cody Rhodes
WWE

So after a year-long quest to finish his father’s dream of winning the WWE Championship, a quest that involved a gruesome injury and intensive rehab, winning the Royal Rumble and cutting spellbinding promos… Cody Rhodes became just the latest interchangeable part in Roman Reigns’ formulaic, never-ending title run.

Rhodes banked everything on this return to WWE, and he’d been booked exceptionally well, especially after returning at the Rumble. His promo work made you believe in him, and after Roman had managed to sneak out of Montreal with his title intact, it seemed like the pieces had all fallen into place.

And then Rhodes’ story fell apart.

The shenanigans at the end are the same, tired routine we’ve seen countless times, dating back to the ThunderDome era: ref bump, Bloodline interference, Roman triumphs again.

But the difference here was that WWE was poised to create a John Cena-level superhero in Cody. Having him “finish the story” would have set him up to replace the part-time champ and put WWE on his shoulders 365 days a year. It could have elevated both him and the company.

Now, Cody is just a guy, another victim. Even if he were to walk out on Raw Monday night and challenge Reigns and beat him in 30 seconds, the magic is gone. The moment has passed. WWE pissed it all away.

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Contributor
Contributor

Scott is a former journalist and longtime wrestling fan who was smart enough to abandon WCW during the Monday Night Wars the same time as the Radicalz. He fondly remembers watching WrestleMania III, IV, V and VI and Saturday Night's Main Event, came back to wrestling during the Attitude Era, and has been a consumer of sports entertainment since then. He's written for WhatCulture for more than a decade, establishing the Ups and Downs articles for WWE Raw and WWE PPVs/PLEs and composing pieces on a variety of topics.