5 Ups & 5 Downs From WWE Raw (31 Mar - Results & Review)

2. Cody Jumps Cena… On The Mic

When Raw opened with John Cena making his way to the ring for the third consecutive week, it was hard not to audibly groan. After all, Cena’s first two promos were barely passable, and that’s being generous.

Monday, Cody Rhodes hit the ring before Cena could speak. He dissed himself, ala Eminem in “8 Mile” before challenging Cena to explain why he sold out. Before Cena even had said a word, Rhodes at least had changed the formula this week.

Stripping away all the unnecessary prose, there were some decent nuggets in the exchange between the two WrestleMania opponents. Cena still viewing Cody as “my chauffeur” and “an errand boy who got lucky” was a great touch, personalizing a lot of the criticisms he leveled at Rhodes. It gave a bit of depth and meaning that otherwise wouldn’t have been there, while connecting the two in a way that most fans likely didn’t realize.

Your mileage might vary regarding Cody’s barely veiled reference to Vince McMahon. If you like that sort of semi-taboo comment, then you popped. If it just annoys you as a lazy shortcut, then you groaned. But when Rhodes turned his attention to Cena as a company creation, that’s when things got a bit spicier. He intimated that Cena turned off enough fans during his heyday to make it possible for Cody to leave WWE and start AEW. And he reminded fans that Cena sold out to The Rock.

Cena got one more one-liner that likely divided fans, as he declared that he makes money for billionaires, while Cody stole money from their kids.

All told, this was the best exchange of the three, and it was the only one that featured a physical confrontation, with Cody ducking a punch and delivering a Cross-Rhodes. Better, but still not something that screams, “must-see WrestleMania main event.”