6 Ups & 4 Downs From WWE Elimination Chamber 2024

5. Cody Cuts Into Rock’s Veneer

While the actual “news” coming out of the Grayson Waller Effect interview was disappointing, Cody Rhodes deserves some credit for doing something very few get to do in today’s wrestling landscape: cut a legend like The Rock down by attacking the very foundation of what makes him popular.

When John Cena feuded with Rock, he traded verbal jabs and bad-mouthed him. But Cody went a different tact Saturday night, calling himself a fan of Rocky… before shredding the Great One’s entire persona and shtick. Cody noted that if Rock were in Perth, he would call Rhodes a “candy something,” says something about “rudy poo” and then talk about “pie.” He also took a swipe at Rock's self-appointed title as the People's Champion.

In one fell swoop, Cody disintegrated Rock’s decades-old routine that he’s been relying on for… well, decades. That routine has long since been outdated, but no one has really called it out as such in the way Cody did.

Of course, this opens the door for Rock to (hopefully) shed that material and use his superior verbal skills to unleash new patter. After all, Brian Gewirtz is there to help guide Rock’s ship to WrestleMania – might as well earn his pay and update the material for 2024.

Advertisement
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.