Hi guys,
I’m a fellow subscriber to this excellent website. I was writing John, and it evolved (or devolved) from being a note to him into becoming an op-ed. I think from what he was saying it may fit in a place like here? I’m not sure what to do with it.
I was an editor for WOW Magazine and IGN Wrestling in a past life. Lord knows if I was any good though. It was so long ago that I genuinely don’t remember.
I’m happy with this, though, for anyone interested.
Thanks,
Blake Norton
…
I have the impression that the unfolding political dynamic between Daywne Johnson and Cody Rhodes may not be immediately obvious to the wider public yet. I’m curious if that’s going to change. I want it to.
When Johnson killed his program with Cody on Raw by abruptly speaking of him in that jarringly respectful manner, it obviously had a much deeper impact than to simply communicate that their program is over. It communicated that their program is whatever Rock wants it to be; that Cody has no agency in the situation. And that’s a serious narrative problem.
The problem isn’t that the Rock character had a change of heart. The problem is, of course, that after legitimately attempting to take Cody’s Wrestlemania spot in real life, and then in storyline, threatening his mother and trashing Cody’s family right down to his dog, the moment Dwayne Johnson decided Cody isn’t his target, Cody immediately responded by laughing it up and hugging him like nothing ever happened.
In modern parlance, I believe this is called being a “cuck.”
I think this unfolding story is reflected in the formatting of this seminal Netflix debut broadcast; Roman Reigns went over in a top billed match. “The Rock” was presented as the first star on the show and given a solo in-ring promo segment. And Cody - the WWE champion - was filmed sitting in the audience.
These things matter.
For the second year in a row now, Johnson has deftly marginalized the company’s top full-time babyface. Johnson hasn’t simply arrived to do his own schtick and run the natural but understandable risk of outshining Cody with his raw talent. He’s actively taken aim at Cody’s position and operated with, at the absolute minimum, a complete lack of care for how it impacts Cody’s career or the company’s relationship with its fans. It’s very difficult not to see it as intentional, especially when Johnson is ostensibly putting Rhodes over with his mic work - making himself seem magnanimous to the politically uninitiated - while truly burying him with the optics of their interactions and the resulting damage to Rhodes’ on-screen character.
Last year, the broader audience understood enough to see that there was a game being played. The sheer audacity of cutting off Cody’s two year title chase in such a ham fisted manner that Cody himself was assigned the task of convincing the audience that it would be better if The Rock was abruptly given his Wrestlemania program made it clear that we were watching a political coup unfold.
I’m not certain that people are going to spot this a second year in a row. Particularly as Johnson, who is now 1-0 against Cody after last year’s cluster, does not appear to even be wrestling at Wrestlemania this year. There is no direct 1-1 choice for the audience to make between babyface Rock and babyface Cody in the ring. Johnson’s manoevering has been more subversive this time around. It may indeed be more effective than last time in neutering Cody’s credibility with the audience.
In Cody’s current feud with Kevin Owens, Owens’ heel conceit is the accusation that Cody is insincere and unprincipled. He bases this charge on the fact that Roman Reigns and The Bloodline abused him terribly, and yet Cody was eager to not only drop the issue, but even aid Reigns, the moment it suited Reigns to move on from the situation.
Owens’ characterisation becomes multiplied now, as the Cody Rhodes character for the second time has demonstrated this same lack of self respect by dancing to whatever beat Johnson’s “Rock” character wants to play. As recently as Rock’s last appearance with WWE in October, he was upstaging Cody’s main event performance to close the show, where he committed to continuing his bullying of Cody into the new year. The next step in that story is clearly not Cody responding by laughing and hugging because The Rock decided not to bother seeing through his threat to take his championship.
When I read the headline that Johnson addressed the storyline issues from Monday’s Raw on NXT the following night, I assumed that there was enough feedback pointing out how damaging this sudden unexplained pivot away from the feud was, and that there was some reasonable attempt to address it in a way that rehabilitated Cody’s burgeoning image as a lightweight “little brother” character. Instead, obviously, Johnson doubled down on the perception that it’s his choice alone as to whether the two characters are best friends or bitter rivals. In keeping with his other behaviors, Johnson also verbally claimed to be a person supportive of the NXT roster, while demonstrating a powerful lack of respect for the NXT product by not even taking the time to memorize the names of the wrestlers or the nature of the angles he was supposed to be referencing in his backstage segment with his daughter Ava and Ethan Page. While articulating the platitude that NXT is important, Johnson simultaneously demonstrated that to him it is far from it. He’s a professional actor. He’s capable of at least pretending to watch the product if he has the sincere intention to.
As demonstrated by his rampant use of profanity and extended improvised promo segments that seemed to often throw the rest of the show and its performers into disarray, it’s not a revelation to observe that there are two sets of rules in WWE. One for Dwayne Johnson, and one for every other performer. And that Johnson’s interests, despite his public facing comments, all ultimately come down to the betterment of one performer and one performer only.
Last year’s Wrestlemania narrative became heightened due to Johnson’s involvement in large part due to the company as a whole pulling a Homer. But it wasn’t for lack of intending to fail; the intended “story,” if it played out as planned, could have easily fatally fractured the integrity of the Cody Rhodes character, and the story that was the heartbeat of fan investment in the product during that time. If Sami Zayn losing in Montreal in 2023 was a warning shot that the audience’s fideltiy to the product is not to be taken for granted, I’m not sure how well the relationship would have weathered the original plan for Rhodes to cheerfully give up the Wrestlemania spot he had only weeks earlier passionately rallied their audience into investing in as his life’s American dream.
The audience seems to have largely overlooked the rocky road to last year’s Wrestlemania. Just as they have continued to overlook that Rhodes’ top challengers since winning the title have been largely upper mid card names, some on the far side of their career’s hill like AJ Styles and Kevin Owens. On other occasions he’s acting as an understudy in Roman Reigns’ feud against Solo Sikoa.
The fans have overlooked a great deal when it comes to the distance between what they want Cody Rhodes to be and what the company is actually presenting him as.
I’m concerned that the fans’ persistence can only last so long. And that the political realities that, in a twist of chance, made Wrestlemnia 40 so exciting, will ultimately condemn Cody Rhodes to being not this generation’s equivolent of Hogan, Austin or even a Daniel Bryan, but definitively a 1B character. One whom wins matches, yes; after The Undertaker runs in on his behalf at Wrestlemania, or Roman Reigns runs in on his behalf at Summerslam, or he’s simply beating an upper mid card performer on the shows that Roman Reigns or Dwayne Johnson aren’t working.
I believe Cody Rhodes could be more effective than he is currently allowed to be. It’s an imperfect anology, but perhaps an effective one, to say that if Rhodes was made the top guy in 1984, he would not be booked to have his equiovlent of Bob Backlund or Bruno Sammartino “little brother” him until the fans come to see him as less than the real deal to get behind.
If our current trajectory continues, I’m not certain we’re going to see the potential that Rhodes has to contribute to the success of WWE. Not due to talent, but as is so often the case, due to politics. Politics that have the potential to do real and lasting damage to the motivation of the locker room performers down the card and their faith in management’s intentions to go with the horse that runs, rather than the horse that owns the most stock.
Edited by Chris Sabga
This was a great read. You’ve got a lot of folks happy to read your future posts, Blake!