What to do when the name most associated with your company is accused of being certainly one of historical past’s best monsters, in addition to completely biffing the primary assembly with the media after stated accusations? Nicely, should you’re WWE and billions of {dollars} robust, apparently you name on one of many largest stars on the earth to attempt to wash all of it away. Or possibly The Rock calls his personal quantity? It’s not precisely clear what the precise mechanics of all of it had been, however the finish result’s that The Rock is each sitting on the prime of the corporate and of their largest present as somebody is unquestionably attempting to shift the dialog away from Vince McMahon.
In case you missed it, the laborious information are that on Friday Night time Smackdown, Cody Rhodes – regardless of profitable his second straight Royal Rumble, calling out champion Roman Reigns on that very present and within the days after, and months and months of experiences that the corporate wished to run again Cody vs. Roman for the second straight Mania primary occasion, in addition to centering it amongst each artistic plan WWE had – introduced that he was ceding his spot towards Reigns at Mania to The Rock. The Rock, who isn’t a wrestler anymore, however WWE has hardly ever cared about such trifles.
The experiences and buzz over the weekend have been all around the map. Immediately, Dave Meltzer was saying that the corporate had deliberate on Rock vs. Roman way back to the flip of the 12 months, though Cody had received the Rumble and was making it certainty appear like there can be a repeat of his match with Reigns. Which is…curious. Some stated that Rock, ever since rejoining the corporate on the board, had inserted himself into the Mania card and his personal latchkey into artistic alongside Paul Levesque, aka Triple H. And a few scamps had been pointing to the connection between Jungle Boy making a snide comment into the digital camera on the preshow of All In costing Cody his Mania primary occasion.
What we are able to say is that all of the sudden Johnson is wielding an incredible quantity of energy at WWE, at some extent when the corporate needs folks speaking about something apart from McMahon. Regardless that Rock was standing proper subsequent to McMahon on the NYSE mere hours earlier than the lawsuit towards McMahon grew to become public. Rock’s been away from the corporate lengthy sufficient in an official capability to duck the aftermath of the unique lawsuit, which can be far-reaching, however it could actually’t be argued he’s fully unconnected to McMahon both.
It’s laborious to inform if the smokebomb of The Rock, whereas numerous WWE execs scurry for the door to keep away from extra questions they don’t know the best way to reply about McMahon, will work or even when it has to. WWE’s scores or ticket gross sales had been hardly underneath menace it doesn’t matter what occurs with Janel Grant’s lawsuit or the federal investigation into McMahon. Maybe the presence of The Rock locks that in, as even in as a lot of an uproar followers had been in after The Rock usurped Rhodes’s place they’re nonetheless very a lot going to tune in to see Rock get again in a hoop. In that sense, WWE is simply too massive to fail.
It nonetheless feels as naked-as-can-be of a ploy from WWE, much more so on condition that The Rock’s agent is none apart from Ari Emanuel, who simply occurs to lord over TKO, the corporate shaped by the merger of WWE and UFC. Definitely the Rock’s insertion into the artistic facet of WWE is prepping the bottom ought to numerous these at present within the division be outed as concealing or ignoring McMahon’s alleged evil and disgusting actions, and having The Rock on everybody’s display screen at Mania preps the bottom for that prepping the bottom. Regardless of how nonsensical is, when Reigns and The Rock face one another down within the ring it should really feel like a giant deal (to WWE followers and people who solely tune in for Mania, not less than), and irrespective of what’s going on within the authorized course of on the level in two months, the corporate will feel and look very wholesome. Which it’s anyway, however optics are necessary in occasions like these.
On merely a wrestling scale, it’s totally hilarious. Cody Rhodes has spent the previous few years chasing the large, dumb, empty moments that WWE makes a speciality of, to the purpose the corporate he began (AEW) wasn’t all that curious about maintaining him round as they like sluggish and stable storytelling. When Cody was lastly on the cusp of reaching the last word massive, dumb, empty second underneath the duvet of a fairly flimsy story round his father, WWE merely punted him to the facet in favor of a fair larger, dumber, emptier story of The Rock that doesn’t actually have a figleaf of a storyline. Rhodes was undone by all that he craved, which truly can be a fairly good story in itself. WWE will at all times go for the larger title to draw followers that don’t watch all that always over the desires of their followers that do, as a result of the latter group isn’t going wherever. We had been all harshly reminded of this when they didn’t have Sami Zayn go over Reigns in Montreal, which might have resulted in one of many largest pops within the firm’s historical past, in favor of Rhodes at Wrestlemania, which they didn’t even pull the set off on anyway. WWE is at all times chasing this dragon.
Which is possibly what this complete Rock saga is about. As a substitute of questions from the non-wrestling world about who knew what about McMahon and when and who’s going down with him, the story the corporate will get to place out into that world, for not less than the following short time, is that The Rock has returned. Everybody within the wrestling world is aware of precisely what’s happening right here, however we’re additionally not going wherever. Who is aware of for the way lengthy that may work, however it purchased WWE a pair days not less than.
