Subhojeet Mukherjee on August 31, 2024
During WWE WrestleMania 40 Sunday, Cody Rhodes achieved a major milestone by defeating Roman Reigns to become the Undisputed WWE Champion. This victory was uncertain just months earlier when Rhodes gave up his spot to The Rock. In response to this, Cody Rhodes has spoken out about the controversy regarding his reaction during his segment with The Rock.
After winning the 2024 Men’s Royal Rumble Match, The American Nightmare Cody Rhodes seemed poised to challenge Roman Reigns for the second consecutive year. However, Rhodes surprised many by confronting the leader of The Bloodline and informing him that he would not be his opponent at this year’s Show of Shows and instead gave up his spot to The Rock initially. Obviously, this led to a ton of backlash from fans for good reason.
Brian Gewirtz previously mentioned that Cody Rhodes was expected to show more enthusiasm about relinquishing his spot, but instead appeared downcast, much like how Julius Randle often looks when the New York Knicks are winning, yet he doesn’t show much excitement.
”I will say Cody (Rhodes) is a human being who is genuine and real and he wears his heart and emotions on his sleeve and I will say, in Alabama, certainly, even if you tell me, dude, that will never work. That’s stupid to even propose it. But the idea was supposed to be, again — it’s like a Nixon-Kennedy debate a little bit where it’s like if you read the transcript, you’re like, oh, Nixon kicked his ass. If you watch the actual footage, you go, ah, it was a sweaty, terrible mess. Because Cody, it was supposed to be, in some form, like, yeah! F*ckin’ A! Go get ‘em Rock! You’re gonna get your ass kicked Roman! Let’s do this! And kind of this uplifting promo and instead, he looked like someone shot his dog in the face in the parking lot.
Like you said, just look at his expression and by the way, someone else who even when the team wins, sometimes looks forlorn and upset and despondent, Julius Randle. Hey. So yeah, that, I don’t think helped matters. It might not have changed, it might not have affected anything. But certainly on paper — and by the way, I don’t even blame Cody for that because he’s real, he’s one of the realest people I’ve ever met so yeah, it’s like, he said what he had to say in the promo. But you couldn’t mask what he was really feeling and I think the fans felt that a lot. I think the fans felt like he doesn’t mean a word of this. This is being forced for him to say. He’s despondent. He’s literally doing the Michael Cera-Arrested Development-Charlie Brown walk out of the arena, when he’s supposed to be on cloud nine so, I think that had a lot to do with it and the conversation.”
While speaking to Inside The Ropes, Cody Rhodes addressed Gewirtz’s claim that he should have been more enthusiastic. Rhodes agreed that Brian Gewirtz might be right, saying he was so caught up in the moment that he wasn’t thinking about how he looked on camera. Rhodes explained that the situation felt very real to him, so he didn’t focus on acting or making the right facial expressions.
Rhodes mentioned that all he wanted was to get out of the spotlight as quickly as possible. He wanted to leave so others could have their moment without attention staying on him. He also said he didn’t expect the production team to focus on him so much during that time, which is why his expressions might not have matched the moment.
“He might have a point. He might, only because I didn’t think of myself. The moment was so real—I guess I didn’t think of myself in a performance sense of ‘You’re not smiling or you are smiling,’ and then the Final Boss had whispered something in my ear that was actually really kind and nice, and I did smile.
And then, I think not so much about my face; the thing I remember about it is I wanted to get out of there. I wanted to get out of there. I did want them to have their moment. I wanted to be gone. I didn’t want people to linger on me.”
Rhodes clarified that he wasn’t trying to show any negative emotion, which in wrestling is sometimes called a “boo-boo face.” But he admitted that he might have accidentally shown that kind of expression. Rhodes just wanted to leave quickly, so he avoided the usual backstage route and went straight to his bus to get away from the situation.
“It seems like…I would never shade our production team, especially with what Brian Fadem, and Lee Fitting – everyone is doing. I think they might have spent a little too much time focused on me in the first place—and not focused on that potential matchup. Because, yeah, I don’t think I offered up, Brian probably has a point, I don’t think I offered up the best faces for what that should have been.
I certainly wasn’t trying to be a ‘boo-boo’ face—you know, boo boo is famous in the industry when something’s up and you can tell upon somebody’s entrance. But maybe I was like the number one case of it of all time—who knows?
I did not think they would spend so much time on me. I did not think they would be looking at me while I was in the aisle. I just wanted to get back to my bus. I actually didn’t go through gorilla; I walked around it. I didn’t want to see anybody. I just sprinted and got on my bus and just locked the door.”
Cody Rhodes also revealed his legitimate thoughts while forfeiting his WrestleMania 40 spot to The Rock. Regardless, The American Nightmare is going strong as the Undisputed WWE Champion and that’s all that matters to him.
What’s your opinion on Cody Rhodes’ opinion when it came to his expressions during that infamous segment with The Rock? Should he have been more enthusiastic? Sound off in the comments section below!
Please credit Ringside News if you use the above transcript in your publication.
August 31, 2024 7:14 am
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