WWE experienced tremendous success in the first half of 2024 for a variety of reasons, including The Bloodline’s continued dominance, Cody Rhodes’ rise in popularity, and The Rock’s return.
It was capped off by Rock teaming with Roman Reigns against Cody Rhodes and Seth Rollins at WrestleMania XL, with the heels winning. The following night, Rhodes exacted his revenge by defeating Reigns for the Undisputed WWE Universal Title.
While speaking on Wrestling Observer Radio, Dave Meltzer mentioned that there was a lot going on behind the scenes with the event and the key players.
“There is a lot of stuff behind the scenes with Rock that I didn’t realize, you know, as far as the whole thing. It’s really pretty obvious to me that there were a lot of games being played earlier this year when it came to the WrestleMania thing. I mean, it’s like Cody Rhodes winning the Royal Rumble was definitely done to….. there’s definitely people who did not want Roman Reigns in The Rock match. And it was a lot of manipulation going on, that a lot of people aren’t aware of. I mean, it seemed too convenient to me. But it really was; there’s a lot of reasons for it to just kind of, not I wouldn’t even call it power plays, just very interesting games being played on both sides with just people who were, it was actually funny because, you know, Roman Reigns and Rock are cousins and everything. And, you know, there were a lot of people who wanted Cody Rhodes to get that spot before the fan thing happened and didn’t want The Rock to get that spot. But The Rock was going to get that spot and let’s see, volunteered not to have it. Because, you know, he’s gonna get what he wants, just like in some ways, it’s good. In some ways, it’s bad. I mean, there’s obviously a lot of people who were resentful, no one can say anything bad about him publicly. But that, you know, there are people who were very resentful of him going like, I came back in wrestling school after, you know, WWE had, you know, a tremendous year. And, you know, the idea that he’s kind of trying to take credit for this resurgence that happened a year before he came back.”
Meltzer continued, “No, there are even people who were very negative on him readily admit that when he came in, it made, it made the brand more popular that he drove TV ratings to a great degree. He helped drive this WrestleMania to be the biggest today. WrestleMania there’s been I mean, there were definitely people who took what’s the word I’m looking for? who were happy that Sunday outgrew Saturday when it came to viewers. But you know, at the same time, I mean, Sunday was the climax. The idea that the match with The Rock and his return did not outdraw Roman Reigns and Cody Rhodes, but you can also make the argument that everyone knew that the Rock was going to be in that match too involved in that match, too. The match ended up being, you know, Sunday, which was the bigger day than Saturday.”
(h/t to WrestlingNews.co for the transcription)
