Cody Rhodes announced on Thursday’s WWE WrestleMania 40 Kickoff event that he will challenge Roman Reigns for the Undisputed WWE Universal Title at WrestleMania 40.
It was expected that WWE would announce The Rock vs. Reigns at the event, which is still scheduled, while Rhodes was expected to face World Heavyweight Champion Seth Rollins.
Rock vs. Reigns was planned in secret last month when Dwayne Johnson was appointed to the TKO Board of Directors, and it was part of the deal as Johnson had strongly pushed for the match to take place, despite Rhodes saying for the past year that he wanted to finish his story.
Rollins spoke with FOX News about the situation.
“It’s just what happens when powerful people exert their power,” Rollins said. “They just think they do whatever they want and get away with it, and that sucks. It just sucks. I don’t know any other way to put it. I guess it (resulted) in Cody getting what he wanted. We’ll figure out what’s next for the World Heavyweight title. But Cody said it best. It’s bulls—-. It feels pretty gross to me.”
Rollins mentioned trying to sell Rhodes on the idea of facing him because he believes in the World Title and its potential for growth. He does not blame him for wanting to complete his story.
“I sold Cody on this title because I believe in this title and I do think because of Roman Reigns’ lack of independence, for lack of a better term, that this title is more prestigious and means more,” he said. “Especially, going forward, if Roman Reigns keeps his title, this one is only going to get bigger. But I understand where he’s coming from. I never faulted him for wanting to finish the story – it meant so much to him. I understand why he made the decision, and it is what it is and that’s his prerogative as the winner of the Royal Rumble. I don’t know why those idiots thought that was their decision to make.”
Rollins stated that CM Punk faced the same issue with The Rock in 2013, when he returned and won the WWE Championship at the Royal Rumble before co-headlining WrestleMania with John Cena. He had headlined Mania with Cena the previous year.
“The last time he came around, I don’t like (CM) Punk but he did the same thing to Punk, kinda came in and took his main event and did it two years in a row with some very not-so-memorable matches with John Cena. But yeah, now coming back, on the board of directors, like I said man, it feels like gross. I don’t like it. I feel like we gotta do something about it. Just don’t know what that next step is going to be.”
