John Cena beat Cody Rhodes at WrestleMania 41 Sunday. (Rich Freeda/WWE via Getty Images)
(WWE via Getty Images)
When you make predictions about professional wrestling, it’s inevitable that some will land. Watching John Cena beat Cody Rhodes to close out WrestleMania 41, I suddenly remembered something I’d penned back in December, when asked to come up with some outlandish predictions for the new year.
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“Cody Rhodes drops the belt” was something I’d added to the list, almost as an afterthought. Given the outcome seemed so unlikely, I added a caveat to follow: “That isn’t to say that Rhodes wouldn’t win the belt back afterward. But a shock defeat to a decent heel … would be a massive creative gambit that would likely pay off.”
A massive gambit indeed. Here we are one year after Cody Rhodes’ spectacular triumph in Philadelphia, and “The American Nightmare” has fallen at the feet of John Cena — the WWE’s first 17-time world champion and still the most powerful heel in the global pro-wrestling landscape.
In the end, the big twist was slightly undermined by another gambit — namely, the inexplicable decision to have Travis Scott, the chart-topping rapper, stand in for The Rock as WWE’s ultimate “big bad.” Having Scott involved at Elimination Chamber was understandable, but to have him serve as the turning point of the ‘Mania match? The flat response from Sunday’s crowd told you all you needed to know about that.
Still, there was no denying it was some kind of moment, as Cena made good on weeks of threats to steal the most important prize in wrestling. Just because the challenger entered the ring as a heavy favorite, we shouldn’t lose sight of what an audacious play this was (even if most of the money stuff happened in Elimination Chamber, rather than WrestleMania).
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Will Rhodes get the belt back? Observant viewers won’t have missed how heavily the WWE protected “The American Nightmare” during the match, having him kick out of a bombardment of Attitude Adjustments — including one top-rope maneuver — as well as robbing him of his own three-count during a ref bump.
Put everything together and you had a clear narrative: John Cena can’t beat Cody Rhodes in a clean match. Presumably WWE can now spend the next six months playing on that tension, as the former champion embarks on a moral quest to overturn that injustice, facing some extra hurdles on the way.
If that’s the case, we should give another hat tip to friend of Uncrowned Marc Raimondi, who argued that the currency of the babyface is in the chase. In other words, the best thing to do with Cody Rhodes is to take the belt off him and make him fight to restore his rightful place — at least in his eyes — in the wrestling universe.
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And what of the champ himself? During the run-up to WrestleMania 41, I complained that Cena’s promo segments were weaker than they should have been. But those pot shots at the fans will work much better now that Cena is holding up the biggest prize in wrestling — and there’s not a thing those poor marks can do about it.
Having a heel champion also gives WWE the chance to build up more babyfaces, as they did so successfully during the Roman Reigns era. Deep down we’ll know they don’t stand an ounce of a chance against the dark lord, but it won’t stop us rooting for them — just as we did for Sami Zayn, when he faced the impossible task of dethroning Reigns in Montreal.
Similarly, Cena as champion breathes new life into things like Money in the Bank. Just imagine the scene when a fan-favorite like LA Knight wins the briefcase in July and pulls off a successful offensive on Cena — only to find himself screwed out of glory by another dirty trick (hopefully not one involving Travis Scott this time).
There are still some things that need to be fixed, with the absence of The Rock being top of the list. After weeks of hardly being mentioned by Cena and Rhodes, a no-show from “The Final Boss” was yet another disappointment, which took much of the shine off an otherwise successful Night Two.
In the meantime, though, let’s take a moment to savor the moment: John Cena is now the most decorated man in WWE history. Sure, he got there via one of the most underwhelming main events in recent years, but that doesn’t alter the bigger picture: The heel champion has arrived — and everything changes from here.
