Cody Rhodes Found Out About the Changes to His WWE WrestleMania 40 Plans on Royal Rumble Day

To Cody Rhodes fans, it’s been an emotional rollercoaster of emotions over the past month. Rhodes has announced that he will be battling Roman Reigns for the Undisputed WWE Universal Title at WrestleMania 40. It was a rumor that was anticipated on the night of the Royal Rumble, where he was awarded the title. The match will be a repeat of WrestleMania 39, in which Rhodes was unable to beat Reigns.

But, the match was in uncertainty because there was a widespread belief that WWE will reveal The Rock vs. Reigns during the event, instead. This was following The Rock heavily pushed to fight for the title to keep the WrestleMania event. It seems like WWE is preparing for an Rhodes & World Heavyweight Champion Seth Rollins vs. Reigns and Rock tag team match during the event and. The fan’s reaction to the match resulted in Rock to reconsider his decision regarding accepting Rhodes the’seat.

In the newest issue of the Wrestling Observer Newsletter, Dave Meltzer stated that Rhodes was told that he was going up against Reigns in the fall and was not informed of Rock being selected for the match. The deal was that was agreed on on the 3rd of January and not revealed up to a few days later.

Meltzer remarked, “Any interview he did regarding the ending of this story in advance of the Rumble was to suggest he was there even with the Rock reports out.”

Rhodes was informed on the day of the Rumble that Rock was to take on Reigns despite his plans for Rhodes to be the winner of this Rumble in the first place. Rhodes was “also informed that they would be taking on Reigns against him in the future, which means that all the post-match preparations for the match was not there to deter people from participating in as it was to build for a later match.”

CM Punk was scheduled to be the winner of in the Elimination Chamber match to earn the title shot against Rollins however, the match was not possible due to injuries. Certain people within WWE knew about changes to plans prior Rhodes made the announcement, but it was not revealed until WrestleMania press conference.

WWE was in discussions in December with Rock in December over a return.