Oh My God, Roman Reigns Just Beat Cody Rhodes In The Main Event Of WrestleMania

After plenty of Bloodline interference, a Solo Sikoa spike to the throat, and a devastating spear in the center of the ring, Roman Reigns just beat Cody Rhodes in the main event of WrestleMania 39 from Hollywood.

I thought Snoop Dogg's impromptu People's Elbow left me speechless before, but this truly put my jaw on the floor. I'm shocked. Shook to my core. Is Vince back on booking duty?! What the fuck happened there?! 

All the signs were pointing to Cody finally walking out of Los Angeles the WWE World Champ tonight! WrestleMania 39 was practically subtitled: 'The Fall of the Bloodline' in all of our minds! They literally finished half the story last night with Kevin Owens and Sami Zayn taking the tag team titles from The Usos! How did Mania just fade to black with Roman Reigns hoisting the titles over his head for the third year in a row?! I'm STILL waiting for someone to come out and restart the match!

Now, I know there's some miserable pricks out there who are constantly befuddled by the fact that adults get joy out of wrestling that are thinking, "Why are you shocked that the writers chose one wrestler to win over another? It's fake." - I'll tell you why!

Roman Reigns has been WWE Champion for 939 days now. It's the longest title reign of the modern era by a longshot. He's beaten countless wrestlers built up as a challengers for years now, some of them two or three times over, and is booked/written as the strongest "FINAL BOSS" you could imagine. 

While this has been pretty awesome with Roman CRUSHING it in that role (and it's been especially great the past few months) - it's also getting a BIT stale, and a lot of us are getting ready for it to come to an end. There's a problem that now arises, however! 

When you build someone up as much as they've built up Roman, you need to find a believable challenger to overcome this monster. Someone we could buy into taking down Reigns if we extended our disbelief and marked out a bit. Fans have debated for years who this could be, and for a long time, there wasn't a popular consensus answer! Many thought it could've been Sami Zayn himself, as recently as last month, but when they didn't go with him in his hometown, that dream was over.

Enter: Cody Rhodes. Ever since his return at WrestleMania last year, it has seemed like all roads (pun intended) would lead to HIM being the "chosen one" to take down Roman Reigns and the Bloodline. Nobody is as over with kids, nobody represents the company like him, nobody sells merch like he does right now, and nobody else (other than Reigns) has been written to look as strong as him.

I mean - Rhodes didn't lose a single match since his return until tonight! That includes the 30-man Royal Rumble and a match he wrestled with his pec hanging off the bone! He beat Seth Rollins at 3 pay-per-views in a row last year! The WWE CLEARLY wanted to make Cody look like the guy to beat the guy, strapped a rocket to his ass, and pushed him to the moon! They made us all believe!

Then, the way this whole WrestleMania story revolved around Cody winning the title his father never won, and got so personal - paired with the Bloodline starting the crumble....I don't know. I just thought it was time. It felt like it should've been time. 

I haven't heard a crowd so into the WWE Championship match in the main event of WrestleMania in YEARS. The match itself was tremendous, the audience was losing it at every false finish, and they ALL wanted to see Cody win that title SOOOOO bad. When he didn't - it was like all of the air was sucked outta LA in an instant. 

Advertisement

I don't even know if it was heel heat or just general deflation that I heard. It was like if Batista won in the main event of WrestleMania 30, or if the "Boyhood Dream" didn't come true at WrestleMania 12. It's a bummer.

Of course, we'll have to "wait and see how this plays out" (wrestling fans' favorite thing to say) over the next few weeks/months, and I suppose it'll just make the eventual title win feel better and more "earned" - but it's not the result I would've gone with tonight. Not at this particular WrestleMania. 

I would've had Cody go over strong at the end, breaking Roman's streak, and I'd have ended the night with a shot of Kevin Owens and Sami Zayn hoisting Cody on their shoulders like Bret Hart at WrestleMania X. That's just me, though - and I am a complete and total mark so what do I know? 

Luckily, Roman is still awesome as champ. It ain't like we're stuck with the 2015 version of Reigns anymore. 

Quick thoughts on the rest of the card before I fall asleep….

-Brock Lesnar and Omos put on the perfect opener, and actually outperformed Cena/Theory on Night 1 in my opinion. Omos tossed Brock around like a baby for a bit until Brock got the upper hand, and then he picked Omos up and F5'd him. It didn't even last five minutes - but they got more outta less here! Five stars.

-The WrestleMania tag team showcase was NOT as good as it was last night, unfortunately - Liv Morgan and Raquel Rodriguez stood out with a few great spots, though, and should have a bigger spot on next year's card. Also, I'm over the Ronda Rousey experiment. She didn't need this win.

-Gunther vs Sheamus vs McIntyre was absolutely incredible and lived up to/surpassed all the hype around it. These guys beat the fuck out of each other's chests. It was crazy. I loved every second. Seven and a quarter stars.

-Bianca Belair and Asuka tore the house down, just as we all thought they would. I don't know how they managed to follow up that Intercontinental Championship triple threat, but they did, and had the crowd with em every step of the way. I said it before, I'll say it again - Bianca is turning into "Mrs. WrestleMania". Six and a half stars.

-Edge vs Demon Bálor in the Cell was a weird one! Bálor got busted open by a ladder early on, and they had to stop the match for a while to tend to it which killed the crowd. Eventually they got on with it and got the crowd back, but it never felt like this match kicked into high gear. Plus, the Demon lost and the weapons were all painted red and purple which were all weird choices.

-Snoop Dogg's audible ruled and I'll never forget it - induct him BACK into the WWE Hall of Fame for that.

Overall, I thought Night 1 was a much better show, but the highs of Night 2 (like the Intercontinental Championship match and the Doggy's Elbow) definitely made up for what some of the results lacked. WrestleMania 39 as a whole should be looked back on very fondly in the next few years, but I can't help but think we'll all be wishing they pulled the trigger on Cody Rhodes in the main event here. I guess time will tell. Prove me wrong, Triple H!

Monday Night RAW should be VERRRRY interesting tomorrow. Dare I say: the WWE is back?