WWE must ‘Finish the Story’

The last 48 hours in the world of wrestling have been a fever dream. Social media has seen large-scale outrage from fans, with a minority expressing excitement over all the revelations from Friday's episode of Smackdown.

For those unfamiliar with wrestling, we are currently in Wrestlemania season, just 62 days away from the biggest annual show in the industry -- which normally marks the conclusion of the current wrestling season.

The Road to Wrestlemania, as it is often called, kicks off with the Royal Rumble, which took place on January 28 (Bangladesh time). At the rumble, two winners are crowned -- one from the men's division and the other from the women's side -- who get an opportunity to main event Wrestlemania (WM).

Usually, the men's winner is given the honour of closing out WM. This year's winner, Cody Rhodes, seemed destined to do so. He had an ongoing rivalry with the company's poster boy, Roman Reigns for over a year now.

For most fans, this Friday's Smackdown was supposed to be about Cody challenging Roman, so that they could have a rematch of their WM match from last year, where the latter cheated Cody out of a win.

However, fans were shocked to see Cody announce that while he wanted to take everything from Roman, it would not be at WM. Immediately, we saw the return of Dwayne The Rock Johnson. Cody then shook hands with The Rock and proceeded to leave him and Roman in the ring together, walking away with a sad expression on his face. Following this, the show closed out without any words shared between The Rock and Roman, only an advertisement for a WM press conference scheduled for this Thursday in Los Angeles.

Immediately, social media was hit with a storm of people unhappy over what they had just witnessed. Twitter, Instagram and YouTube was flooded with posts and videos in support of Cody Rhodes, demanding that he be the one to challenge Roman at WM.

Amidst all the confusion, Fightful -- one of the more reputed wrestling media outlets -- shared reports that while Cody vs Roman was the original plans for WM, the insertion of The Rock came following the recent horrific lawsuit against former chairman of the board Vincent McMahon and a few injuries.

Parts of the report also noted that The Rock's appointment to the board of directors helped fuel this new storyline, giving the former wrestler turned actor enough political power within the company to push for the move.

Now, normally, no one would have a problem with The Rock returning for a match. From a storyline angle, Roman Reigns and The Rock being from legendary Samoan families, along with the fact that they are distant cousins, makes this a match fans had been clamouring to see for quite some time.

However, despite this, fans were outraged due to the disrespect shown towards Cody Rhodes and the lack of story cohesion involved. Many X users, formerly known as Twitter, voiced their frustration that a part-timer like The Rock could show up and decimate a storyline that had been organically building for the last two years.

Cody's story revolves around two main things. The belt/title that Roman Reigns holds is one that his father, legendary wrestler Dusty Rhodes, never held. Despite winning a match against a champion on a technicality, Dusty Rhodes only held the belt for a brief moment at Madison Square Garden, before it was taken away from him. The other part fueling his story with Roman is the fact that he cheated Cody out of a win at last year's mania.

The internet, it seems, prefers Cody's story to the one involving The Rock. Bangladeshi fans from Wrestling Foundation and Wrestling Universe -- two of Bangladesh's biggest wrestling communities on Facebook -- shared similar opinions.

Some users pointed out that Cody should not have been given the victory at the Royal Rumble if the plan was to switch to The Rock. Others said that someone like The Rock, who has not had a match in 10 years and will probably not wrestle another one following his bout with Roman, should not be taking away opportunities from a star like Cody who has been carrying the company on his back week in, week out.

And Bangladeshi fans are not the only ones unhappy. #WeWantCody has been trending on X for almost 10 hours now. The video segment between The Rock and Roman has already become WWE's most disliked YouTube video with over 400,000 dislikes. Outlets like USA Today Sports and TMZ have also begun reporting the outrage from fans.

As a wrestling fan, it is an interesting time to be alive. Following the immediate disappointment, we are now seeing a spark of hope as the internet is hellbent on letting everyone at WWE know how unhappy they are with this decision.

Interestingly, this year marks the 10th anniversary of WM 30. At that event, fans had voiced their unhappiness with the main event match so much that WWE had been forced to incorporate changes into their storyline and insert Daniel Bryan into the main event.

A similar movement seems to be underway for Cody Rhodes.

While no official announcements have been made for Rock vs Roman at WM, it will likely be revealed at the upcoming press conference on Thursday. However, the momentum behind Cody Rhodes only seems to be on the rise.

As a fan of wrestling myself, I believe that we do not need The Rock at WM. He can come have his match with Roman at any other pay-per-view. If all of these last minute plans are all to distract from the horrible lawsuit against Vince McMahon, then why are we choosing to chase the embers of nostalgia from an era where Vince was probably involved in the segment right after The Rock's?

If WWE really wants to move forward, not just for themselves but for wrestling fans who deserve better, then the only logical move should be to back the superstar who has worked tirelessly over the last two years to take this company to the next level. And that person is Cody Rhodes.

It's time, as Cody loves to put it, "Finish the story."