The Rock Thanks Cody Rhodes amid Rumors, Backlash to Roman Reigns WrestleMania Tease

Either The Rock has not heard the backlash surrounding his appearance on SmackDown or he's choosing to ignore it.

The Rock took to social media Sunday to thank WWE fans and Cody Rhodes after a weekend filled with controversy, as it seems the 51-year-old will be making a comeback to take on Roman Reigns at WrestleMania—replacing Rhodes in the process.

Make no mistake: Fans have been clamoring for The Rock's return for years. He's one of the most popular figures in WWE history and by far the most successful person to exit the business, turning himself into the highest-paid actor in Hollywood.

His return—and facing Reigns in the main event—is every bit worthy of the WrestleMania marquee.

The way WWE went about booking the match, however, appears to be an abject failure in every sense.

Since Rhodes' shocking return to WWE in 2022, he's been adamant about "finishing the story" started by his father, Dusty, who famously never held the WWE championship. Many expected Cody to defeat Reigns at last year's WrestleMania and were shocked when Reigns pulled off the win.

But WWE kept building Cody's story. The company purposefully kept him away from Seth Rollins' newly created WWE World Heavyweight championship and then booked him to win the 2024 Royal Rumble. When Rhodes won the Rumble, he immediately pointed at Reigns and started jawing at him. When WWE announced the cover athletes for WWE 2K24, Rhodes is right there on the cover, with him "finishing his story" as a main part of the advertising campaign.

It all seemed ready to culminate in Philadelphia in April.

Then The Rock's theme music hit and everything changed. The last 48 hours have been a whirlwind of backlash, with #WeWantCody earning the No. 1 trending spot on X, formerly known as Twitter, fans booing mentions of The Rock at house shows and even some contracted talent getting into the mix.

Mike Johnson of PW Insider reported The Rock lobbied for the match hard behind the scenes and had the backing of TKO management. When someone of The Rock's international fame wants to step in the ring, it's hard to tell him no or to wait. WWE has been essentially begging him to come back for more than a decade, so there probably wasn't much conversation needed.

That said, there were a million ways to properly book this match.

WWE chose the one that made everyone look bad. Rhodes looks weak for handing over his father's dream to The Rock. The Rock looks awful for strong-arming Rhodes. Rollins' championship now looks like a consolation prize. Reigns will almost certainly defeat The Rock and continue a title reign that lost its luster a year ago at this point.

WWE could have had Rhodes defeat Reigns at Royal Rumble, or Elimination Chamber, and set up the "Head of the Table" feud between Reigns and The Rock. While it would have stripped Rhodes of a "WrestleMania moment" of winning the title, they wound up doing that anyway.

There are ways to pivot and maybe everyone is being worked, but for now, this backlash is strong.

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