Video: John Cena Vows to Beat Cody Rhodes for 17th Title at WWE WrestleMania 41Ā
John Cena and Cody Rhodes kicked off Raw for the second consecutive week, with Cena vowing to win his record-breaking 17th championship at WrestleMania 41.
Coming out to open the show in Scotland, Cena promised to "ruin wrestling" by not only walking out of WrestleMania as champion, but also ending his farewell tour in 2025 by taking the title with him and forcing WWE to create a "brand new toy" one.
Rhodes finally came out and laid down the undisputed WWE championship in the middle of the ring, telling Cena to take it from him. After briefly teasing a brawl, Cena walked away to a chorus of boos before Rhodes said Cena would walk away from WrestleMania empty-handed.
Cena even invoked Ric Flair's name during his promo to remind the fans he's looking to pass his record of 16 championship reigns.
This segment wasn't too different from what Cena and Rhodes did last week. Cena berated the crowd for having sad lives, calling them an experiment over the past 25 years that he used to learn what he could about them at any given moment.
One thing that has been missing from the promos so far is why exactly Cena aligned with The Rock at Elimination Chamber to kick off this entire angle. The Great One could return at some point in the build to the match to give an explanation for why that part happened, but there's no indication at this point when that might happen.
Another aspect of Cena's promo that could be a tease for later in the year is he talked about taking the title "home" when he retires. This line was similar to what CM Punk said he was going to do in the build-up to their match at Money in the Bank in 2011.
If Cena ends up beating Rhodes at WrestleMania, it wouldn't be a surprise if Punk ends up getting a title shot at some point. SummerSlam is a two-night event for the first time ever at MetLife Stadium, so they need a big main event to headline the show.
There is still a lot more left to continue building out the story between Rhodes and Cena before they clash at WrestleMania. There are still three episodes of Raw and four episodes of Friday Night SmackDown before the biggest event of the year on April 19-20.
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