Some new details behind why Cody Rhodes shockingly lost at WrestleMania 39 have been revealed and it seems the decision was not one completely made by former WWE boss Vince McMahon.
WrestleMania 40 will go down as arguably the greatest creative and financial success in the storied history of the yearly event. Much of the credit for how well the event did was the fantastic build towards Cody Rhodes again trying to “finish the story.”
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However, that would not have happened if he had not suffered an unexpected loss to Roman Reigns in the main event of WrestleMania 39 the year before. While it all worked out for the company in the end, the decision to have “The American Nightmare” fall to “The Tribal Chief” was met with a huge amount of frustration from WWE fans last year.
Since then, there has been a lot of speculation on why that choice was made, and most assumed Vince McMahon was the driving force. Because he had recently regained control of creative at the time after being away for several months.
Well, “Mr. McMahon” was the person behind the choice to have Rhodes lose, but it was one agreed upon by all the key parties involved, including Paul “Triple H” Levesque.
Cody Rhodes’ WrestleMania 39 loss was also meant to help turn Jey Uso into a breakout star?
“A lot happened behind the scenes, with the key points being argued and eventually agreed by all parties it would be stronger a year later,” Dave Meltzer reported in a new edition of the Wrestling Observer Newsletter. It was also argued that keeping Reigns as champion would open up a key storyline to make Jey Uso into a major singles star and merchandise draw as a babyface.
“While Vince did make the call, Levesque was on board with the call and there were no significant issues with the decision. It was said that it was absolutely not Vince overruling Levesque and forcing the decision.”
As we now know they were right. The rematch was even bigger than the first — with the help of The Rock — and Jey Uso has had a breakout year in 2024. In the end, it may go down as one of the last great decisions made by the WWE founder.
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