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The Rock provides reason why Cody Rhodes initially gave up the WWE Wrestlemania 40 main event spot

Aaron Rift

In a video published to his social media accounts, Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson provided the reason why 2024 Royal Rumble winner Cody Rhodes initially gave up the WWE Wrestlemania 40 main event spot against undisputed WWE Universal champion Roman Reigns. Here is what Rock said…

“The Rock comes back on January 1 of this year. It’s a big year. You know it and The Rock knows it. It’s an exciting year, you can feel it in the air. You can feel the mana. 2024, we’re gonna kick it off the right way. The Rock goes out there in front of that crowd and said exactly what he promised he was gonna say because we had an agreement, and that agreement was, The Rock was gonna go out there, and he was gonna test the waters, and he was gonna see how the crowd reacted. Where should The Rock sit? Should The Rock sit in a booth? Crowd didn’t know where I was going. Should The Rock sit at a bar? Ah, a bigger reaction. Yeah, The Rock loves the bar because The Rock loves to have some tequila. Or should The Rock sit at the head of the table? The crowd that night exploded. around the world exploded. Just as sure as The Rock has chills on his arm, the world exploded. Because they knew after all these years, they were finally getting The Rock versus Roman Reigns. The biggest WrestleMania of all time. What happens? Cody Rhodes, he wins the Royal Rumble. Fair and square, works his ass off, and he wins that Royal Rumble, baby. Yeah. He going to WrestleMania. Yeah, good for him. Good for him. The Rock was happy. But what happened? The Rock called Cody Rhodes, had a conversation, but it was a conversation that a few have had with Cody Rhodes before. Because Cody knew the biggest match of all time was looming. The Rock talked to Cody. ‘You know you love this business, The Rock loves this business. You were born into this business, The Rock was born into this business. Roman Reigns was born into this business. The three of us, born into this business. You know, Cody, you got the biggest WrestleMania main event of all time right here. You have an opportunity to bring this business up to places it’s never been before. You can always, with all due respect, finish your story another time.’ You agreed. You agreed. ‘Rock, it stings, but I agree. It stings, but I’m a team player. It stings, but I want what’s best for the business.’ Good man. Good man.”

“Then what happened? Birmingham, Alabama. A city we selected because of its rich history and we knew we were gonna make history. It was to it job, Cody, to introduce The Rock, thus setting up the biggest main event of all time. What’d you do? You did exactly what we agreed on. Brother, you introduced The Rock, and that place went crazy. The Rock came out, and he dapped you up, he pulled you in and gave a big hug. I whispered something in your ear. ‘Let’s put on the biggest WrestleMania of all time. Let’s do it for ‘The American Dream’. Let’s do it for ‘The Soul Man.’ I gave you a hug, you hugged The Rock back. What’d you do, Cody? You walked out of that ring on live TV. You turned back and you looked at The Rock. Instead of looking at The Rock and saying, ‘Yeah, go get him! Let’s make history.’ Instead of that, you gave The Rock a look, and ya the same look you gave the world, like The Rock went out and ran over your goofy-ass dog. That’s the look you gave. Then sometime from that moment on, until Las Vegas, you changed your mind. You know what? That’s no problem. You can change your mind. You have that right, and The Rock accepts that. Everybody has a right to change their mind. The Rock accepts you changed your mind. But here’s what The Rock doesn’t accept, is how you did it. To all the Cody crybabies and all the goofs out there and the idiots who still complain, Cody, you had a right to change your mind, you won the Royal Rumble. But what The Rock doesn’t accept is how you did it.” (quotes courtesy of Colin Tessier)

Rock’s full 21-minute video can be seen below…