When Cody Rhodes reportedly found out that WWE was changing his Wrestlemania 40 plans

As seen during the February 2nd 2024 edition of WWE Smackdown, Cody Rhodes seemingly stepped aside for Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson to face Roman Reigns at WWE Wrestlemania 40. Despite this, Cody ended up choosing Reigns as his opponent for Wrestlemania at the Kickoff event.

Rock’s deal with WWE/TKO that was made in early January reportedly included a match against Reigns. According to Dave Meltzer of F4WOnline.com, Cody wasn’t told until the day of the Royal Rumble PLE that WWE was planning to have Rock vs. Reigns at Wrestlemania even though Cody was booked to win the Rumble match.

Meltzer noted the following about what else Cody was told…

“He [Cody] was also told that they would be going to Reigns against him later so all the post-match stuff [at the end of the Rumble] building that match wasn’t there to swerve people as much a build a later match. But the fact it was not going to be Reigns vs. Rhodes was keep secret from almost everyone (obviously a few knew) because Rock wanted the angle the next Friday a surprise.”

Meltzer added that even fewer people knew about the injury angle with Cody and The Bloodline that Paul “Triple H” Levesque had reportedly proposed.