MR. TITO: Cody Rhodes Losing to Roman Reigns = GREAT Decision at Wrestlemania 39 + WWE Sells to Endeavor
First of all wrestling fans, RELAX… The WWE, in its final Wrestlemania before being sold to Endeavor that forever changes the WWE brand that you’ve enjoyed for decades, just CRUSHED IT at Wrestlemania 39. I was a naysayer of the card beforehand, but I tuned in for Night #2 after hearing great things about Night #1 and I was blown away. By far, the BEST 2-Night Wrestlemania and easily a top 10 or top 15 Wrestlemania of all time, if not within top 5. Seriously, there were at least 4 matches that pushed 5 stars on these shows along with a few side matches that pushed near 4 stars.
But your complaint today is that Cody Rhodes didn’t win the WWE World Titles.
So tell me this… After Cody Rhodes vanquished Roman Reigns to win last night, who would have have faced? You could argue Gunther, but he has more story to tell as IC Champion… After that, it’s the same old faces with McIntyre, Lashley, Lesnar, etc. that for YEARS upon YEARS, YOU, the Internet Wrestling Community have been complaining about. Instead, Cody Rhodes can legitimately keep chasing the WWE World Titles and Roman. Why? He was TOTALLY SCREWED out of that match last night, as Cody was about to possibly win but Solo interfered. Now, we get an entire Spring and possibly Summer of Cody vs. Roman. After watching last night, I WANT MORE OF THAT!
But if Cody won last night, that was it… Chase over and reality sits in that Cody is WWE Champion with a thin roster of opponents or repetitive older names. Cody beating Roman would have been definitive and Roman wouldn’t be a strong opponent having choked on the big Wrestlemania stage.
Instead, Cody can keep chasing and collecting more WWE wins over his belt before finally beating Roman, probably at Money in the Bank or SummerSlam would be my guess.
Two things to note here:
(1) For YEARS, the Internet Wrestling Community cried and cried about the World Title changing hands too many times. Now, you have a sturdy World Champion closing in on 1,000 days, and you’re complaining. YOU CAN’T HAVE IT BOTH WAYS! Do you want a dependable champion whose eventual loss means something or RAW/Smackdown World Titles switching hands repeatedly to water them down?
(2) Cody Rhodes still has All Elite Wrestling (AEW) stench on him and needs more scrubbing to remove it.
Sorry, but you cannot just sweep 2019-2022 AEW under the rub for me with Cody Rhodes. I remember and it wasn’t much of an exciting experience as a wrestling fan. While I somewhat admire his storyline stance to be “banned from going after AEW title”, it reduced him to nothing and made him a midcarder in AEW. Made ZERO sense and by Cody hanging out with THAT midcard group, you know, the ones who are repeatedly making AEW Botches for hurting people on high risk spots, it reduced his value. He joined AEW in a position that was possibly higher than AJ Styles after Styles did the NJPW/ROH retraining, but left AEW in worse shape. I believe Cody’s matches and heroics against Seth Rollins inflated his value and had Cody not been hurt, he wouldn’t have been as popular with so much time off.
His AEW work was AWFUL, period… And that’s just not easy to remove.
WWE knows that, too… Had the crowned Cody Rhodes immediately last night, they would have gave their WWE Titles to a guy who is just over 1 year removed from that AEW cesspool. Instead, Cody can continue the chase, get more quality WWE wins under his belt, and get full revenge on the Bloodline and Roman Reigns. Our entire Spring/Summer has now been charted out and fans should be happy about that. Nope, they hearts and souls were tugged by WWE’s great storytelling and they are overreacting to believing Cody should have won last night.
This mirrors the reaction to Royal Rumble 2023 when the IWC cried about Sami Zayn not winning the WWE World Titles. Besides rematches with Roman, who is Sami gonna fight? The same old tired WWE names that I mentioned above… “Sami vs. Lesnar” or “Sami vs. McIntyre” just doesn’t feel that exciting to me. However, anybody facing Roman Reigns is because he’s peaking and elevating ANY opponent to appear worthy. Remember, Sami Zayn was wrestling the Jackass crew at the last Wrestlemania and LOST. In just a few months, Roman Reigns sold Sami Zayn as a brother and a worthy opponent. IT’S ROMAN, you idiots! He’s elevating people to make you believe they should be champion!
Roman Reigns and Paul Heyman did it, once again… They elevated Cody Rhodes and made you feel as though Cody should be World Champion. That storytelling was perfectly done and the WWE Creative Team, Triple H, and even Vince McMahon if he had a hand in it (which I expected he did) deserve major credit. They scrubbed a lot of that “AEW stench” off of Cody in just a few months, but he needs more scrubbing. Cody needs more key WWE wins and needs MORE reasons to get Roman besides “he insulted me about my daddy”. Now, Cody should be PISSED about Solo interfering and screwing him out of the WWE World Titles.
And with Roman Reigns remaining WWE World Champion, he cannot take significant time off as he reportedly may be receiving in the future. As Champion, he’ll remain or at least the Bloodline will remain in tact.
WWE will crater when Roman takes his time off… He’s the REAL star of the WWE, not Cody Rhodes. Cody and Sami were ELEVATED by Roman Reigns during the past 4 months and all of you bought it hook, line, and sinker. I guarantee that NONE OF YOU will quit watching because you know what you’re seeing with Roman Reigns is exceptional and you can’t walk away from that. He’s peaking as an in-ring performer and he’s the pro wrestling version of Marvel’s Thanos… And it’s funny how the Usos, whom many on the Internet Wrestling Community were just RIPPING HARD as irrelevant and repetitive years ago, look amazing alongside Roman. How else is Solo getting over so quickly as a legitimate badass in the Bloodline? Because he’s with Roman…
Open your eyes, folks… You’ve been worked by WWE’s storytelling, which has been EXCELLENT regarding the Bloodline since Triple H has been added to it. They have made you believe that a WWE MIDCARDER like Sami Zayn or a former AEW MIDCARDER were worthy of defeating a 2+ year champion. But they weren’t… The storytelling is getting your emotions high and you’ll return for another hit for whatever Roman Reigns does next. Just don’t be hypocrites now by attacking WWE’s decision to keep the title on Roman and then celebrate when Roman officially crosses 1,000 days as a World Champion.
Another reason why Roman Reigns retained the titles is because of the potential sale to Endeavor…
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Endeavor to potentially acquire WWE, merge them with UFC under 1 Holding Company
Well, it’s over folks. I hope that you truly enjoyed Wrestlemania 39 because that’s the LAST McMahon controlled show you’ll ever see. Sure, as “Chairman” of the WWE, Vince McMahon will remain in some capacity, but if you’re a close follower of Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC), you’ll know that changes are on the way for WWE. Endeavor, who currently owns UFC, is going to pull ever last drop of revenue from the WWE fanbase while also shoving more corporate sponsors down their throat.
I hope that you enjoyed WWE Network… It’s over. Your days of paying $9.99 and watching the premium events on that channel LIVE are done. Get ready for a return of Pay Per View!
In my view, the WWE Network really saved WWE from a sinking ship as the Pay Per View market was crushing them via piracy (thanks to WWE’s high prices and low quality) and John Cena’s exit was about to really cause shrinkage in the fanbase. Instead, a great value product was presented to loyal WWE fans and in turn, those loyal fans were willing to keep buying merchandise and live event tickets from Pay Per View savings. Now, Endeavor is going to force fans to pay $50 or more per Pay Per View.
Endeavor is a strong negotiator of TV deals and with Nick Khan on their roster, their combined forces should price gouge a network out of their money. I would expect that the 2024-2029 deal will be significantly larger now, especially if they can cross-promote with UFC or use UFC connections to further hype the WWE.
I should have known that WWE getting more into gambling should have led to Endeavor’s purchasing of them… Should have known!
I also believe that Endeavor’s purchase of WWE had another bit of importance to it, as you can already see by Paul Heyman trolling Conor McGregor. Think about it… Look at Ronda Rousey. After just 2 UFC losses and a few failed movie bids, nobody wanted to pay her top dollar as a star. WWE came along and for the past few years, kept her name above water. Now, Endeavor has a pipeline to the WWE and can just send any losing UFC stars there to keep their starpower alive. Looks like the WWE Developmental Center is going to get busy real fast and real soon with many ex-MMA prospects. That’s a GREAT thing!
How does Brock Lesnar fit into this? He worked extensively with both UFC and WWE, but there were reports of Lesnar telling friends backstage a few months ago “goodbye”. Maybe his WWE contract is just up and he’s using that brain of his to get another big deal. Endeavor would LOVE to have Lesnar around to cross-promote both UFC and WWE brands together, possibly getting into a management or trainer role for BOTH sides. Want to transition from UFC to WWE? Lesnar knows best.
The worst thing about this purchase is that Endeavor is another corporation and they will sanitize the heck out of the WWE even more than it was before. Endeavor LOVES making money off of corporate sponsors. That said, they’ll back their top guy… Dana White remains with UFC despite slapping his own wife and that was caught on camera. Thus, they may back Vince McMahon and his own transgressions as long as he can keep the WWE making them money. Maybe Endeavor has a stronger arm around corporate sponsors while also selling them a product they want instead of letting them dictate things as sponsors does to WWE. Remember, it was Mattel who called and complained to WWE about Mandy Rose can caused her to be terminated. So I guess, I don’t know how Endeavor will scrub the WWE with their corporate standards? Hard to say…
Endeavor is forming a holding company that can oversee the WWE and UFC entities, and thus Vince and Dana will have to report upward to that holding company. Said holding company will also review reporting and budgets… So we’ll see how WWE contracts go, moving forward, because UFC contracts aren’t exactly guaranteed and have been complained about being too low for many years. Dana has been very tight with his money while locking in performers for many years while discarding them easily when they start losing. Gee, that sounds familiar.
I don’t know, man… It’s like Disney acquiring Star Wars from George Lucas over 10 years ago. Yeah, we were burned out of George Lucas’s vision, as those prequels had some rough stuff in it but then you’d get a surprise with Revenge of the Sith and some parts of the clone wars. Disney either gets it very right (Force Awakens, Mandalorian) or very, very wrong (latter 2 Sequels, Solo’s film, Book of Fett). Behind the scenes at Disney, there is an endless corporate struggle of what Disney wants to show with Star Wars versus what the fans want. In that light, we now have a new corporate management structure who can dictate what kind of content will now be “WWE”. Yes, Vince and Triple H have struggled throughout the years, but then they deliver gems like Royal Rumble 2023 and Wrestlemania 39 and fans are reminded why they love the WWE brand.
With time, you’re probably going to see WWE morph into “life after UFC” and I think the brands will heavily resemble each other with UFC having more showmanship while WWE will have more serious fighters joining the ranks. That could be beneficial, but as a WWE fan, I want no part of UFC or any MMA promotion. Tried it for years, but just don’t like it and the big events don’t always land as well as a scripted WWE event. Last few nights at Wrestlemania 39 have pumped out at least 4 5-star matches. When has a UFC match given you more than 2 great matches on a card? Been a while, in my opinion…
Congrats to Vince McMahon… This is what you wanted and probably getting $4-6 Billion for a company that you paid MUCH LESS to acquire from your Dad is a “feather in your cap”. Furthermore, the relief of Endeavor handling all of the corporate heavy lifting is a relief, which is what Pat McAfee is reportedly feeling with his own desires to join a network (Brett Favre lawsuit will do that to you). Vince and Triple H (assuming he stays) can just focus on the in-ring product instead of running a wrestling company and booking live events.
That said, there will come a time when Endeavor sends their own corporate stooges to “help” the WWE get better. It’s at that point where the WWE begins to change, much like NWA Mid Atlantic did when Ted Turner bought it and had their own corporate stooges “help” out. And then when Time Warner acquired Ted’s world and sent their own corporate stooges to “help” out.
If you want my opinion, go enjoy Wrestlemania 39. Stop complaining Cody Rhodes not winning the WWE World Titles and just enjoy the absurd amount of great matches on that 2 night show along with INSANE production values. THAT is what the McMahon empire has been capable of putting on and producing. And that’s the last official one under Vince McMahon rule.
It was such a McMahon like show that a McMahon appeared in the ring and tore his quad!!
The dream is over… We’ll see how Endeavor interprets the brand that you grew up loving and devoted so much of your personal time & money towards as a hobby.
In my opinion, UFC hasn’t been as good since Endeavor bought in terms of in-ring quality of fights, but they are making way more money as a corporate machine than ever. That is what you’ll see with this WWE acquisition…
(a) Return of Pay Per Views.
(b) Corporate sponsors on the WWE ring canvas.
(c) Entertainment that can fit ESPN’s corporate and political standards.
(d) Lots of ex-UFC stars now trying to become WWE stars.
(e) McMahons leading at first, but other corporate stooges will come in and learn from them, take over soon. Dana White is more of a hype man and figurehead than he is fully in charge.
WWE fans got a great deal with the WWE Network and it’s a shame when price gouging is forced on loyal consumers. Endeavor will somehow argue that it’s “better for their shareholders”, but WWE just proved that wrong by getting Comcast/NBC/Universal to pay $200 million per year to host the network on Peacock.
If WWE Network goes away and WWE monthly events return to a Pay Per View model, that sucks and fans totally lose. That is why I was rooting for Comcast/NBC/Universal to win this so that the WWE Network would be sustained and Premium Live Event prices were kept in check via the WWE Network’s monthly $9.99 Peacock price. Instead, the $50 or more price-point is now forced and WWE fans will have to make choices with their money again, which could result in less merchandise or attending live events.
Corporations won today, but in my view, fans will lose due to PPV/PLE becoming more expensive to watch.
Enjoy that Wrestlemania 39 show, once again, because that’s the LAST one you’ll ever pay $9.99 for while also having lots of other content to enjoy. You can hate on the McMahons all you want, but they just delivered you with YEARS and HOURS of content for a cheap monthly price. WWE Network was great and Endeavor probably already has a plan in place to demolish it.
Yay, Pay Per Views are returning… Awesome.
So just chill… till the next episode!