Age of The Nerd
A couple of weeks have passed since WrestleMania 41, and fans are still talking about the controversial ending of night two. The controversial ending saw heel John Cena defeat good-guy Cody Rhodes with a no-show from the Rock. So many people in the crowd that night in Las Vegas and watching from home were expecting The Rock to appear because he had involved himself in the Cena and Rhodes storyline a month earlier at the Elimination Chamber show.
Instead, fans saw rapper Travis Scott come out and walk down for what seemed like an eternity to interject in the match. The match made Cody Rhodes look weak and did nothing toward the plan the Rock had set in motion a month earlier.
Sometimes, what happens in the boardroom has a longer-term effect than in the ring. Fans have pointed out that Paul Levesque, the creative force behind WWE’s recent success, did not thank The Rock during his Hall of Fame speech a few days earlier. HHH spoke for more than 90 minutes and did not thank his co-worker during that speech.
HHH and The Rock made their names in WWE during the Attitude era, which saw wrestling’s resurgence in the mainstream. They are just a few names from that era who made a name for themselves in the ring. But it was not in the ring during the latter part of that era that the two found themselves. HHH went on to marry the boss’s daughter and cement himself in the backstage scenes of WWE, and The Rock went on to Hollywood.
When WWE was sold and merged into TKO, The Rock was put on the board of directors, making him one of the company’s top bosses. The Rock has been using ‘The Final Boss’ gimmick for a bit now. And sometimes it works, and sometimes it does not. Case in point: on night two of WrestleMania, the Rock no-showed at the biggest event of the year for WWE.
In his place, a rapper appeared on a professional wrestling show and wrapped up a storyline without saying any words. The whole thing made Cody Rhodes look weak. The Rock brings his ideas and writers to WWE, which builds up its stories for months, only to throw a rock into the plans.
The Rock was in Hawaii during WrestleMania weekend but appeared on a podcast the following day. I guess Hawaii is pretty nice this time of year.
