Cody Rhodes Vs. Roman Reigns

WWE Championship

Wrestlemania 40

April 7, 2024

Lincoln Financial Field,Philadelphia

Cody Rhodes Vs. Roman Reigns, what can I say about this match, except that this match is a classic that is up there with some of the best matches like Hogan vs Andre or Bret Hart vs Shawn Michaels. This match is the type of match that people 40 years from now will talk about how an era ended, but a new era began, how this match was the pivotal moment for what's to come from the WWE product. Wrestlemania 40, the odds were against Rhodes a long year after his first defeat at Wrestlemania 39 against Reigns for the first time; Rhodes came a long way, defeating various opponents like Seth Rollins, Brock Lesnar, and The Bloodline members, the faction that Reigns is in charge of that is made up of Samoan wrestlers, throughout the year leading up to WrestleMania 40. Rhodes had finally overcome all the challenges and obstacles to win the 2023 Royal Rumble to headline Wrestlemania two years in a row to face Reigns again for the big prize, the undisputed WWE championship—the most extensive belt in all of pro wrestling, which Rhodes was ready to take.

But one problem occurred: Reign cousin the Rock; yes, the movie superstar came back into the picture to take the glory of Rhodes and deemed himself as the actual number one contender for his cousin’s championship. After altercations between the Rock and Rhodes and Reigns, the family prevailed and ultimately led to the teaming up of the Rock and Reigns. The rock decided it was best to team up with his cousin and destroy Rhodes. The rock, in a way, became the extra strength reigns needed to keep the championship. Wrestlemania 40 finally came around, and for night one, the Rock and Reigns teamed up against Rhodes and Seth Rollins to set the stage for night two, which was the main event. If the Rock and Reigns won, the main event would turn into a bloodline rules match where interference would be allowed, and if Rhodes won, no one from the Reigns faction could intervene, and the match would be settled as a classic vs one. To give some context to why the bloodline interference was a big issue for Rhodes, it was because the interference of the bloodline caused Rhodes to lose at Wrestlemania 39 last year, so to even the playing field, it was only suitable to settle it night one. Of course, the Rock and Regins won, and ultimately, it led to the final match on night 2 to be a bloodline rules match where we finally saw Rhodes overcome all the odds to walk out of Philadelphia as champion. So the match itself was excellent.

We saw a lot of ups and downs and tons of fan favorites return. We got to see the likes of John Cena and the Undertaker support Rhodes, while Reigns had his family come out and support him. It was a sluggish start as both men were feeling the effects of last night, but Rhodes did not let go and kept pushing through. We instantly saw some weapons being used as Reigns brought in the first weapon, the keno stick, a thick stick of bamboo sticks. For 4 minutes, we just watched Reigns walking the living lights out of Rhodes.

Rhodes would eventually get up from the attacks and start some chain wrestling, putting Regins in more technically challenged wrestling moves, a lot more traditional grappling moves. At some point, reigns would use Rhodes's finishing move on him, the cross Rhodes, which the crowd went wild as they never expected Reigns to pull such a move so early on after a few minutes of wrestling. Rhodes would hit things with jab after jab after jab, which ultimately led to Rhodes hitting the bionic elbow made famous by his hall-of-fame dad, the American dream Dusty Rhodes. Eventually, the bloodline would finally arrive in Philly and start causing mayhem and messing up Rhodes and putting him down until Rhodes's first line of defense showed up, Jey Uso, a recent defector of the bloodline and the first man who would love to see the bloodline burn down. After a few minutes of everyone attacking each other, Rhodes brought the fight back outside the ring and accidentally got himself to unwanted territory, where Reigns threw him through the announcer's table. Eventually, John Cena came out to support Rhodes; the undertaker would also join, including Rollins and the Rock, which all led up to the final battle where Rhodes came out victorious and ending reigns historic run where we saw Reigns hit the 3,000-day mark as WWE champion, breaking hogans record. Overall, the match was so exciting to watch; I gave this match a 4.5 as it was so close to being perfect.

I wished the special guests had more spots throughout the game, but the match seemed like last year's but finally tweaked where Rhodes would win. I still feel that Rhodes should have won in the previous year, as it felt even crazier as Rhodes had this unpredictability. This year felt entirely predictable compared to last year as last year, in my opinion, was the better match and overall was more exciting. Still, I didn't want to remove anything from this match because it was indeed cinema. The story was excellent; the wrestlers performed well, the crowd was good, and everything was perfect, but I still didn't feel the same way I felt when watching the first match at WrestleMania 39.