Cody Rhodes Lays The Smackdown on ‘The Rock’

He pulled up in a vintage Ford F-150, donning a cowboy hat to get over in front of the Dallas crowd. The Rock stepped out of his truck with a ‘here for business’ look in his eyes. The American Airlines Center crowd erupted when the big screen cut to Cody Rhodes and Seth Rollins while they booed the ‘extra security detail’ surrounding The Bloodline.

With 16,919 in attendance and millions watching at home, the man that ‘made wrestling cool again’ slowly made his way to a ring filled with Roman Reigns and The Bloodline, as fans have been speculating all week as to what would happen on the first show to feature The Rock, Roman Reigns, Cody Rhodes, and Seth Rollins since the WrestleMania 40 press conference.

Over the past couple of weeks, challenges have been made, declined, and ultimately, accepted. However, with everyone on board less than a month out from the big show, now was the time to fully set the Mania table.

Roman barely received his acknowledgment from the Lone Star fans before Cody’s music hit and there he was amongst the fans. Coincidentally enough, there also stood Seth Rollins in the crowd— the same space once occupied by The Shield’s entrance— with tape over his mouth, staring into the ring with his former faction member staring back with The Rock by his side.

After the ad break, all four men eventually made their way into the ring, and there they stood with the fans serenading the four men with Seth’s theme music.

Cody Rhodes started first on the mic, and after taking a moment to acknowledge the scene in Dallas, he reiterated The Rock’s stipulations for the WrestleMania tag match. He took a dig at The Rock by questioning his authority to make match stipulations when he ‘bent the knee’ to Roman.

The Rock quickly jumped in to remind Cody of each team’s stakes on the line. The crowd burst into a diarrhea chant, prompted by Seth Rollins on Monday Night RAW last week. The moment was too genuine, and even The Rock couldn’t help but crack a smile. That smile turned angry when Seth started crackling.

As The Rock continued, Seth finally snapped and took over on the mic. Seth went as far as to claim The Rock is experiencing a ‘mid-life crisis.’ Seth screamed his acceptance of the match and its stipulations against The Bloodline challenge. The Rock gave a shoutout to Cody’s brother, Dustin Rhodes, better known as Golddust in WWE, but it was only to explain the age difference between Cody and his older siblings. The Rock explained that the 20-year difference means Cody Rhodes was a mistake.

Cody stayed silent before slapping the taste from The Rock’s mouth. The show went off the air with both men staring each other down in the middle of the ring.

Logan Paul Introduces PRIME to the WWE Universe

Logan Paul opened the show by reminding the Dallas crowd that his first WrestleMania match was in the “Big D.”  As a newcomer, Paul has appeared to check off all the boxes when packaging a rookie wrestler with the potential to be a star. He stumbled a bit on the mic tonight as fans started up with the “What?” chant not long after Paul began his promo.

“I’m not doing that,” Paul addressed the crowd as the chant grew louder. “I’m not doing it.” Paul then temporarily broke character before laughing off the ridiculousness of the moment.

Paul’s promo had no angle push, but the news was bigger than any spontaneous match Nick Aldis could make. The United States champ was on the mic to announce a partnership between his company, PRIME HYDRATION, and the WWE to make the energy drink the company’s first-ever center ring sponsor.

Center ring sponsorships are advertising moves you tend to see in combat sports promotions like MMA and boxing, but the WWE deciding to enter a sponsorship agreement of this magnitude is certainly part of a calculated branding strategy on their part. The PRIME logo will make its center ring debut at WrestleMania 40 and continue for all Premium Live Events thereafter. Logan brought out his PRIME partner and fellow YouTuber, KSI before Randy Orton’s music played, and then it played. It kept playing, and just when Paul figured he’d lucked out, Orton entered the ring from ‘outta nowhere.’

Orton tried landing an RKO on Paul, but he slipped out, and that only left KSI in the ring with The Viper. KSI ate the RKO— and quite well, actually— before dumping a bottle of PRIME on a floored KSI as Logan watched on from outside the ring.

It was a nice touch having the untrained boxer in KSI take the bump as the trained upstart Paul slipped out of Orton’s grasp. While the news was huge, it was used to further Logan’s beef with Orton, which ramped up after Logan cost Randy at Elimination Chamber.

Kevin Owens & Randy Orton vs Grayson Waller & Austin Theory

Winners: Randy Orton & Kevin Owens

It was an okay enough TV match, but its greatest purpose was to further the storyline from the first segment as Logan attacked Orton and Owens after the match. Paul got over the brass knuckles before Randy snatched them from him and trucked them.

Match Results

-Karrion Kross vs. Bobby Lashley: Double disqualification, interference from AOP

-Tiffany Stratton vs. Michin: Stratton wins via pinfall (Prettiest Moonsault Ever)

-Dragon Lee vs. Angel: Dragon Lee wins via DQ

Mario Mungia

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