The Rock & Cody Rhodes Keep The Fire Burning on Raw

The RAW before WrestleMania was, at one time, the final go-home episode before Sunday’s “Show of Shows.” Today, RAW is the B-show before Friday’s A-show, SmackDown, where the biggest angles are executed as a sort of cliffhanger before Mania. And, oh yeah, WrestleMania is now a two-day event—beginning this Saturday and culminating Sunday with the Roman Reigns vs Cody Rhodes rematch for the WWE world championship.

New York venues, tonight’s edition of RAW took place in Brooklyn, have historical significance within WWE, but that has been reduced over time. However, tonight’s go-home episode of RAW in “The Big Apple” felt like the DeLorean clock was set to the late 90’s as The Rock kicked things off to a roaring crowd. With a walkout that seemed to start in Jersey, The Rock began by reviewing his actions from last week—the violent beatdown of Cody Rhodes—and the crowd ate it up. “The People’s Champ” captivated the crowd with his mere delivery as the “What?” chant began almost immediately following the start of his promo.

Yet, he used the crowd’s disdain for his maniacal assault on Cody Rhodes by delivering his words to the cadence of the fan’s chant. He ended the initial dialogue by saying the only thing missing from the blood-soaked belt he used to beat Cody was the tears of ‘Mama Rhodes.’ The crowd instantly stopped the “What?” chant with a visceral reaction that echoed through the arena. “The Rock said he was gonna beat him like a dog, and that’s exactly what I did,” The Rock said before admitting the online reactions got to him.”

He started playing clips from TikTok of kids reacting to last week’s parking lot attack that closed out RAW, and naturally, the kids were in tears to see their hero Cody beaten by The Rock. As one child yelled, “Never again,” when asked if she’d ever watch “Moana” again, the kids within the WWE universe are clearly distraught.

The Rock said his heart breaks seeing that as a proud 3x girl dad. “However, to those mommies and daddies, to all those little kids that were crying, The Rock wants you to take your little kids, put in front of the TV because Uncle Rock is gonna drop some gospel on ya.

“There are moments in life when a man has got to do what a man has got to do, and there are moments in life where people talk sh** when they shouldn’t be talking sh**. And that’s exactly what Cody Rhodes did, so there are moments in life, like now, where The Rock has got to beat that punk a** down over and over again.” The crowd, who were against The Rock initially, started chanting “Rocky,” like it was 1997. The Rock then took credit for the ratings bump WWE has enjoyed, as well as for ‘wrestling being cool, again.’

This was when The Rock admitted he did not come to RAW alone, and Roman’s music hit as The Bloodline made their way to the ring. After reminding the audience that Roman’s current reign sits at 1,310, 3 days, the Commentary Team questioned whether this could be the last RAW with Roman as champ. One thing that struck me, however, was that Michael Cole said Roman would tie Hulk Hogan at WrestleMania night 1 for his 8^th time to main event WrestleMania. Then, he said Roman would break Hogan’s record by appearing in his 9^th main event in Night 2.

This feels like a fallacy because the impressiveness of Hogan’s eight WrestleMania main events is the time it spans, and breaking the record by counting WrestleMania 40 as two different Mania’s pollutes the record entirely. Roman eventually took the mic and said he wanted to publicly ‘acknowledge his family’ after The Rock’s neutralizing of Cody. He even admitted that this may be the easiest Mania of his career. Then, Roman appeared to take a shot at AEW, or more specifically, Cody’s time in AEW. He said The Bloodline was busy making the WWE cool again while Cody was out doing nothing in 2020.

Seth Rollins’ music hit while Roman was mid-sentence, and Rollins was seen in the crowd with shades over his eyes and his heavyweight title in tow. Rollins said he wasn’t stupid enough to get in the ring with The Bloodline, but he was ready for a fight and felt like Brooklyn deserved one of the biggest RAW main events in history, to which the crowd went bonkers.

“Monday Night Rollins” then directed his challenge at Roman Reigns, claiming it was their choice to decide ‘whose got the balls’ between The Rock and Roman to fight him and even saying they could pick the stipulations. The Rock started to mutter his words a bit, almost rattled at the challenge, but then claimed neither he nor Roman would fight him, to which the crowd once again flip-flopped and began chanting “Rocky sucks!” This must be one of the best RAW segments in the last several decades, and the crowd was hooked. Solo Sikoa was then handed the mic, and he said he would face Rollins in the main event, and the crowd did not like that swerve. However, it was said that the match would take place under ‘Bloodline Rules.’

The Main Event: Seth Rollins vs Solo Sikoa

Rollins was confronted by McIntrye in the back on his way to the ring. “I ain’t dead yet,” Rollins exclaimed at Drew.

The match between Seth and Solo was our first chance to get a sense of what exactly “Bloodline Rules” are. Mania’s night one tag team match has huge implications on the night two main event, and yet we still aren’t sure if “Bloodline Rules” is just a ‘no DQ’ with better marketing or if there are details that make it unique.

It did not take long to figure out that there were no countouts or disqualifications under this stipulation, and Rollins took advantage first by flinging chairs at the head of Solo. Rollins was also the first to bring a table into the mix, appeasing the tables thirsty crowd. Solo was able to avert Rollins’ plans as he attempted to put Rollins through the table. The two traded momentum until Solo drove Rollins through the table from the middle turnbuckle.

Rollins dominated early and often with the assistance of all the usual foreign objects, but he cannot be faulted for needing the aid, considering this was his first televised match since his knee injury that shelved him since Royal Rumble.

Solo made the mistake of not focusing on Rollins’ knee, though several spots can be used as evidence to prove that Rollins is fully healed. In fact, after Solo was unable to land a second middle turnbuckle driver through a table, Seth reversed it into a powerbomb through the table, proving his knee could stand the weight. Jimmy Uso came out to interfere, prompting Jey Uso’s music. The two brothers, opponents at Mania, brawled to the entryway.

That is when The Rock tossed Jey and made his way to the ring. Just as it seemed as though The Rock would get to soften up Rollins for their night one tag match, Cody Rhodes’ music hit. It was mentioned earlier that Cody was not cleared to be at RAW, though he would be fine for Mania. So, it was a surprise that could easily be seen on The Rock’s face when Cody came out to put his hands on The Rock. Rollins and Rhodes set up The Rock to go through the announce table, but Roman prevented it.

That is when Roman and The Rock laid out Seth and Cody before embracing one another. Roman seemed to signal that there was some time left on the clock, and The Rock took that to mean, ‘Let me take my belt off and whip these guys for the remainder of RAW.’ The rest of The Bloodline got involved, and that is when Cody’s shirt was ripped off his back. The Rock delivered several bareback slaps with a blue weightlifting belt that left large red streaks across Cody’s back.

The crowd broke out into ‘Rocky sucks’ chants and booed adamantly as both men raised their belts to the crowd—Roman’s World title and The Rock’s weapon of choice. RAW cut to black with the final images acting as a possible glimpse into what we may get on night two during the world title main event if Cody and Seth aren’t successful as a team on night one.

In-Ring Action

8-Man Tag Match—DIY and The New Day vs The Judgement Day

(JD def DIY and The New Day via pinfall)

It was a preview to the 6-Pack Ladder Match for the undisputed tag team titles at WrestleMania, a match with three of the six teams competing for the titles after qualifying throughout the last few weeks.

The 11-time tag team champs, The New Day, played the ‘face’ role in the match, ditching whatever edgier gimmick they hinted at in previous RAW episodes. Priest played ‘the monster’ role in the match and dominated every member of the opposition in the way of hitting the ‘South of Heaven’ on Kofi for the pinfall victory.

Ricochet vs Ibar

Ricochet has been on a roll the past few weeks at the expense of The Judgement Day, so a win over Ibar, who has had a decent run thus far as a singles worker coming from a career-long tag team. The ariel artist was able to catch and lift Ibar before setting him up for the 630 and the pinfall victory. Following his victory, the truck cut to The Judgement Day’s lair, where Priest questioned why Ricochet hadn’t been ‘handled.’ Dom then enlisted the services of Andrade, to the disgust of Rhea.

Other Tidbits

• There was an awesome vignette of Chad Gable training Sami Zane for his intercontinental title challenge at Mania against the longest-reigning champ in WWE history. The video package was emotionally charged, but it had all the awesomeness of a “Rocky” training montage. It is hard to give credit without knowing who produced this segment, but bravo to Sami and Chad for creating this nostalgic “you can’t win” theme and Gunther playing the role of the unstoppable ‘foreign bad guy.’ It would appear that the story being told ends with Sami ending Gunthar’s record-breaking reign. Sami would later go on to face “Big” Bronson Reed in singles action, and just as he seemed to have things under control, Gunther drugged out Zane’s coach, Gable, who laid motionless. Zane ran out to check on his friend, and Gunther took full advantage by attacking his Mania challenger.

• It was announced that The Rock and Roman Reigns will be guests on Jimmy Fallon’s Tonight Show this Wednesday.

• A video vignette of Drew McIntyre standing over a casket and speaking at a podium, sort of delivering a eulogy, about CM Punk being a washed-up wrestler who couldn’t hack it in UFC before turning his attention to his night two opponent, Seth Rollins. It was great work and felt very dark and raw, but the best line was about Rollins watching Jared Leto as ‘The Joker’ in “Suicide Squad” and adopting that character as his own.
• A video of Rhea Ripley and Becky Lynch arguing on Ariel Helwani’s podcast set was shown earlier in the broadcast. Lynch came out to call out Rhea, but the RAW commish attempted to intervene. That did not work, and Rhea rushed the ring as a brawl ensued. Becky would even climb the top turnbuckle and leap to the outside, taking out Rhea and several WWE security guards.

Mario Mungia

Mario Mungia Jr. has a decade worth of experience as a combat sports journalist and correspondent which began with ThaBoxingVoice (TBV) as a podcast co-host, writer and editor-in-chief. Aside from his online resume, Mario spent a fair portion of his early career working for Spanish/English magazine Premier Round and the Mexican website Izquierdo. Mario has also contributed to NYFights while simultaneously working for MIC Sports Network as part of the broadcast crew covering local high school sports. Since then, he has launched his own podcast/live stream (Infighting/Work In Progress) and is covering pro wrestling for FightsATW.

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