Update on what led to Roman Reigns defeating Cody Rhodes at WWE WrestleMania 39
An update is available regarding what led to Roman Reigns defeating Cody Rhodes at WrestleMania 39.
On Monday, Brandon Thurston of Post Wrestling posted an article citing text messages revealed in court filings, including an exchange between Vince McMahon and Nick Khan that indicated McMahon was involved with creative plans for WrestleMania in 2023.
This was discussed by our own Dave Meltzer and Bryan Alvarez on the post-Raw edition of Wrestling Observer Radio. Meltzer mentioned that it was actually Roman Reigns who first pitched the idea of Rhodes losing their first WrestleMania match.
Meltzer said:
“It was Roman Reigns’ call. I mean, Vince had to approve it, but Roman Reigns was the one who went to Vince with the idea and pitched the idea that it would be better, it would be more meaningful if he didn’t win the first time, we build to a bigger one the second time and explained it.”
“I think Heyman with Reigns did that. I think they were very persuasive. The argument’s very strong with the benefit of hindsight that they were right because the second year was much bigger than the first year. But Vince made the call and Levesque was on board with the call but Vince was the one who made the call.”
“Vince was the one who had final say at that point. He had final say the whole time. He was the chairman of the board again or whatever. He was in charge of the company and he remained having the final say even though Levesque was ‘in charge of creative.'”
WWE officially merged with the UFC in September 2023 to create TKO Group Holdings. McMahon was named executive chairman of the new company up until he resigned in January 2024 in the wake of the allegations in Janel Grant’s lawsuit.
A clip of Meltzer and Alvarez’s discussion on Wrestling Observer Radio is available below:
Ian Carey is a writer from Toronto, Ontario, Canada, whose work has been featured in NOW Magazine, The Huffington Post, and more. A lifelong wrestling aficionado born in Calgary, Alberta, Canada, he has covered the industry for a decade and a half. He joined the f4wonline.com team in 2019.