Some interesting things are going on with Cody Rhodes and Brock Lesnar’s feud.
So we’ll check out what’s new there and what’s still missing from that feud, and
much more
Let’s start things off with everything related to Brock Lesnar and Cody Rhodes because there’s
some ups and downs that came from their recent segment
So to quickly recap on everything we’ve been given so far with this specific storyline,
we have to start with the Raw after Wrestlemania
After suffering a loss to Roman Reigns at Wrestlemania 39 due to several constant instances
of outside interference, Cody Rhodes was furious and wanted a rematch against Roman Reigns
But after Roman Reigns and Paul Heyman declined the rematch, Cody suggested a tag team match
instead
Roman and Heyman agreed, but set specific requirements for who Cody could pick as a
partner
They said it had to be someone who competed at Wrestlemania and someone that’s okay
with never getting another world title match opportunity as long as Roman is still champion
Out-came Brock Lesnar who fit every single requirement that Roman Reigns and Paul Heyman
set in place
He competed at Wrestlemania and already had his last title match with Roman Reigns, so
Brock Lesnar really had nothing to lose so he accepted the role of being Cody Rhodes’
partner
Then as we saw later that night, it was a lie, there was no tag team match scheduled
to take place, the moment was instead used in order to have Brock Lesnar turn heel on
Cody Rhodes
Brock Lesnar gave Cody Rhodes a near ten minute beatdown before finally walking up the ramp
and flipping Cody Rhodes off to end Raw
Then the following week, we saw Cody Rhodes, who was still selling the effects of the beatdown,
come out to the ring in his usual suit and give praise to Brock Lesnar’s career accomplishments
and everything he has done, but he also spoke about all the issues he had with the attack
and challenged Brock Lesnar to a match at Backlash
So then you fast forward another week and that pretty much brings us to current day,
where Brock Lesnar was confirmed to appear on the April 17th edition of Raw
So Cody Rhodes comes out first and the first big key thing to notice is that Cody Rhodes
is in a t-shirt and his usual ring gear
That itself was a big indication for the type of mood Cody Rhodes was in and the type of
business he was ready to take care of
Usually Cody Rhodes always comes out to the ring in a suit if he’s not competing, but
we saw that wasn’t the case here, he was ready and looking for a fight
Cody Rhodes grabbed the microphone and didn’t waste any time, he called Brock Lesnar out
right away
Which led to Adam Pearce coming out and telling Cody Rhodes that he’s not cleared to compete
and how he can’t let this happen
So Adam Pearce calls out some security guards to escort Cody Rhodes out of the ring
And that’s when Brock Lesnar decides to make his entrance and come out to the stage
Cody Rhodes fights off that first wave of security guards and goes to make his way to
Brock Lesnar, but Cody is met with several more waves of security guards that stop him
from getting his hands on Brock Lesnar
So everyone is trying to hold Cody Rhodes back while Brock Lesnar just stands there
telling Cody to come get him
Brock then just turns around and walks right back into the backstage area
Cody Rhodes ended up taking out dozens of security guards all by himself and then jumped
back on the mic to call Brock Lesnar a coward
And WWE would go onto announce moments later that the match is now official for Backlash,
it will in fact be Cody Rhodes versus Brock Lesnar
So this segment here from the April 17th edition of Raw was definitely meant to help Cody Rhodes
and make him shine again following the previous beatdown attack from Brock Lesnar
Cody was looking for a fight from the very start, Adam Pearce says that Cody isn’t
even cleared for action, so by WWE telling us that Cody isn’t even cleared, it makes
us look at Cody as being even more courageous to be out here looking for a fight when he’s
all banged up and shouldn’t be out there at all
So Cody Rhodes is presented in this segment as this bold, courageous, and brave hero that
doesn’t care that he’s hurt, he just wants to fight, and you can really get behind someone
like that with a story like this
And not only that, but go back and count how many security guards Cody Rhodes took out
all by himself… that was another little key factor they threw in there to build Cody
Rhodes back up as being dangerous and being a credible threat towards Brock Lesnar
So all that is great, Cody Rhodes really came out of the segment looking like a star, but
where this feud is absolutely falling apart is with the actual story
There’s no story at all here that we know of as of this very moment
Just for comparison sake, let’s put Brock Lesnar and Trish Stratus’ heel turns up
against each other
There’s was weeks of buildup, teases, and hints that Trish Stratus wasn’t really happy
being by Becky and Lita’s side
And then we get the big heel turn moment from Trish Stratus, that instantly pays off all
the weird tension and body language that Trish was showing in the weeks prior
Then we get Trish’s promo that perfectly lays out the entire story, motives, and explanation
for what she did and her actions
She explained that she felt like people were trying to rewrite her out of history, that
it was her who first put women’s wrestling on the map, how she shouldn’t be a sidekick,
how she didn’t like Becky Lynch’s energy…
Trish just provided so much story, details, and reasonings, for us to put the pieces together
and understand the heel turn… which is great, which is how it’s supposed to be
But now let’s look at Brock Lesnar’s heel turn
He agreed to be Cody Rhodes’ tag team partner against his former long time rival, Roman
Reigns, but right before that match takes place, he turns on Cody Rhodes and beats him
down for no reason at all that we know of
It’s not like tension was building up to this moment for weeks, it was literally Cody
and Brock’s first ever night interacting with each other in years, so nothing was set
in place there
But everyone agreed that we should be patient and see what they do to explain why and tell
us the backstory
And later that week on Smackdown, Wade Barrett said that Brock Lesnar attacked Cody Rhodes
because Brock was upset about his position on the Wrestlemania card and was angry that
Cody was headlining the show, while he was opening the show…
Which everyone agreed was a horribly weak storyline explanation for Brock Lesnar versus
Cody Rhodes
And then it’s announced that Brock Lesnar is returning to Raw, everyone figured that
maybe this is where we’ll get the actual story and explanation from Brock himself
But like we just went over, Brock Lesnar’s only role for the April 17th edition was to
stand on the stage for twenty seconds before turning around and heading right back to the
backstage area… that’s it
So even though technically the storyline advanced because the match had been made official for
Backlash, it feels like story actually didn’t make any progression at all because there’s
still no answer to the question of: ‘Why did Brock Lesnar attack Cody Rhodes?’
Even with the match being official for Backlash… we, the audience, still can’t answer that
question of why?
Why is this match happening?
Why did Brock Lesnar go after Cody Rhodes?
There’s absolutely nothing there to pull from at all
So it’s an interesting matchup and it’ll be great to see what the match turns out to
be, but in terms of the story department, the feud has absolutely no story to it as
of this moment and feels like a random pairing
So we’ll have to see if we do get Brock’s explanation down the road because it’s so
strange that there’s no story behind a match of this magnitude
But what are your thoughts on today’s stories?
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