During The Rock’s appearance on Friday night’s episode of WWE SmackDown, he told Cody Rhodes that he wants Cody’s soul and then demanded an answer from Cody at Elimination Chamber, which is next Saturday in Toronto. The Rock also told Cody that he could make all of his dreams come true.
According to Fightful Select, original creative plans that had already been in place going back to last year was for Cody vs. John Cena at this year’s WrestleMania.
It was also said that as recently as this past October, the creative direction was being laid out with the assumption that The Rock would not be available for WrestleMania 41. It was added that there was a top talent who joked that WrestleMania is “at the mercy of Dwayne.”
Furthermore, it was noted that internally creative adjustments had been made ahead of Friday’s SmackDown, with Cody being removed from the six-man tag team match that was advertised as with Cody Damian Priest and Braun Strowman vs. Jacob Fatu, Solo Siko and Tama Tanga. A backstage segment was done early on in the show with Cody and GM Nick Aldis, in which Aldis told Cody that The Final Boss had pulled him from the match.
In the end, the match ended up being Priest and Strowman vs. Fatu and Sikoa. Sources within WWE told Fightful Select that the developments with The Rock’s return Friday night was something that was done at the last moment and that those within WWE are uncertain on what steps to take going forward.
Fightful Select concluded with some backstage notes on the promo between Cody and The Rock.
Cristian Scovell was the writer for Cody’s part. Michael Hayes was the producer. While a writer was assigned to The Rock, it was said that he is not required to follow the scripts, which had people questioning if him using the f word was planned out ahead of time.
The USA Network muted out the profanity that was said by The Rock.
You can watch the full segment below: