On the newest Observer Radio, Dave revealed a lot of new info that he’s learned about the Rock/Roman situation, namely that it has apparently been the plan for weeks but it was kept a very close secret.
He says Rock being in the WM main event was part of his deal to join the TKO board and get his trademark back, it was all one deal. Says the deal was made on January 3rd. Dave does not know why Cody was booked to win the Rumble in spite of that, but he does know most people in the company did not know Rock was facing Roman and most people in the company were still being told as recently as last week that it was Roman vs. Cody.
The deal with Rock was done between Rock, Ari Emmanuel, and Nick Khan. Says “they didn’t tell almost anyone”. He also says he doesn’t know if they have decided to turn it into an angle, but they have already made merch and signed sponsorships related to the match so he’s unsure how open they would be to changing the match, regardless of the crowd reaction.
Damn, and I thought I hated this story before, when I thought it was just a hamfisted attempt to distract from Vince’s scandal. Knowing that this was planned, and what’s more, that it was a condition of Dwayne Johnson’s contract, makes it so much worse.
Of course, there are some further questions that it raises. Remember those stories about Cody’s uncertain contract status? Was that related to this in some way? Did Cody get wind that this was coming and thus refuse to re-up? Or was that an attempt to make this more palatable, by planting the story that Cody might not be sticking around?
Sounds like the decision was made for him
WWE/TKO would be so dumb not to re-sign Cody. But if there’s a sliver of a chance he wants out then TK needs to back up the brinks for him.