The Rock wanted Cody Rhodes to lose his championship before WWE WrestleMania 41

At Elimination Chamber 2025, John Cena turned heel and aligned with The Rock to leave the WWE Universe in shock. After winning the men's Chamber match, Cena, alongside Rocky, attacked Rhodes, who had earlier turned down The Final Boss' proposal to join him.

Cena went on to defeat Rhodes at WrestleMania 41 to win his 17th WWE World Title in the main event of Night Two. While the veteran's heel turn was a massive event, things could've turned out a lot differently had WWE gone ahead with The Rock's initial pitch.

Initially, Rhodes vs. Cena for WrestleMania was being planned as a babyface vs. babyface match. But then, The Rock and former WWE writer Brian Gewirtz, who works for the Hollywood star now, were called in to shake up things.

On episode four of WWE: Unreal on Netflix, Gewirtz revealed that they pitched for Rhodes to turn down The Final Boss' offer at the Elimination Chamber, only for The Brahma Bull to book an impromptu championship match that would see Kevin Owens come out and win the title.

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According to Gerwitz, the idea of a babyface Rhodes vs. babyface Cena felt a "little dry" to them. Hence, they wanted to "throw some controlled chaos" into the story. At that point, Owens had already feuded with The American Nightmare, with the two stars facing each other in a brutal ladder match at Royal Rumble.

Gerwitz also revealed that Kevin Owens winning the title at Elimination Chamber "wasn't the end goal." The idea was to do something seismic.

Why WWE had to move away from The Rock's idea

While WWE seemed to align with The Rock's idea of doing something big, the creative team had one issue. Writer Ed Koskey mentioned on the episode that he and other members of the team weren't completely on board with the idea of the championship changing hands close to WrestleMania.

Koskey, Triple H, and Bruce Prichard ultimately got on a video call, discussed the various outcomes, and came up with the idea of Cena turning heel.

About the author

Sherjeel Malik is a writer at Sportskeeda and covers pro wrestling. He was hooked on the product from the moment he saw The Hardy Boyz jumping off ladders during the Attitude Era. While he comes from an engineering background, Sherjeel’s love for pro wrestling and content writing led him to pursue a career in sports journalism. Before assuming his current role at Sportskeeda, Sherjeel worked at other reputable organizations for five years.

While writing articles, he ensures that he only relies on credible sources for information and covers relevant subjects that do not project an agenda against a particular person or association. WWE legend Paul Heyman once shared Sherjeel’s work on his social media handle.

Sherjeel’s earliest memory of pro wrestling is watching Stone Cold Steve Austin and The Undertaker square off for the WWE Title in the main event of a pay-per-view in 1998. His favorite wrestlers are Randy Orton and Jeff Hardy. While he admires Orton for his character work as a heel, he looks up to Jeff because of his unique wrestling style and risk-taking ability.

If he could go back to the Attitude Era, Sherjeel would like to manage Ken Shamrock and be his mouthpiece. He feels Shamrock’s promo skills prevented him from becoming a main event-level act in WWE. Hence, he would like to help the UFC Hall of Famer get over with fans.

When not writing about pro wrestling, he likes to read classics and fiction books.

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Edited by Pratik Singh