At WrestleMania 39, WWE fans were left reeling when then-Undisputed WWE Universal Champion Roman Reigns defeated Cody Rhodes to retain the title.
All signs had pointed to the American Nightmare finally bringing the WWE Championship into the Rhodes dynasty, especially as he'd earned a spot in the WrestleMania main event by winning the Royal Rumble. Instead, he was left sitting in the middle of the ring with a rubber chicken for company.
The following year, Rhodes won the Rumble for a second time and once again set his sights on the Tribal Chief. However, The Rock's WWE return saw Dwayne Johnson attempt to hijack the WrestleMania main event for a match with Reigns. Fans reacted furiously to the switch, and plans for Rhodes to instead challenge Seth Rollins for the World Heavyweight Championship were met with widespread backlash.
Ultimately, in one of the best WrestleMania main events ever, Rhodes successfully ended Reigns' history title run and finally became WWE Champion.
We're now a couple of years removed, but new details about the divisive WrestleMania 39 finish have been revealed by Dave Meltzer. Apparently, Reigns himself went to Vince McMahon to push for his victory, arguing that it would make Rhodes' eventual victory all the sweeter.
"It was Roman Reigns’ call. Vince had to approve it," Meltzer explained. "But Roman Reigns was the one who went to Vince with the idea, and pitched the idea that it would be better, would be more meaningful if he didn’t win the first time, we’d build to a bigger win the second time. And, explained it. I think Heyman with Reigns did that. I think they were very persuasive."
"I think that the argument is very strong, with the benefit of hindsight, that they were right, because the second year was much bigger than the first year, but it was Vince’s call, and Levesque was on board with the call, but Vince was the one who made the call," he continued. "He had final say the whole time he was the chairman of the board again."
"He was in charge of the company, and he [had] the final say. Even though Levesque was in charge of creative, Vince still had the final say until Ari Emanuel removed Vince from having the final say. This is before the Janel Grant lawsuit. And when that came out, he was gone. He still hasn’t been around, in the sense [that] he didn’t even go to John Cena’s farewell show. He hasn’t been at any show," Meltzer concluded.
Reigns made the right call, but it could have been for nothing had The Rock gotten his own way and stolen Rhodes' spot at the Showcase of the Immortals. Cody eventually lost the title to John Cena at this year's WrestleMania, but regained it a few months later at SummerSlam.
According to recent rumours, the current plan for WrestleMania 42 in Las Vegas is for us to get Rhodes vs. Reigns III.