Bully Ray On Why WWE Is In 'Dangerous Territory' With Cody Rhodes/The Rock Situation
Last Friday's "WWE SmackDown" saw 2024 men's Royal Rumble winner Cody Rhodes seemingly step aside to allow Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson to face reigning Undisputed WWE Universal Champion Roman Reigns at WrestleMania 40. That moment was met with significant backlash, with #WeWantCody becoming a top trend online. "We Want Cody" and "Rocky Sucks" chants were also heard earlier this week on "WWE Raw." On "Busted Open Radio," multi-time tag team champion Bully Ray was asked about the possible reaction to Reigns vs. Rock in Philadelphia at WrestleMania.
"As a guy who has experienced the worst of the worst in that city, of how they can turn on you, WWE is in real dangerous territory right now with this scenario," the WWE Hall of Famer said. Bully believes fans only care about Rhodes facing Reigns at WrestleMania 40. He added that if Rhodes doesn't face "The Tribal Chief" at "The Show of Shows" and ends up challenging Seth Rollins for the World Heavyweight Championship, he "guarantees" the crowd in Philly will be behind it because they'll want it to outdo the possible Reigns vs. Rock main event.
Bully also commented on the potential of fans "hijacking" upcoming WWE events. "The hijacking of these shows that could potentially happen, especially at WrestleMania, is because the people feel cheated. 'You screwed us over. We have been firmly behind this guy, and it's not even about him losing last year. We've been firmly behind this guy, and now you're going to pull him out of the spot that he deserves to be in, by your standards, because he won the Rumble?' This is why we need the why. This is why I need to hear Cody tell me, or why I need to hear The Rock tell me why Cody stepped to the side, so I can go, 'Oh. Okay. Now I get it.'"
'He had to try to calm down his fanbase'
During The Viking Raiders (Ivar and Valhalla) vs. Akira Tozawa and Maxxine Dupri mixed tag team match on "Raw," Rhodes, who is set to appear at the WrestleMania 40 Kickoff press event on Thursday, posted on X, "Appreciate the passion, God bless y'all ... but Trust me." Bully described that post as "damage control" because of the chants that were heard on the show.
"He had to try to calm down his fanbase," Bully said. "Did the WWE tell him to do that? I [can't remember] the last time I've seen a wrestler tweet mid-show when they're in the main event, basically a three-segment main event, and all of a sudden you're tweeting in the middle of the show, 'Calm down, guys, I got this.' Did Cody tweet that because Cody wanted to tweet it? Because if that was me, I wouldn't say a word." Bully thought it was "odd" that WWE would try to stop the negative chanting from the fans. He said it was a "touchy situation" because WWE couldn't control it.
If you use any quotes from this article, please credit "Busted Open Radio" with a h/t to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription.