WrestleMania XL: The Greatest Story Ever Told (Part Three)
/By Tara Lomax and Mark Williamson
This is the last of three parts on the recent WrestleMania XL and the current revival of WWE. It reviews the interconnected and multistrand storytelling that unfolded over two years leading into the recent event and highlights opportunities for further appraisal. Part One established the important role of audience and character in pro wrestling, and overviewed key moments for Roman Reigns leading into WrestleMania XL. Part Two introduced the story of Cody Rhodes and reflected on long form serialized storytelling in WWE. This final part explores the blurring of reality and fiction that drives pro wrestling storytelling and the role it played in the lead up to WrestleMania XL. Readers who might be interested in this piece include those new to pro wrestling within the context of popular culture and entertainment studies and those curious about WWE’s revival. Italicized text denotes wrestling terms.
As a multiplatform storyworld, WWE contains rules and protocols that creators, talent, and audiences understand and follow. In pro wrestling generally, these rules and protocols can work to maintain the illusion of reality that is known as kayfabe, whereby wrestlers continue their gimmick even when the show is over to protect the knowledge that pro wrestling is staged. The kayfabe illusion broke in the 1980s, but what remains is a rich storyworld on the border of fiction and reality where rules and protocols give well-booked matches meaning.
In WWE, these rules may involve adhering to brand distinctions between Raw, Smackdown, and NXT, honoring the status of each championship title, or maintaining the goal to plausibly simulate sports contest. Most relevant here is the rule that the pro wrestler who wins the Royal Rumble gets a WrestleMania title opportunity of their choice. On the road to WrestleMania XL, the potential disruption of this rule added a new dimension to an already long-running story.
Cody Rhodes’ win in the 2024 Royal Rumble made him one of only four WWE superstars to win back-to-back, including Hulk Hogan (1990 & 1991), Shawn Michaels (1995 & 1996), and ‘Stone Cold’ Steve Austin (1997 & 1998). This accomplishment gave him a second chance to defeat Roman Reigns and win the Undisputed WWE Universal Championship, but the threat of a returning WWE legend – The Rock – jeopardized this privilege. In response, the WWE Universe expressed disapproval.
The interference of The Rock in Rhodes’ story reflects key themes explored over these three parts: the important role of the audience in shaping story direction and character types; the serialized development of WWE storytelling; and the contemporary transformation of kayfabe. While kayfabe no longer exists as it used to – with a clear distinction between reality and fiction – it now drives a self-reflexive logic in the relationship between production and audience, whereby audience reception is now shaped and exploited by their awareness of pro wrestling conventions and booking.
This final part will focus on the last stage in the two-year (and beyond) story that culminated at WrestleMania XL, where Rhodes finally finished his story and became WWE Champion.
There’s always a bigger superstar. . .
The surprise return of CM Punk at Survivor Series: WarGames (2023) was even bigger than Rhodes’ return in 2022. After almost ten years since leaving WWE, Punk returned in his hometown of Chicago to a resounding pop, both live and on social media. Like Rhodes, Punk came back to WWE via All Elite Wrestling (AEW), so they shared a similar recent trajectory (although Punk’s departure from AEW was far more controversial). They also share a ‘gift of the gab’ with exceptional mic skills. In the lead-up to the 2024 Royal Rumble, Rhodes and Punk exchanged words about their mutual respect and friendship before warning that the friendship stops short at the wrestling ring at Royal Rumble (video 1). On Raw (January 22, 2024), Punk tells Rhodes,
I know there’s no friends in the Royal Rumble. I’ve been in more than you have. But what about Sunday morning? Because I can separate business from personal — can you? Because I wasn’t born in this business. You very much were. You grew up in this business. Personal to you is this business.
With this speech Punk offers commentary on Rhodes that reflects a point we made in Part Two, where the blurring of the personal and professional is always at play for Rhodes’ story. Punk’s speech highlights a more complex expression of contemporary kayfabe that acknowledges a distinction between personal and business; historically, ‘keeping kayfabe’ meant that wrestlers would extend in-ring rifts or contest outside the ring, but here Punk asks Rhodes if he has what it takes to separate the two and maintain their friendship outside the in-ring contest.
Video 1: Punk and Rhodes face-off on Raw (January 22, 2024)
While Rhodes offered a positive reception to Punk’s return – essentially, this is great for business so “welcome aboard” – the return of Punk had implications for Rhodes’ story going into the 2024 Royal Rumble. This would be yet another challenge to overcome, which Punk also clearly articulates on Raw (January 22, 2024):
Cody Rhodes, you have carried this company on your back for a soul-crushing 2 years . . . And right when you’re about to cross the finish line and finish your story – oh what, what’s that in the distance? It’s a much bigger superstar who hasn’t been around in a very long time trying to take it away from you and I’m talking about me!
Unsurprisingly, Rhodes and Punk are the last two competitors left in the 2024 Royal Rumble match and for a moment it seemed as though Punk might win as he boasted, “I didn’t wait 10 years to lose to Dusty’s kid” – that is exactly what happened as Rhodes threw Punk out of the ring and finished victorious. As is custom with a Royal Rumble win, Rhodes climbed onto the turnbuckle and pointed to the WrestleMania sign; since Rhodes already knew which title he wanted, he pointed straight at Reigns sitting in the stands (video 2). After the Royal Rumble, news emerged that Punk had sustained a severe tricep injury during the match and would need to take time off, thus ruling him out of WrestleMania XL – but the threat of a bigger superstar was not over.
Video 2: Rhodes wins the 2024 Royal Rumble
Despite all clear indications that Rhodes would choose Reigns for his title opportunity at WrestleMania XL, on Raw (January 29, 2024) Rollins tried to entice Rhodes to challenge him for his World Heavyweight Championship instead – a title without the long history or connection to Rhodes’ father. This was the first signal of a potential storyline pivot.
This shift was confirmed on SmackDown (February 2, 2024) when Rhodes revealed that, after reaching out to past WWE legends for advice, he would delay his goal: “I am coming for you Roman Reigns, but not at WrestleMania.” This was the queue for The Rock to enter the arena and take Rhodes’ place in the ring, and at WrestleMania XL (video 3).
Video 3: The Rock disrupts Rhodes’ story on SmackDown (February 2, 2024)
Despite the positive reaction from the live audience, the full segment of this exchange became WWE’s most disliked video. It was unsurprising that there would be a big pop from the live audience – The Rock showed up on SmackDown unannounced – but for the bigger story, Rhodes’ decision to step away from his goal was out of character and undermined the audience’s commitment to his story over two years.
The WWE Universe made their thoughts on this story pivot very clear on the next Raw (February 5, 2024) where #WeWantCody chants and signs (image 1) dominated the show (although there were rumors that WWE handed out the signs). This raised questions about WWE’s story intentions regarding Rhodes, Reigns and The Rock: was this all part of the planned story, or audience-driven cause and effect? Another notable aspect of contemporary kayfabe is that, now the audience knowns this is a scripted story, there is more opportunity to play with their expectations and demands.
Image 1: Rhodes looks out to a sea of #WeWantCody signs on Raw (February 5, 2024)
By the WrestleMania XL Kickoff show (February 8, 2024), the “WeWantCody” movement had gained so much traction that Reigns’ challenger was still not yet officially announced. When Rollins introduced Rhodes to the stage as the only one “who can make that decision,” Reigns entered and chose The Rock – to which Rollins cried, “that’s not how this works!” The Rock entered the stage and the audience made their thoughts very clear with booing and chanting: “we want Cody – Rocky sucks!” When The Rock finally got a word in, he revealed an image on screen of two family trees – the Anoa’i’s and the Maivia’s – bonded by blood oath (image 2).
Image 2: ‘The Bloodline’ family trees on WrestleMania XL Kickoff (2024).
For The Rock, this segment was intended to hype a match-up between him and Reigns that he claimed would be the biggest WrestleMania Main Event of all time. However, just as he and Reigns embraced to confirm the match-up, Rhodes emerged on stage and called “bulls**t.” He reminded Reigns and The Rock that it is his right to choose his opponent at WrestleMania XL as the 2024 Royal Rumble winner: “I choose you, Roman Reigns” (video 4). This decided the WrestleMania XL Main Event to be Rhodes versus Reigns for the Undisputed WWE Universal Championship, but this did not resolve the other emerging feud that Rhodes had provoked with The Rock and this segment concluded with The Rock slapping Rhodes.
Video 4: WrestleMania XL Kickoff (2024)
The addition of The Rock on the “Road to WrestleMania”, especially its potential disruption of Rhodes’ story, emphasized the critical role of the audience in shaping story direction. While a large contingent of the WWE Universe and the general audience wanted to see The Rock return to WWE, many did not want it to be at the expense of the long-form story they had been invested in over more than two years. The Rock versus Reigns might have been good for business, but Rhodes versus Reigns was good for the story. This disruption proved Punk to be right when he warned Rhodes “there will always be a bigger superstar”. It also gave the WWE Universe an opportunity to voice their support of Rhodes.
I will be your shield
Rhodes personified the champion without a belt. He had motivated a team of babyfaces against Reigns who offered to help him finish his story, most especially Rollins. As we mentioned in Part One, Rollins’ part in this story extends back to 2014 when he was part of ‘The Shield’, together with Reigns and Dean Ambrose, and betrayed Reigns by hitting him in the back with a steel chair. On Raw (February 12, 2024), Rollins recounts this history (video 5):
The man Roman Reigns is, is partly my fault. We were brothers forged from the same fire. I taught him everything I know. I am partly responsible for the man that he is, but I could never have imagined the monster that he has become. And now that monster has got two heads. . . But when it comes to fighting ‘The Bloodline’, when it comes to fighting The Rock, when it comes to fighting Roman Reigns, there is only one man on Earth who is uniquely suited to be your shield.
In hindsight, Rollins’ offer to be Rhodes’ shield is the ‘Chekhov’s gun’ of WrestleMania XL and places Rollins in the most valuable role in the story.
Video 5: Rollins offers to be Rhodes’ shield on Raw (February 12, 2024)
The Final Boss
At Elimination Chamber: Perth (2024), Rhodes challenged The Rock to a one-on-one match “any time, anywhere”. On SmackDown (March 1, 2024), The Rock refused the offer but counter-challenged Rhodes and Rollins to a tag match with him and Reigns on Night 1 of WrestleMania XL, with stipulations: if Rhodes and Rollins win the tag match on Night 1, then Rhodes’ match with Reigns on Night 2 will be uninterrupted by ‘The Bloodline’; if Rhodes and Rollins lose on Night 1, then the Main Event on Night 2 will be “Bloodline Rules” – if Rhodes loses on Night 2, he can never challenge for the championship again (video 6). Rhodes and Rollins accepted The Rock’s challenge on SmackDown (March 8, 2024) (video 7).
Video 6: The Rock makes his offer to Rhodes and Rollins on SmackDown (March 1, 2024)
Video 7: Rhodes and Rollins accept The Rock’s challenge on SmackDown (March 8, 2024)
When The Rock returned to WWE on Raw Day One (January 1, 2024) and confronted anti-USA heel Jinder Mahal, he was ‘The People’s Champ’; he thought himself to be the rightful ‘Head of the Table’ and, in hinting his opposition to Reigns, he presented himself as the babyface hero. As much as The Rock disrupted Rhodes’ story, Rhodes also destabilized the The Rock’s impression of his current status in the WWE Universe. The Rock saw himself as the savior returning to help WWE defeat Reigns but misjudged the degree to which Rhodes had already taken on that role in the fandom’s eyes. The #WeWantCody movement was so strong that it not only influenced the direction of the story, but it also forced The Rock to reconnect with his historically popular heel gimmick; however, this time he added the twist of being ‘The Final Boss’ who was also on the board of TKO with a disregard for current WWE management (Image 3).
Image 3: The Rock’s entrance as ‘The Final Boss’ on Raw (March 25, 2024)
The Rock was so committed to this heel turn against Rhodes and Rollins that he posted a 21-minute video rant on social media, to which Rhodes confidently downplayed with his own social media response, “i ain’t watching all that / i’m happy for u tho / or sorry that happened”. This exchange emulates traditional kayfabe, where the character types of heel and babyface extend into the personal and social sphere so much so that they also characterize the pro wrestler as a real person.
The Rock’s heel gimmick as ‘The Final Boss’ controlled most of the hype in the last couple of weeks leading into WrestleMania XL; however, with two high profile Main Event matches locked in, episodes of Raw and SmackDown interweaved non-match segments between Rhodes, Reigns, The Rock and Rollins that took on their own Main Event status in weekly programing. On Raw (March 18, 2024), Rhodes delivered a promo about The Rock that questioned his status as a heel and suggested that he was merely Reigns’ sidekick: “Rock referred to himself as our favorite heel . . . I’ve known some heels. . . Rock, I don’t think you’re a heel, I think you’re an ar**hole” (video 8).
Video 8: Rhodes calls out The Rock on Raw (March 18, 2024)
This promo undermined the validity of The Rock’s role as heel and thus his threat as an opponent; it also emphasized the new era for WWE branding that allowed the use of such terms as ‘heel’, ‘babyface’, ‘pro wrestling’ or ‘pro wrestler’ (previously, ‘superstar’ and ‘sports entertainment’ were to be used instead). The use of this language reflects WWE’s reconnection with pro wrestling as a distinctive medium with conventions, protocols and principles that shape storytelling and that audiences also understand. This promo signaled how the final stage in the “Road to WrestleMania XL” would play with this shared knowledge between storytelling and audience by testing the definition of what would historically be considered kayfabe.
On Raw (March 25, 2024) a week before WrestleMania XL, a match between Jey Uso and Shinsuke Nakamura was interrupted by ‘The Bloodline’ that quickly escalated into an arena fight outside the ring. Embodying ‘The Final Boss’ persona, The Rock took over the fight and dragged Rhodes out into a raining backlot to beat him up beside the ‘American Nightmare’ Tour Bus (image 4).
Image 4: The Rock beats up Rhodes beside the ‘American Nightmare’ Tour Bus on Raw (March 25, 2024)
There is much to say about this encounter, especially based on the maturity level of its violence and profanity, but what is especially interesting is how it plays with the audience’s awareness of kayfabe. Following the episode, The Rock posted a video on social media the revealed behind the scenes of this beating, where he refused to stop after the segment was ‘officially’ over because “just because the show is over, doesn’t mean that it stops”. This typified classical kayfabe, whereby feuds continue into the private and personal sphere and is meant to give the impression that this is a real feud; however, the contemporary twist here is that the persistence of this conflict was still staged, recorded, posted on social media, and then edited and aired in a highlights video on the next SmackDown (video 9). There was something more personal at work in the feud between The Rock and Rhodes, which reactivated the threshold between real and fiction that is crucial to storytelling in pro wrestling.
Video 9: Highlights of The Rock’s beatdown of Rhodes from Raw aired on SmackDown (March 29, 2024)
Going into Night 1 of WrestleMania XL, Rhodes and Rollins had just been beaten up, flagellated and left splayed in the ring on Raw (April 1, 2024). This segment reinforced the brutality of ‘The Bloodline’ and ensured that Rhodes and Rollins went into WrestleMania XL at a disadvantage (image 5).
Image 5: ‘The Bloodline’ beat up Rhodes and Rollins on Raw (April 1, 2024)
Night 1: The Rock and Reigns vs Rhodes and Rollins
The Tag Team Main Event on Night 1 of WrestleMania XL was hyped as the “biggest tag team match of all time” (image 6). It was The Rock’s first match in a decade and the outcome would determine the conditions of the Night 2 Main Event between Reigns and Rhodes. The babyface team – Rhodes and Rollins – entered the match as underdogs and this disadvantage was exploited and intensified by The Rock and Reigns. Both Rhodes and Rollins would follow this tag match with their own solo championship matches on Night 2 (Rollins v McIntyre and Rhodes v Reigns), so there was a lot of focus on the personal and physical cost of this match – especially for Rollins who had only recently been medically cleared to return to the ring after injury.
Image 6: Night 1 Tag Team Main Event at WrestleMania XL (2024)
It was unsurprising that The Rock and Reigns would defeat Rhodes and Rollins in this tag match on Night 1 – the tease of a “Bloodline Rules” championship match for Night 2 was too hyped not to be realized. While this match is a culmination of The Rock’s interference in Rhodes’ story and thus builds on past storytelling, it is most interesting as a seeding match for future feuds. Two notable moments of this match could fuel future high-profile matches: Reigns accidently spearing The Rock (video 10) and The Rock pinning Rhodes to win the match (video 11). Both these moments have the potential to fuel continued storylines involving The Rock, Reigns and Rhodes.
Video 10: Reigns accidently spears The Rock on Night 1 of WrestleMania XL (2024)
Video 11: The Rock pins Rhodes on Night 1 of WrestleMania XL (2024)
Night 2: Bloodline Rules – Reigns vs Rhodes
The three parts of this piece have charted the multistrand extended storytelling that led to the championship match on Night 2 of WrestleMania XL (image 7), which we go so far to say is the greatest WrestleMania Main Event of all time. This event engaged storytelling conventions, techniques and development strategies – such as audience-driven characterization, long-form serialization, and the blurring of reality and fiction – that reflect the distinctiveness of pro wrestling as an entertainment medium and its relationship with audience.
Image 7: Reigns vs Rhodes for the Undisputed WWE Universal Championship at WrestleMania XL (2024)
The “Bloodline Rules” match conditions guaranteed there would be heel interferences, but any appearance of ‘The Bloodline’ was countered by a WWE babyface that reflected the team support that Rhodes had developed since his return (image 8). Jimmy Uso was speared off the stage by his brother, Jey Uso. Solo Sikoa’s appearance triggered the arrival of John Cena (another rival of ‘The Bloodline’), who threw Sikoa out of the ring and hit his finisher on him and Reigns. The Rock confronted Cena in the ring and performed a Rock Bottom. ‘The Shield’ entrance music played as Rollins entered the ring in his old gimmick attire and with a steel chair in hand, only to be speared by Reigns. Finally, a blackout was triggered by the sound of The Undertaker’s gong and when the lights returned The Rock was Chokeslammed by The Undertaker, before they both disappeared during a second blackout. The Undertaker has often served as the steward of WWE who dealt with egotistical wrestlers – he also retired at WrestleMania 36 (2020) in a cinematic “Boneyard Match” with no audience – so his return was not really part of a storyline as much as it celebrated a WWE icon.
Image 8: Heel interferences and babyface support in the Main Event of Night 2 at WrestleMania XL (2024)
The success of this match worked on multiple levels for audience engagement. On its own, this was a dynamic match that told a story through the psychology of physical combat in the ring. As a part of WrestleMania XL, it provided a climax to a two-day event with reappearances of supporting superstars, such as Jey and Jimmy Uso, Sikoa, The Rock, and Rollins. For lapsed fans of previous WWE eras, the return of legends such as The Rock, Cena, and The Undertaker added an element of nostalgia to the 40th anniversary celebration. For the current committed audience, it was a culmination of multiple years of serialized storytelling that involved Reigns, Rhodes, The Bloodline, and Rollins.
Rollins’ Sacrifice
Although Rhodes was the babyface superstar in this Main Event, Rollins emerged as its most valuable participant. Ultimately, Rollins sacrificed himself to enable Rhodes’ victory. He entered the match already worn down after defeat in the Night 1 tag team match and his own solo match that opened Night 2 (in which he lost the World Heavyweight title to Drew McIntyre). Back on Raw (February 12, 2024), Rollins promised Rhodes that he will be his shield because he knew that, despite Reigns’ persistent strength, only he could expose Reigns’ vulnerabilities.
In Part One, we traced the beginning of this story back to 2014 when Reigns and Rollins were part of ‘The Shield’ and Rollins betrayed Reigns with a steel chair to the back. Reigns’ domination as ‘The Tribal Chief’ seemed to overcome that betrayal, but a key moment in this WrestleMania XL Main Event revealed that this domination was achieved despite a deep-seated vulnerability regarding Rollins. Indeed, Rollins is the only WWE superstar to not be pinned by Reigns as ‘The Tribal Chief’ – at the 2022 Royal Rumble, Rollins also wore his old gear from ‘The Shield’ and defeated Reigns by disqualification. When Rollins told Rhodes he is the “one man on Earth who is uniquely suited to be your shield,” he knew he could break Reigns.
This played out towards the end of the match when Reigns was faced with a choice to use the steel chair on Rhodes, and secure his win, or on an already injured Rollins, and get payback for his 2014 betrayal (video 12). Reigns chose Rollins, which gave Rhodes time to recover and ultimately secure his win.
Video 12: Reigns makes a choice to hit Rollins with a steel chair instead of Rhodes at WrestleMania XL (2024)
Rollins’ involvement in this Main Event highlighted that this was a culmination of Reigns’ story as much as it was Rhodes’ story. It exposed Reigns as a man broken by betrayal and rejected by the audience, who found the acknowledgement he desired in the subservience of his family, ‘The Bloodline’. As the fourth longest reigning WWE Champion (after Bruno Sammartino, Bob Backlund and Hulk Hogan), Reigns and ‘The Bloodline’ represented constant strength during a time of instability in WWE. In the end, it was decade-long grudge with Rollins that set him up for defeat (image 9).
Image 9: (LEFT) Rollins hits Reigns with a steel chair in 2014 (see Part One); (RIGHT) Reigns hits Rollins with a steel chair in 2024.
Finishing the Story
Since his return to WWE in 2022, Rhodes was committed to “finishing the story” his father started in the 1970s. In this time, he overcame injury, WrestleMania defeat, and repeated heel inferences to ultimately win the Undisputed WWE Universal Championship at WrestleMania XL (video 13). When referee Charles Robinson handed Rhodes the championship title, it formed a historical throughline back to the moment that Dusty Rhodes had the title taken away in 1977, thus solidifying the finishing of a story (image 10).
Video 13: Rhodes wins the Undisputed WWE Universal Championship at WrestleMania XL
Image 10: (LEFT) Championship title is taken from Dusty Rhodes, despite winning (1977); (RIGHT) Referee Robinson presents Cody Rhodes with the championship title at WrestleMania XL (2024)
Even though the “Road to WrestleMania” traditionally begins at the Royal Rumble in January, it is possible to trace the story of WrestleMania XL further back through history:
‘The Bloodline Civil War’ (2023)
Rhodes losing WrestleMania 39 (2023)
Reigns becoming Undisputed WWE Universal Champion (2022)
Rhodes’ return at WrestleMania 38 (2022)
Reigns becoming ‘The Tribal Chief’ (2020)
Rhodes leaving WWE (2016)
Rollins’ betrayal of Reigns (2014)
Dusty Rhodes being denied the WWE Championship (1977).
The extended history of the WrestleMania XL story helped celebrate the event’s 40th anniversary but also reconnected with the long form serialization of storytelling in pro wrestling. Rhodes’ drive to “finish the story” and win the Undisputed WWE Universal Championship also represented a historical transition for WWE as Rhodes has now become the face of a new era (image 11).
Image 11: Rhodes celebrate his win at WrestleMania XL
Biographies
Tara Lomax is the Discipline Lead of Screen Studies at the Australian Film Television and Radio School (AFTRS). She has expertise in blockbuster franchising, multiplatform storytelling, and contemporary entertainment and has a PhD from the University of Melbourne. She has published on media franchising, the superhero and horror genres, entertainment industries, transmedia storytelling, and stardom. Her work can be found in publications that include the Journal of Cinema and Media Studies (2024, forthcoming), Senses of Cinema and Quarterly Review of Film and Video, and the edited books Starring Tom Cruise (2021), The Supervillain Reader (2020), The Superhero Symbol (2020), Hannibal Lecter’s Forms, Formulations, and Transformations (2020), The Palgrave Handbook of Screen Production (2019), and Star Wars and the History of Transmedia Storytelling (2017). She is on the Pop Junctions editorial committee.
Mark Williamson has over twenty years of experience as a performer, promotor, producer and commentator in Australian professional wrestling. He has booked wrestling promotions including International Wrestling Australia (IWA) and Warzone Wrestling, and produced the series Underworld Wrestling (2018-2019), which streamed on Amazon Prime Video (2018-2022) and is now available on Tubi. As a pro wrestling manager, he worked with former pro wrestler and now WWE Raw General Manager Adam Pearce. More recently he has explored the creative opportunities of pro wrestling storytelling through comic books and audio platforms.
