Jeff Jarrett talks about Cody Rhodes’ defeat at WWE WrestleMania 39.
Rhodes won the 2023 Men’s Royal Rumble match, and he feuded with Undisputed WWE Universal Champion Roman Reigns on the way to WrestleMania 39. Reigns held his title for over 950 days prior to the match, but many fans anticipated Rhodes to “finish the story” by dethroning him at WrestleMania. Instead, in the main event of the show’s second night, Solo Sikoa interfered and helped Reigns in winning the match.
The WWE Hall of Famer was asked to comment on Reigns’ win during the My World with Jeff Jarrett podcast. Jarrett first stated that he was skeptical whether the news that WWE had begun advanced talks about a deal with Endeavor, which developed shortly before the second night of WrestleMania 39, impacted the outcome.
“The fact that I don’t know what I really don’t know, and that is the big CNBC news break that started happening about six hours before bell time. Had that not been a real thing, so kind of unplug the sale, which at the end of the day, all the news comes out, and look, Dana White and UFC basically stayed as is, and Ari and Endeavor just kind of lifted the whole business, but Dana kept running it, and that’s the word coming out, that it’s Vince’s baby and his business, and he’s gonna keep running it. But at the end of the day, the words Endeavor are before UFC, and the words Endeavor will be in front of WWE. So there’s a new sheriff in town. I have no idea, and there’s obviously the talk and rumors that the finish, was it put in place a month or however long before, so I took all those variables in and look at it, and we just talked about $20 million on sponsorship, so super, super successful. So don’t fix what’s not broke. I completely lean into all of that, and there is so many sides to that argument. That’s the one side,”
Jeff Jarret on MY WORLD WITH JEFF JARRETT
Jarrett went on to wonder if Rhodes and WWE are going to be able to replicate the groundswell of love that enveloped “The American Nightmare” in the run-up to WrestleMania. He then remarked that, considering the commercial success of WrestleMania, there is no right or wrong decision because the creative was subjective.
“On the other side is, will Cody and the WWE Universe be able to recreate that groundswell of ‘Finish the story,’ and the story being he left, charted his way, went out, all the independent promotions, all the groundswell, and he came back, and it’s no secret that the touring champion or the lead singer of a rock band or however we wan to slice it, yes, there’s an evolution of it, the fact that we’re talking about it as super successful means there was no right or wrong call. It’s totally subjective,”
Jeff Jarret on MY WORLD WITH JEFF JARRETT
As a booker, Jarrett believes in the significance of the gut feeling, and he feels Rhodes’ victory was still the correct decision. He added that the defeat would not have harmed Reigns, and his instinct tells him that WWE blew the chance with Rhodes. Jarrett also acknowledged the bout and referred to the ending as the screwjob of screwjobs.
“This is something that Jerry Lawler, my dad, Jackie Fargo, ‘Handsome’ Jimmy Valiant, one time sat me down and kind of gave me this kind of mindset. There’s something about a gut feeling, and sometimes promoters go with their gut. My gut still told me it would have been the right move. I don’t think it would have hurt Roman, I don’t think it would have hurt The Bloodline. I don’t think, if we wait a year, I don’t think, because we waited a year, there’s gonna be that many more eyeballs, there’s gonna be that much exponentially grown business. All the, ‘He didn’t do it this year, and we’re gonna do it next year because of X,Y, and Z,’ that’s still TBD. I think my gut tells me they missed the opportunity. I may be wrong, but I may be right. We will see. It was a hell of a match, a hell of a finish, and it’s funny how, a lot of the audiences will say, ‘Oh, this run in there and that run in there, oh they would never do that in the world title match.’ This match had been built and it’s the WrestleMania main event of night two, and they had five people run in. You talk about the layer upon layer upon layer, the Screwjob of all Screwjobs,”
Jeff Jarret on MY WORLD WITH JEFF JARRETT
Jarrett went on to say that he believes the benefits of having Rhodes win would outweigh the benefits of having Reigns retain. Co-host Conrad Thompson replied by offering his opinions on Reigns’ victory, and he voiced his belief that “The Tribal Chief” had a greater narrative to tell. Jarrett agreed, but he questioned if having Rhodes as a champion would be more advantageous to the company when it comes to of commercial metrics.
“The creative’s subjective. The business metrics of Cody going out and yeah, they do big business where Roman’s on his live events, and maybe that’s just kind of the live event promoter in me. But Roman doesn’t make all the shows, Cody will, and so what would those numbers be if you had Cody going to Wichita, Kansas, [or] even an A and B market. Roman’s schedule is, and god bless him, he’s worked his butt off to arrive at that point. Hat’s off to him in do many ways, but the business metrics. Would Cody set a record year in merchandise sales?”
Jeff Jarret on MY WORLD WITH JEFF JARRETT
The night following Rhodes’ loss to Reigns, “The American Nightmare” began feuding with Brock Lesnar. On the April 10 edition of WWE Raw, Rhodes challenged Lesnar to a bout at WWE Backlash.
h/t to Fightful for the transcript, original can be found here https://www.fightful.com/wrestling/jeff-jarrett-cody-rhodes-loss-wrestlemania-39-my-gut-tells-me-they-missed-opportunity
Follow Mark T Cyrus at @_MarkCyrus on Twitter
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