Minus-Star Match Reviews: Cody Rhodes vs. John Cena – WWE WrestleMania 41, Night Two

I haven’t done one of these minus star reviews in a while and I was asked by a reader to do one so here we are. When picking a match I asked myself if there anything in recent memory that I could say that I left a bad taste in my mouth. Sure enough this one came up almost instantly and it isn’t hard to see why. Even though there are still four months left in this calendar year I’m pretty sure that the majority of fans would call this worst match of the year. It caused WWE’s biggest show of the year to end on a deflating note despite all the hype going in. Negative feedback came almost immediately and it was both swift and vociferous. Even the most level-headed of fans saw this as anything from an overbooked mess to an underwhelming display of panic booking in desperate need of salvaging after one of its most prominent players backed out at the last minute. And while there are two silver linings here – the rematch between Cody Rhodes and John Cena at SummerSlam more or less made up for this fiasco and WWE has severed ties with Travis Scott in the months that followed – I can’t help but wonder how boardroom politics at TKO will affect next year’s WrestleMania given that they’ll be in the same venue in 2026.

Maybe next year the show will feature better booking and less bullshit, but for now, let’s revisit this now-infamous event and see just where things went wrong.

The Story

Oh boy, what a long and winding mess this was.

Earlier in January Cena teased not entering the 2025 Royal Rumble but that was a joke and he vowed to headline WrestleMania with the goal of surpassing Ric Flair’s world championship record by winning number seventeen (nevermind the fact that non-WWE sources put Flair’s world title number at up to 23 but whatever). Cena made it to the final two but lost to Jey Uso. Undeterred Cena entered the Elimination Chamber and won, last beating old foe CM Punk. And then things got…weird.

Cody Rhodes came out to congratulate Cena and it looked like we were going to get a babyface versus babyface match. And then Dwayne Johnson came out to spread his name all over proceedings, as if the feud somehow needed him to “elevate” things to another level. Around the same time some rumors started circulating that Rock was looking to find a way to insert himself into the feud with the premise that there remained unresolved business from how things went down last year. The most common theory was that Cody would turn heel to face a babyface Cena, because who on earth was going to boo Cena during his retirement tour? (Keep that question in mind.) Furthermore, another person being shoehorned into this program was Travis Scott, a musician who was apparently a big fan of pro-wrestling and produced the theme song for WrestleMania.

However, Cody didn’t want to turn heel, believing that he still had steam as a babyface (ignoring some of the fans online starting to turn on him and argue he was either overrated or getting stale) and told the Rock to go fuck himself. Then Cody turned his back to the Rock to hug Cena but Cena locked eyes with Rock. Rock did a throat slash gesture…and Cena turned heel. Cena hit a low blow and left Cody bloody, and then Scott hit Cody for real, busting his eardrum in the process.

Yeah, it was a shocking moment but it was also the most inorganic and forced heel turn in recent memory. It got people talking but then the build towards WrestleMania started getting convoluted. Rock and Scott were positioned as Cena’s allies and Cena was meant to be a true and proper heel who vowed to end professional wrestling as we knew it. Yet while this was happening some fans began booing Cody and cheering Cena, even though Cena was spewing some of the most vitriolic comments since his original feud with Rock over a decade earlier. They were building Cody as this take-on-all-comers fighter against the most institutional force in WWE from the past quarter century yet a growing number of fans were for all intents and purposes hijacking the story to cheer Cena. Then to make matters worse more rumors began to circulate that the Rock, the archvillain putting this whole scheme together, might not appear at WrestleMania due to a scheduling conflict, despite having such a heavy involvement in the story.

So going into the match the hype was all over the place. Cody wasn’t the bona fide hero anymore, Cena was going to get more of a mixed reaction than intended despite all of his attempts to be a heel, and the most prominent name involved in the whole thing might not get involved at all despite the story basically necessitating that he do so. Though a lot of people went into this show with a healthy curiosity, I was worried that this would be a disaster. Little did I know just how badly it would end…

The Match

This took place on April 20, 2025. It was rated *3/4 out of five by the Wrestling Observer’s Dave Meltzer and *1/2 by Scott Keith.

Mixed reaction for both guys during intros but when the bell rings they’re overwhelmingly pro-Cena. Standard hold exchange during the opening few minutes. Cena uses the ropes and bails to ringside a few times. Cody with a suicide dive to quicken the pace but Cena shuts that down with a big right hand. More basic moves by Cena as something off-camera distracts a lot of fans in the building. Cena with more simple strikes and a hard corner Irish whip. A catapult into the bottom rope sends Cody to the floor. Two big clotheslines by Cena followed by a chinlock. Cody attempts a comeback but Cena shuts him down with a sidewalk slam for two.

Cena looks almost bored as he hits diving ax handles. He goes for a third but Cody lands a gut kick. The crowd boos as Cody lands some jabs but they cheer when Cena pokes Cody’s eye. The commentators focus on Cody while the crowd chants for/against Cena. A tornado DDT gets Cena another two-count. Single shoulderblock followed by a spinning side suplex. Cody thumbs the eye to block the You Can’t See Me. Cody with a snap powerslam and a springboard kick. A Cody Cutter gets two. Cena blocks a Bionic Elbow. Cody blocks an STF. AA connects. Two-count. Five-Knuckle Shuffle connects. Cody escapes another AA with a sunset flip for two. Codt fights back and does a Flair-style corner rope flip. He tries a top-rope move but Cena crotches him on the top rope. Avalancha AA connects. Cody kicks out. Cena tries a top-rope diving leg drop. Cody counters with a powerbomb for two. Top-rope Cody Cutter. Another two-count. Cena counters a Cody Cutter into a third AA and lock in the STF(U). Cody reaches forward. Cena pulls him back and reapplied the hold. Cody tries crawling to the ropes again. Cena pulls him back once more. But this time Cody kicks Cena back and sends Cena into the referee and the ref goes down. Oh, come on. That’s one of the lightest ref bumps ever.

Cody counters another AA and lands a Cody Cutter and gets a visual ten-count but the referee is still out. A bunch of fans turn to the entrance expecting interference as Cody tries to wake the referee up and Cena removes a turnbuckle pad. A simple punch exchange ends with Cody hitting the exposed corner twice. AA #4. 2.8-count.

And then the music plays.

But it’s not The Rock. It’s Travis Scott. Cena smiles as Scott saunters down to the ring. They shake hands as Cody slowly gets up. The referee sees Scott standing on the apron and does absolutely nothing about it. So much for consistent rules. Scott prepares a slap but Cody breaks free. He goes after Scott for a second and then lands Cross Rhodes on Cena. One, two, Scott pulls the referee out of the ring. Cody JUST STANDS THERE jaw-jacking with this 90-pound toothpick instead of staying focused on the much bigger threat in the ring. They start TEASING and taunting in the middle of this WrestleMania main-event. Cody blocks a punch and lands Cross Rhodes on Scott. As all of this is going on Cena grabs the title belt. He goes for a belt shot. Cody blocks and yanks the belt from him. Cena pleads for mercy. Cody does the phoniest “I’m completely torn” display and then Cena kicks him right in the balls. Cena lands the belt shot and gets the three-count to become a 17-time World Champion. And the crowd pops for it.

Winner and NEW Undisputed WWE Champion after 25:03: John Cena

Review

When I first watched this match live I was thoroughly disappointed like so many others. But upon later reflection I realize that this match wasn’t a complete and irredeemable trainwreck lacking anything positive whatsoever. Everything up until the ref bump was passable and maybe a bit pedestrian but otherwise inoffensive. Cena wasn’t doing anything flashy and that was completely in line with the match’s story. He wanted to “end pro-wrestling as we knew it” and to that end wrestled in a basic and straightforward style so trimmed down that anyone reading this could pull his moves off move-for-move with minimal training. It’s only once the ref bump happened that the match went off an immediate cliff. Personally I hate ref bumps with a passion because they’re too cheesy to believe in this day and age since they’re done so lazily and just open the floodgates of plot holes. Why wasn’t another ref immediately sprinting down to the ring à la Lil’ Naitch at WrestleMania XXIV the moment the first one went down? Why does WWE, in universe, hire people with bones made of glass to officiate such dangerous contests knowing they could get hurt? Why wasn’t the match stopped until the original referee regained consciousness? Maybe I’m getting ahead of myself or maybe I’m overthinking something that should be easily dismissed as a “wrestling trope” but it’s just so unbelievably stupid. If even the youngest or simplest of fan can poke holes in how this part played out it makes the proceeding action look stupid.

But that’s not the only reason this match’s quality took such a nosedive. The interference was executed so poorly that it made Cody look like a complete dumbass. There was no suddenness to Scott’s interference: he got a full entrance and got to walk down the entrance ramp at the most leisurely pace imaginable. There was no urgency, no speed to it; he just strolled down without a care in the world. It was obvious then and it’s still obvious now that his involvement was a rushed backup plan because Rock couldn’t be bothered to show up. What, there was no other wrestler in WWE that Rock knew personally to interfere instead? Or he couldn’t pay off some wrestler, any wrestler, to interfere in his stead and build off of that? Instead they went with this teeny tiny little musician who created a lazy piece of “music” that could be replicated almost effortlessly in two hours on Fruity Loops Studio to represent him? It’s downright stupid and insulting, especially since Cody actually sold like this was a big deal. If it was Rock himself walking down to the ring, fine, I could believe that since that man is, a) jacked to the gills; and b) clearly established as an authority figure at or above Triple H’s level and thus instantly demands attention. But Travis Scott? Hell no, Cody should’ve known better. He should’ve just bitchslapped Scott right away and kept his focus on the task at hand.

Instead, the people involved here just stalled until all the pieces SLOWLY got into place in time for Cena’s record-breaking accomplishment to come in with a relative whimper. It didn’t feel as important or spectacular as it should’ve. All the pieces as they were didn’t lead to a satisfying conclusion. Instead, this match came across as an overbooked mess by the end, which almost negated whatever good they had going on for the first two thirds of it.

As a longtime fan I can’t stand booking that makes wrestlers, babyface or heel, come across as complete morons who get distracted too easily by trivial matters. It’s because of stuff like this that today’s wrestlers struggle to surpass bigger names from the past like Hulk Hogan and Steve Austin. Would Austin allow himself to be booked like a gullible idiot? Would Hogan let himself be distracted by music when there’s a monster-du-jour mere feet away and he has just started making his comeback? No, they wouldn’t. This feels like a recent phenomenon and it’s a direction that WWE in particular needs to get rid of. Because if casual or skeptic fans would see Cody’s actions in this match and laugh at him for being such a doofus, why would they want to tune in regularly or become regular, committed fans?

Final Rating: *1/2

I agree with Scott Keith’s score but for different reasons. While it would be unfair to call this a trainwreck or a complete failure it still had a few minor redeeming qualities. Cena showed that he could work in a different way: he ventured out of his comfort zone, wrestled as close to a true heel as he could despite the crowd’s support of him working against the story he was trying to tell, and did his best to get people to cheer Cody as the intended babyface. Unfortunately, both Cena and Cody ended up being victims of a power-play happening above them. Rock wanted to insert himself into a story and bailed when his presence was most needed, Travis Scott ended up being a complete hindrance to everything and was only brought on because TKO board member Ari Emmanuel owed him a favor, and the audience really didn’t want to boo Cena no matter how much they had previously yearned for Cena to turn heel.

What’s worse is that Cody and Cena would end up making up for this disappointment four months later at SummerSlam when they put on a MUCH better match by comparison. Yes, it followed WWE’s typical main-event-style formula and largely transformed into a repetitive finisher exchange by the end. But in that second one they had more chemistry, more heat, and seemed more focused on each other rather than some bullshit celebrity involvement or nonsense with executives.

This was the ultimate example of wrong place wrong time in more ways than one. Not only was it the worst time for Cena to turn heel, it was the worst time for a lazy ref bump/interference spot. Had Cena done everything by himself without those two elements and won all by himself then this match would’ve been so much better. Cena was proving that he didn’t need so many different techniques or “workrate” to win; had he followed through with that approach this match would’ve been a clear and undeniable example that the guy actually knew how to work and that many of his critics were wrong. Instead, his efforts were just used as setup for typical bad creative that many longtime fans had been bemoaning for decades yet WWE still insists on using these tired clichés out of either habit, laziness, or both.

It was similar to Seth Rollins versus The Fiend from WWE Hell in a Cell 2019 in that it featured two talented wrestlers forced to work with crappy creative that ended up hamstringing their ability to showcase their skills properly. Though it wasn’t as overwhelmingly disastrous, you can still feel echoes of that match here as bad booking cast a pall over things here and put a damper on what should’ve been a much better experience overall.

Thanks for reading.