Below are some top WWE news stories of the day, involving Cody Rhodes, Brock Lesnar and Batista.
• As seen on this week’s RAW, Seth Rollins tried to convince 2024 Men’s Royal Rumble winner Cody Rhodes to face him for the World Heavyweight Championship at WrestleMania 40, instead of Undisputed WWE Universal Champion Roman Reigns.
In a new WrestleMania promo video released by WWE, Rollins questioned Rhodes what kind of champion he wants to be, and the choices were The Ultimate Warrior and Ric Flair. On RAW, Seth mentioned the WWE Championship as the Hulk Hogan title and the World Heavyweight Championship as the Dusty Rhodes title.
Cody said he’ll think about it and then make his WrestleMania 40 decision.
According to the Wrestling Observer, WWE teased this angle to pop a rating:
“The idea is they can build up for a week or two and pop a big rating for Cody’s decision.”
• Brock Lesnar vs. Batista was a dream match between two of the biggest stars of the Ruthless Aggression Era, but it never happened in WWE.
They did have a match in Ohio Valley Wrestling (WWF’s developmental territory at the time), but they weren’t superstars at that point.
During an episode of Something To Wrestle, Bruce Prichard explained why the mega match between The Beast and The Animal didn’t happen in WWE:
“Timing kids, timing. It’s all about timing, you know. Wrong place, wrong time. And I think that would have been, you know, that could have been one of those that you build up for years before you finally do it.”
Lesnar left the WWE in 2004, while Batista became a main event star in 2005.
On the Talk Is Jericho podcast in 2017, Batista said the following about wrestling Lesnar in OVW:
“I only worked with Brock in OVW. He worked one house show in WWE, but he just jobbed me out. It was a total squash match. I hadn’t even… we had been with Evolution. I don’t know if I want Brock to drop me on my head (laughs).”
WATCH: Sable (Brock Lesnar’s Wife) Strips At WWF Fully Loaded 1998:
