On a recent edition of his “83 Weeks” podcast, WWE Hall of Famer Eric Bischoff discussed The Rock’s promo on the March 1st episode of WWE SmackDown.
The Rock announced that he and Roman Reigns would battle Cody Rhodes and Seth Rollins on the inaugural night of WrestleMania 40. If the babyfaces emerge victorious, Cody would challenge Roman Reigns on the second night without The Bloodline in the latter’s corner.
However, a loss for the babyfaces on the first night would turn Cody’s title match on the second night into a Bloodline Rules bout. Similarly, failing to answer the challenge would result in The Rock using his executive power to end Cody’s story before WrestleMania 40.
You can check out some highlights from the podcast below:
On the SmackDown promo by The Rock where he issued the WrestleMania tag team match challenge: “I loved it for a lot of different reasons. We were 10 minutes into that promo before anybody said a word. Ten minutes and change. I think 10:31 before we heard our first syllable. How awesome is that? That’s awesome. That’s how you hold an audience, if you have the talent in the story behind it, right? That kind of matters. I love the way it was laid out. I’m not surprised at the way this is set up the stakes. Tag match first night, kind of saw that coming way early on. I wasn’t sure I wasn’t sure how they were gonna get into it? But given Seth’s involvement at the press conference, and Cody, and the kind of things that have happened with Cody and Seth between the beginning of the story with Rock and now, it didn’t surprise me at all that we see a tag with Cody and Seth, or Rock and Roman. Saw that coming, I just didn’t know I was going to be set up.
“But now it’s clear. Or is it? This is why I love this so much. If you go back and watch that promo — or perhaps you notice the same thing I did. Maybe everybody did and I’m just kidding myself, thinking that maybe I saw something unique. But from early on in that promo, just looking at facial expressions or lack thereof really. They’re building the heat between Roman and Rock. Roman doesn’t like being overshadowed. And now, it was so obvious in that promo from a storyline perspective. ‘Acknowledge me.’ And then the hug after, it’s like a mafia hug.”
On the promo overall: “So well done, so well done. And this is a reason we can — look, we all love wrestling. We watch it; there are periods of time when we’re more excited about it than others. But this is one of those times, and I think the writing, the storytelling, the progressive nature of the story. Every week it’s getting more and more interesting. It’s episodic, It’s everything that I at least beat a drum about, in terms of the way wrestling works best. It’s not just an exhibition of people that can fly around and do crazy s**t, and cut their heads open with pliers and scissors and screwdrivers and bulls**t. There is great storytelling, there is great performance in professional wrestling. And we’re seeing it right now via the writing and the creativity that’s going into this. Going back to what I suggested earlier at the beginning of the show.
“I think they came into this WrestleMania situation with Rock, they had one idea. Crowd reacted in a way that nobody expected, and they had to pivot. And their pivoting — the effort that they put into the pivot is making the original story so much better. But it’s good writing, it’s little details. It’s nuance, and it’s making sure that the story progresses every single time. That’s a well — how many times have you heard me talk about a disciplined arc? This is an example of a well-disciplined arc.”
