Roman Reigns Reportedly Pitched Win Over Cody Rhodes At WWE WrestleMania 39

It took awhile, and a change of plans from Roman Reigns vs. The Rock in order for Cody Rhodes to "finish his story" and defeat Reigns for the Undisputed WWE Championship at WrestleMania 40. But as first hinted at by a bombshell report by Brandon Thurston regarding WWE's ongoing shareholder lawsuit yesterday, it seems Rhodes could've finished his story even sooner. While talking about Thurston's report on the latest "Wrestling Observer Radio," Bryan Alvarez honed in on a text message exchange between Vince McMahon and Nick Khan discussing a change of plans for Rhodes and Reigns' match at WrestleMania 39, which Reigns won.

Alvarez took that to mean McMahon, fresh off returning to power in WWE after his retirement in July, had vetoed the plan for Rhodes to win the match in favor of Reigns winning instead. But Dave Meltzer clarified that it was Reigns who had actually come forward with the idea of retaining the title.

"It was Roman Reigns' call," Meltzer said. "I mean, Vince had to approve it, but Roman Reigns was the one who went to Vince with the idea, and pitched the idea that it would be better, it would be more meaningful if he [Cody] didn't win the first time, and we build to a bigger one the second time. And explained it. I think Heyman, with Reigns, did that. I think they were very persuasive. 

"I think that the argument is very strong, with the benefit of hindsight, that they were right, because the second year was way bigger than the first year. But...Vince made the call, and Levesque was on board with the call. But Vince is the one who made the call. So yes, Vince was the one that had final say at that point. He had final say the whole time. He was the Chairman of the Board again, or whatever."

If you use any of the quotes in this article, please credit "Wrestling Observer Radio" and provide a h/t to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription