With Cody Rhodes fully-entrenched in his rocket shot to the top of WWE as he did all he could to “finish his story,” there didn’t seem to be much that could’ve gotten in the way of “The American Nightmare” as he sought to unseat Roman Reigns as WWE Champion at WrestleMania 40 after falling short the year before. Enter: Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson, who fresh off the heels of being named a TKO board member, inserted none other than himself into the main event picture and, at least for a time, extracted Rhodes from the main event title shot he’d earned at the Royal Rumble—at least until fan revolt forced a change of plans, which begat “The Final Boss”—an over the top, exaggerated version of his “Hollywood Rock” character from years before.

As The Rock coined the masses a bunch of “Cody Crybabies,” forging forward towards a battle against Reigns to determine the ultimate “Head of the Table,” the WWE Universe wasn’t having any of it, revolting in the name of the #WeWantCody social media movement, and eventually yielding Rhodes as participant in the main event of both Night One and Two of WrestleMania 41, first tagging with Seth Rollins against Rock and Reigns, and then closing out the weekend with his rematch against “The Tribal Chief.” Though fans turned on the formerly inimitable fan favorite in The Rock, all’s well that ends well, and in this case, it’s hard to argue that fans didn’t get all that they’d hope for in an eventual main event for the ages that saw Rhodes finally capture the title he’d been after for so long, amid cameos from John Cena, The Usos, Rollins, and The Undertaker.