I fully expected and hoped for Cody Rhodes to come out Monday night on “Raw” and take his victory lap. After all, he’s only the fourth man in history to win back-to-back Royal Rumble matches, and the only one in recent memory. Rhodes is also my current favorite wrestler and I actually did not expect him to win on Saturday over CM Punk, so when he did, I immediately became excited to see what he had to say on Monday’s episode. It’s been a year in the making — I just HAD to know how Rhodes was feeling and hear all the emotions that had to be running through his mind, and he is SUCH a good promo when he’s legitimately emotional. Rhodes came out to an epically loud “WHOA!” (which I even participated in from my couch, I was so excited for him), got Samantha Irving to announce him all over again, and said the last 24 hours had been challenging for him. And that’s about all he got out before he was interrupted by World Heavyweight Champion Seth Rollins.

While I love Rollins, this segment was just long, drawn out, and downright confusing. Everyone knows Rhodes has to “finish the story” against Roman Reigns. There’s no other reason to have him win back-to-back Rumbles. Rollins came out to challenge Rhodes, saying even though they’ve had a longstanding rivalry and often have not liked each other, he believes they respect each other now, and doesn’t Rhodes want to challenge HIM for the “Dusty title?” The blue-collar championship? Rollins really undermined Roman Reigns’ historic title reign here, which was also confusing to me. It undermined the entire “finish the story” narrative that is now ingrained in wrestling vernacular for the rest of time.

The whole challenge reminded me that the World Heavyweight Championship was, in my eyes, set up to be a conciliation prize, just so there’s a title on “Raw” and a champion that actually shows up for work. Rollins just kept talking during this segment, and that really bothered me. Rhodes just did something historic, he has the fans behind him like no other, and you’re not going to let him get a full-blown, emotional promo out in front of some of the same fans that saw him win at the Rumble? I thought it was so lame, and I usually don’t think that about Rollins, so it was rather jarring.

Rhodes really undersold the entire thing as well, just telling Rollins he’d “think about it” before dropping the mic and headed out of the ring. If I was Rhodes, I’d be extremely annoyed at how this was booked. But as just a fan and a wrestling writer from her couch, I was annoyed at the fact Rhodes didn’t get a full victory lap. I’m even more annoyed at how much time this segment took on the show when it’s 100%, no doubt inevitable that Rhodes is challenging Reigns for the Undisputed WWE Universal Championship at WrestleMania 40. He is going to finish the damn story, and while their feud was incredible, Rhodes has already finished up with Rollins, having beaten him three times, even battered and bruised in a Hell In A Cell match. That chapter is closed, Seth, it’s time to get over it and start building up your competitors who are going to be in the Elimination Chamber.

Written by Daisy Ruth