As a multiplatform storyworld, WWE contains rules and protocols that creators, talent, and audiences understand and follow. In pro wrestling generally, these rules and protocols can work to maintain the illusion of reality that is known as kayfabe, whereby wrestlers continue their gimmick even when the show is over to protect the knowledge that pro wrestling is staged. The kayfabe illusion broke in the 1980s, but what remains is a rich storyworld on the border of fiction and reality where rules and protocols give well-booked matches meaning.
In WWE, these rules may involve adhering to brand distinctions between Raw, Smackdown, and NXT, honoring the status of each championship title, or maintaining the goal to plausibly simulate sports contest. Most relevant here is the rule that the pro wrestler who wins the Royal Rumble gets a WrestleMania title opportunity of their choice. On the road to WrestleMania XL, the potential disruption of this rule added a new dimension to an already long-running story.
Cody Rhodes’ win in the 2024 Royal Rumble made him one of only four WWE superstars to win back-to-back, including Hulk Hogan (1990 & 1991), Shawn Michaels (1995 & 1996), and ‘Stone Cold’ Steve Austin (1997 & 1998). This accomplishment gave him a second chance to defeat Roman Reigns and win the Undisputed WWE Universal Championship, but the threat of a returning WWE legend – The Rock – jeopardized this privilege. In response, the WWE Universe expressed disapproval.
The interference of The Rock in Rhodes’ story reflects key themes explored over these three parts: the important role of the audience in shaping story direction and character types; the serialized development of WWE storytelling; and the contemporary transformation of kayfabe. While kayfabe no longer exists as it used to – with a clear distinction between reality and fiction – it now drives a self-reflexive logic in the relationship between production and audience, whereby audience reception is now shaped and exploited by their awareness of pro wrestling conventions and booking.
This final part will focus on the last stage in the two-year (and beyond) story that culminated at WrestleMania XL, where Rhodes finally finished his story and became WWE Champion.
There’s always a bigger superstar. . .
The surprise return of CM Punk at Survivor Series: WarGames (2023) was even bigger than Rhodes’ return in 2022. After almost ten years since leaving WWE, Punk returned in his hometown of Chicago to a resounding pop, both live and on social media. Like Rhodes, Punk came back to WWE via All Elite Wrestling (AEW), so they shared a similar recent trajectory (although Punk’s departure from AEW was far more controversial). They also share a ‘gift of the gab’ with exceptional mic skills. In the lead-up to the 2024 Royal Rumble, Rhodes and Punk exchanged words about their mutual respect and friendship before warning that the friendship stops short at the wrestling ring at Royal Rumble (video 1). On Raw (January 22, 2024), Punk tells Rhodes,
I know there’s no friends in the Royal Rumble. I’ve been in more than you have. But what about Sunday morning? Because I can separate business from personal — can you? Because I wasn’t born in this business. You very much were. You grew up in this business. Personal to you is this business.
With this speech Punk offers commentary on Rhodes that reflects a point we made in Part Two, where the blurring of the personal and professional is always at play for Rhodes’ story. Punk’s speech highlights a more complex expression of contemporary kayfabe that acknowledges a distinction between personal and business; historically, ‘keeping kayfabe’ meant that wrestlers would extend in-ring rifts or contest outside the ring, but here Punk asks Rhodes if he has what it takes to separate the two and maintain their friendship outside the in-ring contest.
