>>13291783Work, but not with the endgoal in mind you think
The goal is to make Cody the underdog martyr babyface, Daniel Bryan 2.0, but then cool him off, because they've seen before that contrarian support/indignation support can be killed off. Cody previously had natural face of the company cross-demographic support, not rooted in "fuck this booking we want Cody" opposition. By shifting his booking to "metatextual corporate screwed face", they figure they can slowly cool him off, especially with the news about sign planting, and MSM stories about toxic hijackers. Cody will remain the #2 face, but that's it.
This is a work to make Rock the Hollywood Rock heel hijacking the show, to turn ROMAN face. Roman as the babyface face of the company has been what WWE have wanted for 10 years, they think this is the way to do it. Rock hijacks the show and steals Cody's moment as the giga heel, Cody gets the sympathetic underdog push while being cooled off, Roman is betrayed by the Bloodline and fights Rock for Codys honor, and the honor of the fans etc.. They did it in 2015 trying to siphon Bryans energy onto Roman by having him be screwed and Roman step up after every other face got tossed, they did it in 2016 with Roman being the guy to beat the Authority after everyone else failed. They're making Rock the bigger bad guy to try once more to make babyface Roman stick.
At Mania, Jey will beat Gunther because the Bloodline are legit going to be the centre of EVERYTHING.
Rock/Roman happens.
Rock will turn heel in the match, Roman will still retain, break Hogan's record now being pushed as a babyface.
The next year of programming is going to be Roman vs Bloodline members. The Anoai hijacking is a shoot, but they'll present Roman as the hero of the people going against it, not Cody, Drew, Punk, or anyone not Anoai. As far as Rock is concerned, WWE is now a film series about the Anoai family, everyone else is supporting cast.
Screencap this,
