Why Cody Rhodes and Roman Reigns are WWE's New Mega Powers

Sportskeeda Wrestling

Backstage Pass is your one-stop subscription to everything pro wrestling. Breaking news from the most reliable insiders, interviews with legends, live Q&As with industry veterans, we have it all. SUBSCRIBE NOW - https://bit.ly/3zbHEH8  Could Cody Rhodes and Roman Reigns be the modern-day equivalent of the legendary Mega Powers? In this video, we explore the similarities and differences between the iconic duo of Hulk Hogan and Randy Savage and today’s top WWE stars. We'll dive into their rivalry, chemistry, and what makes their dynamic so captivating. Are they on a collision course for an even bigger showdown? Watch now  You can also visit our site: https://www.sportskeeda.com/wwe  #romanreigns #codyrhodes #badblood #wwe #wrestling #sportskeedawrestling

Transcript

00:00I'm not just the original Tribal Chief, I am the only Tribal Chief!

00:08Wrestling gets more than one, we are a family.

00:13If you look at WWE and pro wrestling as a whole on TV right now,

00:17it's obvious who the biggest modern stars are.

00:20Cody Rhodes, the undisputed WWE Universal Champion,

00:24and the man he took the title from at WrestleMania 40, Roman Reigns.

00:28If you ask people in 1988 who the two biggest stars in the industry were,

00:32you get people saying Hulk Hogan and Macho Man Randy Savage.

00:37The two biggest stars in the industry kept changing over the years.

00:40Maybe it was Bret Hart and Shawn Michaels at one time.

00:43Stone Cold and The Rock taking things to new heights.

00:46John Cena and Batista at one point, yeah.

00:49And it kept going from there.

00:51But how exactly are Roman and Cody Rhodes paralleled to the mega powers of the late 80s?

00:58This is Sportskeeda Wrestling, I'm Kevin.

01:01Join us as we take a small dive into the current mega powers of WWE,

01:06Roman and Cody, and compare them to those of the past, brother.

01:11Get down in the comments and let us know who you would make into a mega power tag team, brother.

01:16Oh yeah, dig it, yeah, yeah.

01:18You think you know all the wrestling stories?

01:21There's more you haven't heard yet.

01:23Join us on backstage pass.

01:26The original mega power storyline lasted only a year,

01:29but a long year in a different time with a different pace of television storytelling for WWE.

01:35But there was nothing bigger at the time than these two superstars.

01:40Hulk Hogan's four year reign as WWE champion seemingly came to an end as controversially as possible.

01:46On an NBC Network TV special of WWE's main event,

01:50in front of the largest recorded TV audience for pro wrestling in North America,

01:55the legendary Andre the Giant faced Hulk Hogan for the WWE championship

02:01in a massive rematch from the highly successful WrestleMania III.

02:06The expectations, to say, were gigantic.

02:09Nearly a year had passed since Hulk Hogan had the body slam that shook the world on Andre,

02:14retaining his title in front of a massive crowd at WrestleMania III.

02:18Hogan was screwed out of the WWE championship in this circumstance

02:22in a very wild scenario that involved the Million Dollar Man.

02:25Of course, a referee that had plastic surgery to look like another referee,

02:30and then Andre wins the title and gives the title away, his only reign with the WWE title.

02:37Yeah, but Andre had no plans to keep it.

02:40Instead, yeah, he forfeited this WWE championship to the Million Dollar Man.

02:44It was a confusing situation.

02:47But because of the illegitimate means in which the title was transferred,

02:50the WWE championship was declared vacant.

02:53This set up a tournament for the championship at WrestleMania IV in Atlantic City,

02:58where Hulk Hogan and Andre the Giant would have a rematch that ended in a double DQ,

03:02eliminating both icons and really decreasing some expectations.

03:07Thanks to Andre and Ted DiBiase once again managing to reach the finals,

03:12the Macho Man Randy Savage faced him for the championship.

03:16With the help of Hulk Hogan, the Macho Man went on to embark on a year-long reign

03:21as the new fan favorite WWE champion with the beautiful Miss Elizabeth at his side.

03:27After that, Hogan went on a hiatus to film the critically acclaimed No Holds Barred movie,

03:35while Randy Savage carried the company on his back during a big boom period.

03:39He kept crossing paths with the devious Million Dollar Man Ted DiBiase,

03:43who got Andre back by his side once more.

03:47It was the first ever SummerSlam event,

03:49where Randy Savage needed a partner to take on DiBiase and Andre the Mega Bucks.

03:55How do you oppose the Mega Bucks?

03:57This sets up Hulk Hogan returning as officially the Mega Powers were formed.

04:03And of course, who can forget that iconic scene where their hands shook?

04:07How will these elements be able to coexist?

04:10Yeah, the first time super elements coexisted, super powers, Mega Powers.

04:17Yes, the two helped each other out and were a strong alliance for a few months.

04:22It was quite the attraction to see two established big-name superstars as a tandem,

04:27very unique at the time.

04:29But to egos that big, the cracks began to show quickly.

04:33In a network TV confrontation that involved a furious Macho Man Randy Savage

04:38attacking Hulk Hogan backstage after a vulnerable and recently injured Miss Elizabeth screamed on for peace.

04:45Yes, he claimed that she has eyes for Miss Elizabeth.

04:49The jealousy became too much, a wild scene that led to the Mega Powers exploding

04:55over the WWE Championship at WrestleMania 5.

04:58With Miss Elizabeth in a neutral corner for the match, Hulkamania would overcome Macho Madness

05:05with the Hulkster enduring numerous flying elbow drops to Hulk up and defeat Savage for the title.

05:11It's one of the best matches of either superstars career, maybe the best of Hulk Hogan's career in WWE

05:16and certainly better than his match with Andre the Giant at WrestleMania 3 in front of a bigger crowd.

05:21Yeah, maybe that's a topic for another video.

05:24There was plenty of time to show the growing animosity and insecurity between Randy Savage towards Hulk Hogan.

05:32Although we haven't seen too much of this pairing of Cody Rhodes and Roman Reigns,

05:37the history is there, years of history.

05:40We could go all the way back 10 years ago, but let's keep it within recent memory.

05:44Cody Rhodes is the guy who defeated the man and humbled Roman Reigns,

05:50breaking down the bloodline as we knew it at WrestleMania 40,

05:53ending his years-long villainous run with the WWE Universal Championship.

05:59Now the role has reversed for Roman,

06:01returning kind of as a popular hero at the end of SummerSlam 2024,

06:05where Cody successfully defended the title against the new ruthless bloodline ruler in Solo Sokoa.

06:12When Roman Reigns returned to SmackDown on their USA premiere,

06:16it was first shown that Cody Rhodes maybe didn't want anything to do with the bloodline

06:20since he had been dealing with them for so long.

06:23But when Roman Reigns seemed to dismiss the idea of getting any help at all,

06:27Cody Rhodes came out and signed the contract,

06:30completely contradicting maybe the message he was projecting before.

06:34Not only that, but if you notice the last segment from the September 13th episode of SmackDown,

06:40yes, we're digging that deeply into it,

06:42you can see a visible insecurity in Cody Rhodes' body language,

06:46and some insecurity in Roman Reigns.

06:48These are guys who do not like each other.

06:50Ideally, maybe Cody didn't need to be that insecure.

06:54When he beat Roman Reigns at WrestleMania 40 with the odds stacked against him,

06:58that should have been enough for him to want to have nothing to do with Roman Reigns.

07:02But that's where the story gets deeper.

07:04Yeah, we thought it was finished.

07:06It's just about the undisputed WWE Championship,

07:09the prize at the end of the day.

07:11Whether he was the WWE Champion or not,

07:13Roman Reigns always feels like the biggest star in the industry.

07:17Whether or not he deserves it, some people put that title on him.

07:20But this is also a Roman Reigns that people feel could leave WWE any day for the call of Hollywood.

07:26So it's a tough challenge for both sides.

07:28Plus, you have Roman Reigns and Cody Rhodes having a ton of history together.

07:33Who will be the face of WWE?

07:36Despite Roman Reigns now officially being labeled a good guy,

07:39nothing about his character has actually changed,

07:41which is the exact formula to create a megastar like a Stone Cold Steve Austin into The Rock.

07:47The entire purpose of the Hogan-Savage alliance back in the day was to lead to next year's WrestleMania main event.

07:53And while it seems fully possible that Cody Rhodes vs. Roman Reigns 3 won't be happening at WrestleMania,

07:59who's to say that it can't?

08:00The alliance they have now, however long it lasts,

08:03doesn't seem like it's going to last that long,

08:05is only going to serve the purpose of building to this final showdown.

08:09The biggest difference with Cody Rhodes and Roman Reigns right now

08:12as compared to the past is they don't even pretend to like each other.

08:15Cody and Roman will tag team as we record this at the upcoming Bad Blood event in Atlanta, Georgia.

08:22And the purpose of that match will certainly build up their odd alliance

08:26and hopefully come to a super collision, a trilogy ending match between the two.

08:32We've seen them at WrestleMania 39, WrestleMania 40.

08:35Will this be at WrestleMania 41?

08:37It's not exactly clear, but certainly it feels like it could get there.

08:42Or maybe we get a WrestleMania 41 main event before WrestleMania 41.

08:47Only time will tell.

08:49And as much as an alliance between Roman and Cody is simply just interesting on paper,

08:53there's always more money with them standing against each other in the ring.

08:59So while they may not be directly identical to Hulk Hogan and Macho Man Randy Savage of the Mega Powers,

09:05based on the two storylines, the Mega Powers of today, of this generation,

09:10look very interesting in the big picture of wrestling.

09:13Once again, who are two big, single superstars that you would pair together as a Mega Powered tag team?

09:20Let us know in the comments below.

09:28Thanks for watching.

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