As fans pass through one of the most interesting moments in WWE's seven decades of existence, with generational news seemingly breaking on a weekly basis, if there's one thing the promotion desperately wants outside observers to focus on above all of the resignations, scandals, and backstage politicking, it's that fans really want Cody Rhodes to be in the main event of WrestleMania 40 in a match against Roman Reigns, not Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson, Seth Rollins and/or Drew McIntyre.

It makes sense, right? After seemingly delivering the match fans have been begging for since Roman Reigns became the Universal Champion some 1,250 days ago, “The Great One” versus the “Tribal Chief” at the “Showcase of the Immortals,” outrage over Rhodes losing his spot at the top of the card less than a week after winning the Royal Rumble led to an incredibly negative response that few could have imagined, leading to all sorts of negative reactions ranging from funny to downright criminal. By turning this into an angle, WWE could draw headlines, get fans going on social media – again, in a hopefully non-death threat-y sort of way –  and capture the media cycle with the sort of storyline that could make Rhodes into a Daniel Bryan-esque folk hero of booked correctly.

And yet, by leaning so aggressively into the “We Want Cody” movement, the promotion has seemingly burnt out the movement two months before Mania goes down in South Philadelphia, with under-contract wrestlers tweeting out the hashtag on social media and some fans claiming they were given small paper signs supporting the hashtag when they entered the February 5th RAW tapings in St. Louis.

Need proof? Well, look no further than the first segment of RAW, where WWE leaned into the viral story so aggressively that it should have produced magic but instead served as more of a strange, David Lynch-ian piece of meta-commentary on a manufactured movement that Drew McIntyre lambasted perfectly on the microphone.

Drew McIntyre highlights the ridiculousness of WWE's movement. 

After listening to Drew McIntyre attempt to rile up the crowd in St. Louis before the arrival of Cody Rhodes, an effort that garnered more boos for Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson than chants of “We Want Cody,” Drew McIntyre had heard enough, marching down to the ring with a microphone of his own to lambast the entire situation, pointing out the ridiculousness of how everyone has handled the last not even week within the WWE Universe.

“I think I speak on behalf of everybody when I say, ‘what the h*ll?' I lead you both up perfectly for WrestleMania, and you're potentially gonna screw it all up? Seth, you're the only other person that hates Punk as much as me. You knew how bad he would be for this place, and I took him out. We were supposed to be in this ring, you and I tonight talking about our main event match for the world title at WrestleMania. Do you like that? I even had the t-shirt commissioned for us. Your extra small's in the back,” Drew McIntyre told the RAW crowd.

“Why did you have to get inside his head? Why? Cody, don't listen to him. You've got. To finish. The. Story. You've been talking about it for two years now. Think about last year's WrestleMania. Think about all the work you've done this year on TV, off TV, the media events, you've earned this moment. Don't let me down. Don't let your family down. Don't let all these people down and all the people across the world. I don't want to go here, because everybody else does, but I was close with the man, I was his champion in Florida Championship Wrestling, but don't let your dad down.”

Rollins, clearly frustrated with his genuine offer being trashed by WWE's biggest hater since Bret Hart, attempted to intervene, only to draw the ire of the “Scottish Warrior” too.

“Hey! Drew. You ain't gotta be a pr*ck, all right?” Seth Rollins noted. “Hey look, what in the world makes you think if he doesn't accept my challenge for WrestleMania, it's gonna be you and me? Because we've done this dance twice, and if I remember correctly, you lost.”

“We both know there were outside reasons why I lost those matches, but is this a case of the pot calling the kettle black?” Mcintyre asked. “Didn't you lose to him three times? Okay, I'm gonna say something nice. You know, I heard what you said last Monday, I heard what Roman had to say. Ignore him! If you're that insecure, I will tell it to your face, I'll look you in the eye. You've done an amazing job with that title. You have worked your butt off every single week to make that mean something. That is the true workhorse championship right there. You did that.

“Ignore what he has to say, ignore what everyone else has to say, this is a case when you fight for this title, you know what happens in Roman's matches? No one wants to fight for it anymore, because we know the finish. His family are gonna interfere every single time. He did it to me, he did it to Cody, he'd done it to multiple people. This is a case of may the best man win. Except in my case, of course, but I was screwed a couple of times.”

As Rhodes attempted to interject, having seemingly lost his smile confidence following WWE's decision to pull him from the top spot, McIntyre shut it down on the spot, letting the “American Nightmare” know that he wasn't finished with Rollins in their conversation, or in the ring for that matter either.

“I'm not finished yet, please,” McIntyre announced loudly. “If you were a real workhorse, they would have shot you dead after the first injury. And over 17 injuries later, it's time for somebody to do the job. You've done an amazing job taking the title this far, but it's time for Drew McIntyre to take it from here.”

Charging Rollins, who was notably not cleared to wrestle due to his knee injury, McIntyre and Rhodes began to brawl before the “Scottish Warrior” decided to peace out, opting to live to fight another day. And as for Rhodes? Well, he didn't say anything else, opting instead to prepare for his bull rope match with Shinsuke Nakamura, an angle shot on a house show over the weekend. All things considered, it's almost like Rhodes' character is being written by another creative team, which, technically, might be true.