Heading into WrestleMania 40, the biggest question WWE fans the Universe over have is a simple one really: will Cody Rhodes finish the story against Roman Reigns?

On paper, it's simple enough; while the two men have had their own mini-feuds since their fateful match in Los Angeles last Spring, with Rhodes going up against Brock Lesnar and Shinsuke Nakamura while Reigns was preoccupied with the likes of LA Knight and Jey Uso, but in the end, this was the match fans have been waiting over a year to see, and it's ramifications good, bad, or otherwise will all but certainly define the promotion's plans for the rest of the year and maybe the first quarter of 2025 too, depending on if Paul “Triple H” Levesque decides to make the feud into a trilogy.

So how will the story shake out? Will Rhodes win the big one? Or will Reigns keep the belt and inch closer and closer to Bruno Sammartino's all-time record? Well, in the opinion of Rikishi on his Off The Top podcast, the answer to the question is rather clear: Roman Reigns needs to retain in order to keep printing TKO money.

“I don’t see the story being finished. I’ll tell you why. When I spit, this is nothing that’s been thought about. This just comes off as we do our show every Tuesday. This comes just fresh off the dome. Nothing scripted, nothing talked about. I don’t find out anything until you bring it to me. Again, I’m gonna talk to the people from an entertainment standpoint and from a business factor. Entertainment, yeah, we all want to see the good guy finish the story. But there always has to be the guys to put a**es in seats, to be able to mix it up with people that are babyfaces, that are the fans’ favorite for the time being,” Rikishi explained via Fightful.

“Where do we go if we finish the story with Cody and Roman? Okay, fans [are] happy. Everybody’s happy. But where do we go after that? Whereas if in case we do go into the second night with The Bloodline story, there’s so many ways you can go, coming off of that angle. So many other branches you can take. It can be down the line. Rock/Rock for whatever match. Roman/Seth for whatever match. Come back into a cage match. There’s probably a whole year, this one angle can go on and on. Which generates revenue for TKO. Generates revenue for WWE. Here’s the beautiful thing. It continues to lock in the fans on the product that’s been out here now for a year, not even a year yet with TKO. So we gotta see numbers, man. We gotta see a**es in seats. We gotta see every place that this company goes to, with these four guys, needs to be selling out. I can see, this type of angle doesn’t need to be featured in any arenas, coliseums. It needs to be featured on all these big stadiums across the world. So that’s what my thought is.”

Alright, while some may take issue with Rikishi's comments as biased, as he is related to one member of Night 2's main event and any further focus on The Bloodline's business can only mean good things for his family, his point can't be completely written off as homerism, as the biggest storyline WWE has from a money standpoint is Reigns-Rock at some future show. While that match could probably still happen without a title on the line and draw close to the same money, would WWE risk that dream match over Rhodes' story, especially when there aren't a lot of top-tier heels to throw the “American Nightmare” into a feud with after the “Showcase of the Immortals?” As Rikishi noted further as the conversation continued, there are a lot of options on the table that WWE could pursue if Reigns remains on top.

Rikishi wants to see Cody Rhodes shine, just not right now.

Continuing his conversation about the main event of WrestleMania 40, Rikishi noted that while he is firmly Team Bloodline, he wouldn't mind seeing Cody Rhodes eventually win the big one, he just doesn't want to see it happen at the expense of this current moment in time, as you just might not get Roman Reigns and The Rock in ring shape at the same time again moving forward.

“Do I want to see Cody Rhodes finish the [story]? H*ll yeah. On a personal level, yes. Yes. Deserves to. The legacy and his family dynasty, yes, it’s a must,” Rikishi noted. “But at the same time, timing is everything, man. How many times you gonna get The Rock and Roman Reigns? You tell me, the GOATs of all GOATs? If anybody in this industry tells me that they would never want to work with The Rock or Roman, you’re full of s**t because all these guys gonna do, number one is help put respect to your name, and number two, it’s gonna put some money in your pocket. Probably the biggest money you ever had in your pocket.”

Asked if he thinks this is one of the biggest nights for the Anoa'i-Fatu Family within the WWE Universe, Rikishi said yes, noting that, after a huge showing in Inglewood last year, The Bloodline is once again headlining both nights of WrestleMania; a fact made all the more impressive when you consider it's actually the 40th anniversary of the event.

“Back to back, yes. Because it’s fortieth anniversary. But now this is getting to be like, this is who we are, The Bloodline. This ain’t nothing new to us. Los Angeles, back-to-back, the Samoan Dynasty, the Usos, and Roman Reigns. That was one, so that was historic,” Rikishi noted. “Now, 40, the big 40, and here we are again. Bloodline l at it again. At the end of the day, it’s this, man. Let the wheel turn. Let’s get all we can get out of this angle. Especially when you got the GOAT, the People’s Champ. S**t. How do we know how long he’s gonna be able to hang in there? He’s in good shape. Roman’s in good shape. Cody’s in good shape. Seth Rollins got a little banged up, but he’s smart enough to work around things. So yeah, I think it’s a win-win situation for everybody, even if Cody does not close the story on WrestleMania.”

No matter the outcome of either main event of WrestleMania 40, this will mark the first time the same two performers headlined both nights of the “Showcase of the Immortals” since it went to two nights, an accomplishment that may never be duplicated again no matter how many more decades WWE exists in moving forward. Win, lose, or draw, that's a massive accomplishment for Cody Rhodes, Roman Reigns, and The Bloodline as a whole.