Rick Uccino

And I think that was kind of part of the story that they started telling before McAfee got involved, right?

Because you had that backstage exchange between him and Stephanie where Stephanie was kind of telling him, you need to find this new attitude.

You need to go into deeper, darker places.

And you need to, if you're going to beat...

Randy Orton on the grandest stage of them all.

This kind of stuff was happening beforehand when he was trying to beat John Cena.

And, you know, the story about him learning and not hesitating and not...

and kind of taking those quote unquote shortcuts that he wouldn't take as the ultimate baby face.

And there really has started stacking up layers to the Cody Rhodes persona.

He is a different performer than he has been in the past.

And now trying to find himself and solidify himself.

And this is something that he has said, he's trying to determine who he is with this third WWE championship reign.

And it definitely is a more nuanced level performance.

But as you continue to,

to stack those layers on top of Cody Rhodes and the attitude shifts and there starts to be that darker tone.

you do start to wonder, are they slow-burning him?

And I'll hit you with another Dark Knight reference.

You either die a hero, or you live long enough to see yourself become the villain.

Is that what we're doing here with Cody Rhodes, where we are really slow-burning this, because he's still getting babyface reactions on most crowds, but now he's even said this himself, he's starting to see...

you know, away ballparks or, you know, going into the visitor crowd kind of situations for him where he will get booed against some people or in certain cities.