Scrapped WWE Plans Had Kevin Owens Winning Title After Cody Defied The Rock

The WWE Unreal series on Netflix is pulling back the curtain on some major creative twists that never made it to television.

In a new segment, The Rock’s longtime writer Brian Gewirtz revealed an alternate plan for the storyline involving Cody Rhodes and the Final Boss himself, Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson—one that included a shock WWE Championship title change during Elimination Chamber.

According to Gewirtz, the original concept behind Rock’s obsession with “the soul of WWE” was set to veer into chaotic territory. The creative team felt that a match featuring babyface John Cena and babyface Cody Rhodes wasn’t dramatic enough. So Rock and Gewirtz pitched something bolder.

“With the prospect of Babyface John and Babyface Cody, it felt a little dry to us. Just looking at it from the outside, ‘let’s throw some controlled chaos into this.’ So myself and Rock, we got together and we pitched something that was twofold. I had the idea of Cody needing to be Rock’s champion. We had that as the hook.”

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The chaos didn’t stop there. The plan called for Cody to reject Rock’s demand during the Elimination Chamber event—prompting the Final Boss to make a title match happen on the spot, resulting in Kevin Owens walking away with the championship. But it wasn’t about crowning KO. It was about creating a moment nobody saw coming.

“We proposed at Elimination Chamber, Cody turning down the final boss. That was going to lead to final boss making an impromptu title match right. Then and there that resulted in Kevin Owens, who had been in a storyline with Cody during that time, leaving with the Championship. Kevin Owens winning the title wasn’t the end goal. The takeaway was whatever it is we do. It needs to be seismic. That’s the big question.”

The pitch never made it to TV, but it shows just how far WWE was willing to go to stir up their main event scene. In the end, Cody kept his title and his journey continued, but there was nearly a reality where he lost it in a moment of Rock-fueled chaos.

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