WWE finds itself in a mess. After Jey Uso shocked the world by winning the Men’s Royal Rumble, he opted to challenge Gunther for the World Heavyweight Championship, leaving WWE Champion Cody Rhodes without an opponent at WrestleMania 41. The open field of possibilities has been narrowed down to six, and the fan favorite John Cena might not be the best option for the WWE Universe.

This Saturday at the Elimination Chamber in Toronto, six men step inside the unforgiving steel with a chance to main event WrestleMania against Cody Rhodes for the richest prize in all of sports entertainment. 16-time world champion John Cena joins CM Punk, Logan Paul, Damian Priest, Drew McIntyre, and Seth Rollins as they all have one goal in mind: to punch their ticket to WrestleMania.

The Road to WrestleMania is an interesting path to follow. It’s the most exciting time for the WWE fans. To put in sports terminology, these are the playoffs. Every show matters and it paves the way for the biggest event of the year. We could see surprises, returns, betrayals, new stars emerge, and rivalries ignite during this time, and that’s just the tip of the iceberg.

With the Road to WrestleMania, you begin to see the direction of the match card, but you never entirely know. When it comes to this match, you have a general idea of what we’re heading towards, which can help provide a process of elimination in terms of who wins.

CM Punk and Seth Rollins have beef, ever since CM Punk returned at Survivor Series 2023. CM Punk’s torn tricep prevented us from seeing CM Punk versus Seth Rollins at last year’s WrestleMania. We saw a first time ever bout on the Netflix debut of Monday Night Raw where CM Punk emerged victorious, but you know this feud is far from over. CM Punk and Seth Rollins were both eliminated at the Royal Rumble, along with Roman Reigns, and the three brawled on the outside. This leads me to believe we could see some variation of a triple threat at WrestleMania.

Speaking of the Royal Rumble, Damian Priest eliminated Drew McIntyre, which the Scottish Warrior didn’t take too kindly. It appears the seeds were planted for a potential Priest versus McIntyre match in Las Vegas.

That leaves us two, Logan Paul and John Cena. While Logan Paul has competed for the world championship in Saudi Arabia, it would be a bold move for WWE to put a part-time celebrity in the main event of WrestleMania with an United States crowd. In the Triple H regime, I would be shocked if he put a part-timer in the main event of your biggest show of the year. Logan Paul will have a spot on the card, but this isn’t the main event.

And then you have the man everyone wants but nobody can see… get it? John Cena was the final elimination in the Royal Rumble and is fighting valiantly to get his 17th world championship and his final WrestleMania main event. This is his opportunity to do it and John Cena’s chance at a record-breaking 17th world title would sell tickets. John Cena versus Cody Rhodes would be your main event and it’s a historic matchup. It could serve as a passing of the torch if done right.

Unfortunately, this would go very poorly.

Fans almost turned on Jey Uso because they wanted John Cena to win the Royal Rumble so badly. The internet hijacked the YouTube video, smashed the dislike button, all because John Cena didn’t win the Royal Rumble. Meanwhile, Jey Uso is the most over superstar in WWE with his energetic entrance and his famous “Yeet” catchphrase. Who was the most over superstar a year ago? It was the man chasing the WWE Championship, Cody Rhodes. Fans want Cena to win the WWE Championship so bad, especially if you buy tickets to witness history, we could see WWE destroy its biggest babyface.

AEW fans turned on Cody Rhodes towards the end, and while Cody refused to turn heel, he instead re-signed with WWE and came back three years ago. Two years of buildup allowed Cody Rhodes to dethrone Roman Reigns, become WWE Champion, and ever since he’s been the face of the “quarterback” of WWE. If you’ve attended a live Raw or SmackDown event, you’ve likely seen Cody Rhodes in the dark main event. He’s doing every show and every media appearance, like a modern John Cena would.

If John Cena wrestled Cody Rhodes, I could see a large split of the audience rooting on John Cena. And WrestleMania isn’t the WWE’s Super Bowl. WWE doesn’t reset for an offseason, it’s responsible for coherent programming 24 hours after the dust settles. We have to think of the long-term booking. So what’s the aftermath based on the result?

If John Cena wins, he has a 17th world championship. His retirement tour turns into defending the championship and maybe putting over the next guy at the end of his career. However, the champion the fans got behind, would drop it to a part-timer and his story ends with losing the championship he gained just a year ago.

If Cody Rhodes wins, the fans could quickly turn on The American Nightmare. All the fans who paid to see John Cena’s championship, boo Rhodes out of the building for robbing them of their WrestleMania Moment. John Cena’s quest for 17 continues, which means he challenges Cody again, he challenges the World Heavyweight Champion, or he waits for Cody to drop the belt.

To me, it doesn’t make much sense for Cody Rhodes and John Cena, your two bigger babyfaces, to put fans in position to boo one or the other. Either fans are receptive of the winner, or we end WrestleMania in boos.

So how do we get out of this pickle? You have two options.

One, swerve everyone with a Drew McIntyre win. McIntyre has ruined WrestleMania dreams before and he can ruin them again. McIntyre has disdain for everyone who helped Roman Reigns this past year, and Cody Rhodes was one of them at last year’s Bad Blood event. McIntyre could draw major heat for ending John Cena’s WrestleMania aspirations, while this leaves the door open for a potential John Cena versus Randy Orton match at WrestleMania.

Or two, find a way to add a Paul Heyman Guy into the mix. Maybe CM Punk’s favor was being inserted into the WrestleMania Main Event where he can attract a lot of the heat. Maybe Roman Reigns has that pull and this is the whole reason he foregone the Elimination Chamber entirely.

Either way, WWE can not put John Cena versus Cody Rhodes one-on-one at WrestleMania. Simply put, it’s not best for business.