People think this was a work all along?
They would not risk The Rock getting booed and have him portrayed as a guy "stealing" Cody's spot willingly...
Are they turning it into a work? Yes it seems that way....
They're clearly trying to clean this up. If the plan was to make Cody a martyr and turn the fans against the Rock, having Cody voluntarily give up his spot was idiotic.
Could've easily just had Rock come out on Smackdown, say that when he was talking about sitting at the head of the table, he was talking about of the company, people thought he was talking about Roman and after giving it some thought, he wants that spot too, so Cody as your boss, I'm taking your spot, go wrestle that bytch that dresses in his wife's clothes on night 1, this is family business.
From there you can set it up for Roman/Rock or even still Cody/Roman at WM.