The Rock confirms he was set to face Roman Reigns at WrestleMania 39 at one point.
Ahead of WrestleMania 39 in Los Angeles, many fans speculated that The Rock could return to WWE and face his cousin, Undisputed WWE Universal Champion Roman Reigns, in a major dream match. Instead, despite plenty of teasing, the two stars never crossed paths. Reigns ultimately faced and defeated Cody Rhodes instead.
Speaking on The Pat McAfee Show, The Rock was asked how close a match with Reigns at WrestleMania 39 was to happening. He stated that the bout was "locked", as he agreed to it during a meeting with Vince McMahon and Nick Khan in early 2022.
“The Rock headlining WrestleMania with Roman Reigns, SoFi Stadium, that was locked. We were doing it. But let me just tell you, so about, in the beginning of 2022, Nick Khan, very good friend, he’s the man, he was very instrumental in bringing Vince and I together. We all flew to LA, we met, we sat. This was the beginning of 2022. We broke out the Teremana, we toasted life, we toasted the business we love, and about an hour later, we started talking about the potential of what this match could be between myself and Roman Reigns headlining WrestleMania at SoFi. We shook hands and we hugged right there, all three of us at the table, and said, ‘Let’s do this.’ So then we had a year to really think about this. So the north star thought was, ‘Okay, let’s not do something good. Let’s not do something great. Let’s do something unprecedented.’ It was in, what can we create for the fans that has never been done before? A match, great. Roman, incredible athlete. He’s gonna be on Mount Rushmore. Super handsome, good dude, my cousin, family. Amazing. We can have the match. But the bigger thought was, what can do for the fans and the business that love, where WrestleMania isn’t the end of something, it’s actually the beginning of something bigger," The Rock said.
The Rock continued by noting that they got "really close," but they couldn't figure out how to make the match something truly special. He stated that they agreed to delay it, and the former world champion teased that he could be potentially open to WrestleMania 40.
"So we got really, really close, but we couldn’t actually nail what that thing was. So we decided to put our pencils down. We agreed, hey, listen, there’s a merger coming up, eventually that will happen. There’s WrestleMania in Philadelphia. [Raises his eyebrow] I’m saying that’s a potential too. I’m open. I’m open. But again let’s figure out what that is because the fans deserve something just incredible and unprecedented. Not only that but I also want to deliver to the locker room and the boys and the girls back there who are working their asses off. What can we do to put them in a position where they’re part of something that is a new change, an era, in this world of pro wrestling. Vince is a big picture thinker, as you know. This is why we’ve gotten along for years, just trying to think big picture. So we’ll see," he said.
Fans will have to wait and see whether The Rock will return to WWE in the near future.
In April, Roman Reigns said he didn't know how close a match with The Rock was to happening. Check out his comments here.
Brian Gewirtz recently said that he would be shocked if The Rock appeared in WWE during the SAG-AFTRA strike, but he'd be more shocked if he never appeared again. Check out his comments here.
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