The Rock Pushed Hard to Face Roman Reigns at WrestleMania 40

The Rock vs Roman Reigns was supposed to happen at WrestleMania 39 but due to The Great One’s insanely busy schedule, he was simply not able to be physically prepared for the bout. The match has now been made more or less official for this year’s WrestleMania and it appears The Rock pushed hard for it to happen.

In order to build anticipation for the already-hyped match, The Rock revealed that talks about a match with The Head of The Table are definitely happening already. Naturally, this got fans excited in a big way.

However, many fans wanted him to face Roman Reigns after WrestleMania instead. That might have just changed as The Rock confronted Roman Reigns on SmackDown this week after Cody Rhodes confirmed he won’t face Reigns at WrestleMania 40.

Dave Meltzer on the Wrestling Observer message board reported that The Rock strongly advocated for the match at WrestleMania 40. The original plan involved Cody Rhodes facing Roman Reigns, with The Rock potentially facing Reigns later, either at next year’s Mania or in Saudi Arabia.

However, with the allegations with Brock Lesnar in the Vince McMahon lawsuit and CM Punk out due to injury, plans shifted. The WWE decided to go with The Rock’s suggestion to change the narrative and divert attention from Vince McMahon’s situation. Initially, the lineup was Punk versus Seth Rollins and Cody versus Reigns until Punk’s injury altered the plans.

”‘The Rock pushed super hard for it. The WrestleMania 40 card changed when CM Punk & Brock Lesnar were out and all the dominoes fell. Dwayne already wanted it and they [WWE] felt they now needed it as well. Felt this was better to change the news flow away from Vince.’ ‘Cody was the plan. Dwayne was going to face him [Roman Reigns] later, maybe next year’s Mania, maybe Saudi. The Vince thing ends up worse than they thought and they changed the plan. 100% it was Punk vs Seth and Cody vs Reigns until Punk got hurt.”

Saudi Arabia was initially eyed as the destination for the bout, but things have clearly changed. We will have to wait and see if WWE will end up having The Rock beat Roman Reigns at WrestleMania 40.

What do you think about this story concerning The Rock and Roman Reigns? Do you feel WWE is making the right call for WrestleMania 40? Sound off in the comments section below!