When WWE Decided The Rock vs Roman Reigns Was a “Lock-In” for WrestleMania 40

The Rock’s recent stint in WWE leading up to WrestleMania 40 created significant buzz and excitement. Many felt he was going to square off against Roman Reigns at the Show of Shows but that didn’t happen and it appears the match was essentially a lock-in during the middle of January this year.

After making his return to WWE, The Great One intervened in Cody Rhodes’ feud with Roman Reigns, reportedly with the intention to elevate the WrestleMania 40 card with a match against Reigns.

Despite these plans, WrestleMania 40 unfolded differently, with Cody Rhodes ultimately defeating Roman Reigns to claim the Undisputed WWE Championship.

While speaking on Busted Open Radio, Brian Gewirtz shared that discussions about a potential match between The Rock and Roman Reigns had been gaining traction throughout the fall of 2022. By January 1st, during a promo with Jinder Mahal, the possibility of Rock facing Roman at WrestleMania seemed increasingly likely. A crucial meeting took place in The Rock’s hotel room involving Rock, Triple H, Nick Khan, and Gewirtz, where they delved into the details of the storyline. Triple H was particularly mindful of the ongoing Cody Rhodes storyline, which was a significant topic of their discussion.

During this meeting, the concept of Rock addressing the “Head of the Table” title emerged late in the conversation. The team contemplated how best to tease this idea without directly stating it, aiming to gauge audience reaction.

When The Rock subtly hinted at it during his January 1st promo after attacking Jinder Mahal, the reaction from both the live audience and online community was overwhelmingly positive. This response solidified their direction. The Rock subsequently made the TKO announcement and visited WWE HQ, signaling his commitment with extensive plans for merchandise and title belts already in place. Gewirtz revealed that The Rock vs Roman Reigns was a lock in in January already.

“It started, in the fall, looking more and more like a possibility. That led us to January 1st and the promo with Jinder (Mahal). At that point, it was looking very much like a possibility that Rock and Roman was going to happen. We had a meeting in Rock’s hotel room. It was me, Rock, Triple H, and Nick Khan. We talked about it all. Triple H was very aware and astute of the Cody storyline, and we brought that up and talked about it for a while. At the end of that meeting, everyone enjoyed the promo with Jinder, but what everyone was talking about was the ‘Head of the Table.’ That came about super late into our meeting at the hotel.

As we were talking about Cody, it was said, ‘I hear you, maybe we should test poll the audience.’ Not just the audience in San Diego, but the audience all over the world. ‘What if I tease it, but not say it directly.’ We brainstormed on how do that. He did it. The place went nuts. Online went nuts. For the most part, it was overwhelmingly positive when he teased Head of the Table. At that point, ‘That gives us our answer.’ He did the TKO announcement, he went to WWE HQ, I have 96 pages of merch and title belt ideas. It was pretty much locked in at that point, which begs the question, if all of that is the plan, why do you have Cody Rhodes win the Royal Rumble?”

However, despite these plans, Cody Rhodes won the Royal Rumble, setting his sights on Roman Reigns for WrestleMania. Gewirtz noted that Cody became aware of the potential Rock vs. Roman match on the day of the Royal Rumble, adding a layer of complexity to the storyline. Gewirtz expressed concerns about Cody winning the Rumble, suggesting it altered the narrative dynamics. He believed that having CM Punk win the Rumble to challenge Seth Rollins would have maintained a clearer storyline distinction, allowing Cody to “finish the story” without the immediate focus shift caused by winning the Rumble.

”The idea of Cody winning the Rumble, I thought, was problematic. I said in San Diego, in that meeting, I thought the cleanest thing to do, if we’re booking Rock and Roman, is to have (CM) Punk win the Rumble and challenge Rollins because there is a difference, storyline-wise, of Cody wanting to finish the story and having earned the right to finish the story by winning the Royal Rumble. Once you win the Royal Rumble, that dynamic changes. It goes from something ‘we all want things,’ but now he’s got it. Why would he do anything other than focus on Roman?

That’s what he did when he pointed to him. Why wouldn’t he? That’s what the character would do. I’ll just say, with 100% certainty, the original plan is something many more people would have hated more than anything in life itself. I can’t state that any more clearly. Punk gets hurt, the dominoes start falling, things start shifting, and we get to a point where the WrestleMania press conference is coming up and we need to promote something, and now we get to the infamous Alabama promo.”

Ringside News has also exclusively reported additional details about The Rock’s plans to win the WWE Undisputed Championship before handing it back to Roman Reigns. Nevertheless, many fans are happy with how things turned out in the end and that’s truly all that matters.

Are you shocked that WWE had almost gone through with The Rock vs Roman Reigns at WrestleMania 40 this year? Let us know in the comments section below!