While The Rock’s return for a battle against Roman Reigns at WrestleMania 39 has been desired by WWE, it doesn’t appear it will happen.
WWE needed a response from The Rock for Mania by the middle of January, ahead of the Royal Rumble, in order to finalize their WrestleMania plans.
As PWMania.com previously reported, The Rock’s status for WrestleMania 39 is not set in stone, although he does not appear to be wrestling owing to a lack of time to get into the kind of fitness he believes he requires for a match.
On Wrestling Observer Radio, Dave Meltzer mentioned that WWE had known for a while that Rock wasn’t going to be in the correct ring form by April.
“Anything is possible, and it’s certainly possible he could be keeping everything a secret from all by one or two people, but the word is that he doesn’t have the time to get in the shape….All along, if he has the time to do it, he will do it. Put it this way, most are of the opinion that it’s not happening, and it’s been for months. Those on the inside thought the odds were not good based on that thing because (his schedule)….There’s no such thing as 100% because it’s a very secretive business. Within the company, it’s not looking good,” Meltzer stated.
Meltzer also discussed the change to Monday’s RAW, which was intended to have a Bloodline Acknowledge Ceremony but was instead devoted to the trial of Sami Zayn. Some thought that it had something to do with The Rock, but Meltzer believes it was simply a case of plans altering.
“I would say no only because what I just said is what I said in this week’s Observer unless I say it’s a big swerve. It was known by insiders as the probable thing for a while. It’s not like something he all of a sudden gave the final word on [a] Thursday, like ‘Hey, I’m not doing it.’ It’s like they were aware. They knew…I think this was just a change of plans (acknowledgment ceremony),” Meltzer stated.
Meltzer stated that there was doubt about the match’s possibilities a month ago. It’s possible that The Rock is deceiving people about this, with only a few people knowing about it and being able to wrestle.
(h/t to WrestlingNews.co for the transcription)
