WrestleMania XL was just thrown for a tailspin.
As seen on the post-Royal Rumble episode of WWE Friday Night SmackDown this week at Legacy Arena in Birmingham, Alabama, Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson came out after Cody Rhodes said he would not be finishing his story against Roman Reigns at WrestleMania XL, despite winning the Men’s Royal Rumble match.
We have confirmed via multiple sources that the working plan for WrestleMania 40 right now is for The Rock vs. Roman Reigns for the WWE Universal Championship and Cody Rhodes vs. Seth “Freakin'” Rollins for the WWE World Heavyweight Championship.
Originally, before injuries and surprise returns entered the mix, WWE was going into WrestleMania season fully planning on Cody Rhodes vs. Roman Reigns for the WWE Universal Championship and CM Punk vs. Seth “Freakin'” Rollins for the WWE World Heavyweight Championship.
There are those who are cautiously optimistic that plans could still change based on the reaction, such as the crowd response to the situation going into the show before the announcement was made, as well as the fallout, which early indications point to being completely negative, with the full segment covering this situation breaking the record for the most disliked WWE video in YouTube history.
The set up for Punk’s title shot against Rollins was to go down at the upcoming WWE Elimination Chamber: Perth premium live event in Australia, and for Brock Lesnar vs. Dominik Mysterio at the Chamber PLE leading to Lesnar vs. GUNTHER for the WWE Intercontinental Championship at WrestleMania 40.
Obviously those were nixed for different reasons.
Although Cody Rhodes publicly declared at the Royal Rumble that he was coming after “The Tribal Chief” on “The Grandest Stage of Them All” for the second year in a row, when The Rock made his surprise return and proclaimed his interest in sitting at “The Head of the Table,” merchandise was created around that specifically for WrestleMania almost immediately, which would indicate that there was at least a decent chance this was coming back then.
Fightful Select is reporting that the timeline of when decisions were made differs from source to source, but that The Rock has not only been pushing for the Reigns match, but even making a case for why he should win when the bout eventually happens.
Regardless of what is decided for the outcome of the match, multiple sources are viewing this as a political move that TKO Group Holdings believe will result in more immediate financial gain than if the company went with Reigns-Rhodes II.
The decision was not believed to be made out of malice to Cody, as TKO values “The American Nightmare” as a top talent for WWE, but the feeling is that those involved with ultimately making the decision underestimated just how much patience from the audience regarding this particular issue has worn thin over time.
As far as creative shake-ups behind-the-scenes in WWE in recent months, they are not expected to affect The Rock much, as the belief is he will be bringing in longtime business partner and former head of WWE creative, Brian Gewirtz, to help with his creative moving forward. He is expected to be at some of the shows with him as well.
In terms of the timeline of events, it is believed that Cody Rhodes was informed as of Friday regarding the decision to move forward with The Rock vs. Roman Reigns at WrestleMania, and that he did not travel to the building in Birmingham, AL. on Friday without knowing in advance.
Talent, including The Rock, had already been booked for the WrestleMania Kickoff Press Conference set for next Thursday in Las Vegas, Nevada, although Rock’s involvement was not completely clear.
Fightful.com reportedly contacted sources within WWE to inquire as to whether or not this decision was influenced in any way in an attempt to take away attention or publicity from the WWE lawsuit stemming from the atrocious Vince McMahon sex-trafficking and assault allegations. It was said that The Rock was pushing for this well in advance of the story, but admitted that it couldn’t hurt things to get mainstream media attention that isn’t associated with the scandals right now.
It’s worth mentioning that The Rock and Ari Emanuel, the top executive for TKO and Endeavor, have a longstanding working and personal relationship, with The Rock essentially being the biggest star tied to the Endeavor brand. As of three weeks ago, there was a talent element being pitched for his role with the TKO Group Holdings company, as both sides wanted to maximize the huge deal they made around his board position, licensing fees and rights to ownership of “The Rock” name for Dwayne Johnson.
Early word is that The Rock will, in fact, attempt to work a full-length main event level match for the Roman Reigns bout at WrestleMania. Whether or not he has any intentions of continuing to wrestle or working in the ring leading up to the bout remains to be seen. There have been some concerns about him working a full-length WrestleMania main event style bout after his recent appearances, where he got physically active a few times and didn’t look especially impressive.
