Dwayne Johnson otherwise known as The Rock was on the Pat McAfee Show on Friday and was asked about the reports of him taking on Roman Reigns at Wrestlemania 39 and how close it truly was from happening.
The Rock says he was locked in for WrestleMania 39 at SoFi against Roman Reigns a year in advance but things didn’t work out in the end.
Says WM40 in Philly is on the table though, so I guess Cody won’t be finishing his story after all. pic.twitter.com/hK5o08KXcj
— Ryan Satin (@ryansatin) September 15, 2023
The Rock tells McAfee there was a handshake agreement in place with Vince McMahon and Nick Khan for Wrestlemania 39 in Sofi Stadium.
“The Rock headlining WrestleMania with Roman Reigns, SoFi Stadium, that was locked,” Rock said. “We were doing it.”
“At the beginning of 2022, Nick Khan – who we know, a very good friend for years, he’s the man – he was very instrumental in bringing Vince and I together. We all flew to LA, we met, we sat.”
“We started talking about the potential of what this match could be between myself and Roman Reigns headlining WrestleMania at SoFi and 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. The North Star thought was, ‘Okay, let’s not do something good, let’s not do something great, let’s do something unprecedented.'”
“We can have the match but the bigger thought was what can we do for the fans of this business that we love where WrestleMania isn’t the end of something, it’s actually the beginning of something bigger?”
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But what changed then? McAfee tried to press the issue as shown above, but the Rock went back to the “something bigger” response.
“We got really, really close but we couldn’t actually nail what that thing was. So, we decided to put our pencils down. Then we agreed, ‘Hey listen, there’s a merger coming up, eventually, that will happen, there’s WrestleMania in Philadelphia…’ I’m saying that’s a potential too, I’m open. But again, let’s figure out what that is because the fans deserve something just incredible and unprecedented, and 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 are part of something that is a new change, an era in this world of pro-wrestling?”
Again The Rock is a good talker and knows how to talk to his audience. And he is teasing potentially Wrestlemania 40 with Roman Reigns. Again Full Press Wrestling will believe when we see it.
However, he has not been in the ring wrestling since Wrestlemania 29 in a real match. He had a quick stint at Wrestlemania 32 with Bray Wyatt, but that was a true match. He got injured in his last two matches with John Cena at Mania 28 and 29. He can ill-afford to get hurt being this multi-million Hollywood Superstar now.
It would be great to see The Rock back in the ring. We would all love it. But he would need to commit to doing as Dave Meltzer of Wrestling Observer has always stated.
Set it stone is probably too strong a word but it was the No 1 plan until it fell through. Any year Dwayne wants to do it it will take place above anything else. Could have been in Dallas as well if he wanted it to be. https://t.co/wDKL1H7qIs
— Dave Meltzer (@davemeltzerWON) September 15, 2023
Again The Rock will need to commit to wrestling a full year to get in ring shape for this match and to tell the story. Not to mention getting clearance from Hollywood and insurance companies. It is great in theory and we all hope it happens.
But until The Rock actually shows up at Wrestlemania or on TV again, it is all talk.