WWE Rumors: The Rock Pushed for Roman Reigns WrestleMania Match amid Cody Rhodes Buzz

The decision to go with Roman Reigns against The Rock at WrestleMania 40 reportedly came as a result of The Rock pushing for the match.

According to PWInsider.com’s Mike Johnson, The Rock lobbied for the match and had the backing of top executives in TKO Group Holdings, which was enough to get WWE to reverse course from what was seemingly the original plan of Reigns vs. Cody Rhodes.

Reigns vs. The Rock has yet to officially be announced for WrestleMania, but on Friday night’s episode of Raw, Rhodes cut a promo and said that while he still intends to take he undisputed WWE Universal Championship from Reigns, it won’t be at WrestleMania.

At that point, The Rock came to the ring, shook hands with Rhodes and had a stare-down with Reigns to end the show.

Per Johnson, the expectation is that Reigns vs. The Rock will be made official for WrestleMania on Thursday when a WrestleMania press conference is held in Las Vegas.

It was also reported by Johnson that one source believed The Rock politicked to have the match in order to “save WrestleMania” since WWE won’t have two of its biggest stars in CM Punk and Brock Lesnar available for the show.

Other sources suggested The Rock was going to make the match happen at WrestleMania regardless since his $30 million stock payday after being named to the TKO board of directors is contingent on certain milestones, including returning to the ring in 2024.

According to Dave Meltzer of the Wrestling Observer (h/t Subhojeet Mukherjee of Ringside News), Reigns vs. Rhodes was indeed the plan at first, which explains why Rhodes won his second consecutive Royal Rumble match last weekend and pointed at Reigns afterward.

Meltzer noted that the injury to Punk played a significant role in WWE going in another direction since it was going to be Reigns vs. Rhodes and Punk vs. Seth Rollins at WrestleMania.

Also, Meltzer suggested that WWE wanted to “change the news flow” away from former chairman and CEO Vince McMahon, who stepped down from his role with TKO last week after former WWE staffer Janel Grant filed a lawsuit against him last week in which she alleged that he sexually assaulted and trafficked her.

Per Johnson, it appears as though WWE will have Rhodes face Rollins for the World Heavyweight Championship at WrestleMania 40 in a rematch from WrestleMania 38, which was Rhodes’ first match back with the company.

While Rhodes winning would be a huge moment in his career, it would not be representative of him “finishing the story” since he has made it his stated goal to specifically win the title held by Reigns.

Listen to Ring Rust Radio for all of the hot wrestling topics. Catch the latest episode in the player below.