The Rock says a showdown with Roman Reigns was scheduled for this year’s WrestleMania 39.
The Great One spoke about this big money feud during a recent appearance on the Pat McAfee Show. The former world champion reveals that a title clash with the Tribal chief was originally “locked” in for WrestleMania 39, but plans fell through.
The Rock headlining WrestleMania with Roman Reigns, SoFi Stadium, that was locked. We were doing it. But let me just tell you, so about, in the beginning of 2022, Nick Khan, very good friend, he’s the man, he was very instrumental in bringing Vince and I together. We all flew to LA, we met, we sat. This was the beginning of 2022. We broke out the Teremana, we toasted life, we toasted the business we love, and about an hour later, we started talking about the potential of what this match could be between myself and Roman Reigns headlining WrestleMania at SoFi. 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. So the north star thought was, ‘Okay, let’s not do something good. Let’s not do something great. Let’s do something unprecedented.’ It was in, what can we create for the fans that has never been done before? A match, great. Roman, incredible athlete. He’s gonna be on Mount Rushmore. Super handsome, good dude, my cousin, family. Amazing. We can have the match. But the bigger thought was, what can do for the fans and the business that love, where WrestleMania isn’t the end of something, it’s actually the beginning of something bigger.
Rocky later reiterates that they got really close but ultimately wanted to do something much bigger than just a match and it wasn’t able to happen. However, he does tease that it could happen at WrestleMania 40.
So we got really, really close, but we couldn’t actually nail what that thing was. So we decided to put our pencils down. We agreed, hey, listen, there’s a merger coming up, eventually that will happen. There’s WrestleMania in Philadelphia. [Raises his eyebrow] I’m saying that’s a potential too. I’m open. I’m open. But again let’s figure out what that is because the fans deserve something just incredible and unprecedented. 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’re part of something that is a new change, an era, in this world of pro wrestling. Vince is a big picture thinker, as you know. This is why we’ve gotten along for years, just trying to think big picture. So we’ll see.
Reigns would famously go on to defeat Cody Rhodes in the main event of WrestleMania 39. Check out The Rock’s full comments below.
(H/T and transcribed by Fightful)