Details On The Rock’s Pitch For WrestleMania, Doesn’t Include Singles Match
The Rock and Brian Gewirtz have been central to WWE’s changing plans.
WrestleMania season is upon us and chaos is running wild within WWE, with fans still unclear on just who The Rock will be wrestling at the spectacular.
For years there has been talk of a huge WrestleMania match between The Rock and Roman Reigns, and when The Great One referenced Reigns on Raw on January 1st, that seemed the direction of travel. However, Cody Rhodes won the Royal Rumble and called out Reigns sparking uncertainty all around. Things got even more confused when Rhodes seemingly stepped aside to let Rock challenge Reigns on the February 2nd episode of SmackDown.
But things flipped again days later at the WrestleMania kick-off event where Rhodes challenged Reigns again, and Rock turned heel and slapped the American Nightmare in the face. He then clashed with Triple H backstage, telling him to “fix this” while leaving with Roman Reigns.
Writing in the Wrestling Observer Newsletter, Dave Meltzer reported that the original plan from Triple H was that Rhodes would do an injury angle with The Bloodline, leaving The Rock free to face Reigns at WrestleMania, something that would be confirmed at the Kick-Off event.
However, when CM Punk got injured, this plan reportedly changed with Rhodes penciled in to face Seth Rollins. This was presented as something of a backup plan with things changing backstage at a rapid rate.
“The Levesque idea was said to be to shoot an injury angle where the Bloodline would take out Rhodes on the 2/2 show in Birmingham. This would lead to the official announcement of Reigns vs. Rock at the press conference in Las Vegas. In the end Rhodes would return and he should win the title.
Rhodes was never going to get screwed and was always going to get a match with Reigns, but whether it would be at Mania or shortly after is not clear. But this was always an angle to build Reigns vs. Rhodes.”
After it became clear that Rock wouldn’t be accepted as a beloved babyface following the fan backlash to the angle on February 2nd, he reportedly pitched to turn heel. This saw WWE lean into the controversy around Rhodes seemingly being overlooked.
Meltzer notes that it was The Rock who pitched his heel turn and the tag team match which was hinted at during the Kick-Off event, where he’ll team with Reigns to face Rollins and Rhodes.
“There is said to be far more behind the scenes that hasn’t come out but given the timing can’t be talked about now. But Johnson over the weekend said it was best to be out of the Reigns match, put Cody in, which by this point everyone conceded by then. It was Johnson who then pitched the heel turn and he did pitch the idea of the Reigns & Rock vs. Rhodes & Rollins match for night one. So that was his idea if that is how it turns out.”
The Rock Heading To SmackDown
On February 16th, The Rock and Roman Reigns will return to SmackDown for the first time since the famous WrestleMania Kick-Off.
Both The Rock and Paul Heyman have hyped the appearance, with many expecting the plans for WrestleMania to finally be laid out.