Latest On The Rock Competing At WrestleMania 40
After a scintillating appearance on WWE SmackDown, the possibility of The Rock competing at WrestleMania again is something that could definitely happen.
There was an incredible surprise on WWE Smackdown in Denver last Friday when Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson and Pat McAfee showed up as a surprise. They were in Boulder, Colorado on Friday & Saturday for the Colorado Buffaloes football game, so they decided to take a trip to WWE as well.
The Rock got one of the loudest crowd reactions of his career (something he admitted on social media) as he came to McAfee’s aid after Pat was interrupted by the former US Champion Austin Theory. After some fun Rock-isms and crowd chants urged on by the People’s Champion, Theory tried to attack, but Rock was ready with punches and a spinebuster. Rock followed up with a People’s Elbow while McAfee did one as well. The raucous crowd in Denver absolutely loved it.
Earlier on Friday, The Rock was on Pat McAfee’s ESPN/YouTube show where he admitted “I’m open” to the possibility of wrestling at WrestleMania 40 next April in Philadelphia. In that same interview, The Rock said that a potential match with Roman Reigns at WrestleMania 39 was “locked in” for a while, but then plans unfolded and it didn’t happen.
The Rock wrestling in WWE again has always been up to him
As for the possible match at WrestleMania 40, Dave Meltzer of the Wrestling Observer was the one to break the news earlier this year that The Rock wasn’t going to be at WrestleMania 39. However, Meltzer on Wrestling Observer Radio adds that if The Rock wants to wrestle in WWE again, that’s up to him because obviously, the company would love to have him.
“I remember last year when he pulled out, he absolutely talked about the possibility of Philadelphia the next year. Him wrestling Roman Reigns has been talked about for years, and he wasn’t gonna do it during the pandemic.
“So 2020 and 2021 were out. Dallas (WrestleMania 38) was a possibility, but they had LA (WrestleMania 39) scheduled and he decided that LA was gonna be the one he was gonna do it in because SoFi Stadium and 100,000 people and all that, which they didn’t come close to, but he wasn’t on the show either, so whatever.
“He basically felt that he didn’t have time to get into ring shape, he had his other projects, he had the XFL starting, which he was the face of the company and co-owner. And talked about maybe this year.”
Just like with John Cena being available for WWE in September and October due to the Hollywood strike involving writers, actors and others, it could also have an effect on The Rock’s availability for WWE. Meltzer continued talking about how the strike could impact things.
“And this year there’s a strike so there’s not a lot of work for him. There’s still the XFL, and if the strike ends, things can change. But it’s his for the taking, and it’s always been.”
“Every year it’s been like that. If he wants it, any year he wants to do it, it’s his. Just a question of, it’s all up to him, whatever he wants to do. A couple of years back, there was some talk of him working with Levesque (Triple H) in one last match, and his schedule didn’t allow it that year either. He’s got a busy schedule.”
“But right now, he doesn’t have a busy schedule. He’s probably got the least busy schedule that he’s probably had since he started in WWE as a rookie in 1996, because of the strike. We’ll see.”
“There’s a lot of variables so there’s no real answer. I’ve asked around and there’s no answer. Either he’s gonna do it, but the ball’s always in his court on that.”
The Rock’s presence on Smackdown was a big success for WWE in terms of preliminary ratings with 2.445 million viewers, which was an increase of 24% over one week earlier.