The Rock Planning WWE Return, Could Defend “People’s Belt”

The Rock’s in-ring career isn’t quite over.

On night one of WrestleMania 40, The Rock returned to the ring for his first real match in over a decade. In the main event, the WWE legend teamed with Roman Reigns to defeat Seth Rollins and Cody Rhodes.

Rock had originally wanted a singles match with Reigns, but a creative pivot was made leading to the tag team match, leaving Rhodes free to challenge Reigns on night two.

On the Raw after WrestleMania, The Rock confronted Cody Rhodes and slipped a mystery item into his hand. It’s believed the interaction was laying the foundations for a match at WrestleMania 41.

Ahead of WrestleMania, there were suggestions that The Rock would wrestle multiple times in 2024, but according to a report from Dave Meltzer in the Wrestling Observer Newsletter, there are no fixed plans for that to happen.

Meltzer added that Rock has even suggested he could defend The People’s Title belt he was given by Muhammad Ali’s widow Lonnie at the WWE Hall of Fame.

From what we’re told, this is very much a long-term thing. There is no planned date for Rock to return for a match, but it’s been talked about next year’s Mania. Originally he wanted to come back and work with Reigns, but obviously based on everything that went down, the singles title match with Rhodes is the bigger match right now.

As things stand right now, he may work a match later this year but that is not a lock. He would prefer to work with Rhodes in the main event of next year’s Mania, and as we’ve seen, he is generally going to get what he wants…

There are also ideas he’s presenting if needed to defend the people’s belt and obviously from the way the angle on Raw went down, that could be a belt vs. belt deal since they each held the others’ belt.

The Rock Nets Huge WrestleMania Payday

According to a recent SEC filing, The Rock was awarded 96,558 shares of TKO Group Holdings Class A common stock. Those shares have an estimated value of $9.4 million.

The stock had previously been restricted but was awarded to the star after “completion of certain services described” as laid out in his Independent Contractor Services and Merchandising Agreement dated January 22, 2024.

A day after the agreement was drawn up it was announced that The Rock had joined the TKO Board of Directors.