The Rock Comments on Possibly Wrestling Roman Reigns in WWE: “Anything Is Possible” and More
The last time The Rock (Dwayne Johnson) had a proper match in a WWE ring was WrestleMania 29 in 2013 when he lost the WWE Title to John Cena. Yes, The Rock “beat” Erick Rowan in about six seconds at WrestleMania 32 in 2016 as well, but that was really just a quick angle more than anything. That match in 2013 was the heavily promoted main event of the show and it was seven years ago.
In August 2019, The Rock was on Live With Kelly & Ryan and talked about how he quietly retired from wrestling.
“I miss wrestling, I love wrestling. I quietly retired from wrestling because I was lucky enough to have just a really wonderful career and accomplish what I wanted to accomplish. There’s nothing like a live crowd, a live audience, a live microphone, as you both know.”
As wrestling fans know, a lot of wrestlers “retire” and still find a way to come back to have more matches. The Rock will turn 48 years old on May 2. He’s in great shape of course, but it’s not like a lot of guys are having matches in their 50s.
The Rock is fantastic at interacting with fans on Instagram and while the world has been dealing with the health crisis, he has been having chats on Instagram Live with fans. During last night’s chat, The Rock was asked about possibly wrestling cousin Roman Reigns. I should point out that they are not first cousins, but they are part of the Anoa’i family that has produced a lot of incredible wrestlers (check out the family tree here) and they are close. Reigns had a small role in The Rock’s “Hobbs & Shaw” film that was released last year. Anyway, here’s what The Rock said about possibly wrestling against Reigns in a WWE ring.
“I think anything is possible. Sure, of course, I’m always open. That’s the cool thing about the world of professional wrestling, there is an adaptability to wrestling. You never say never in the world of pro wrestling.”
“You never say never with Vince McMahon, who has been one of my mentors in the business for a very long time. Very, very close friend and confidant. You never say no. For something like that to happen, I think the venue would have to be right. The business model would have be right. But I’m very close with Roman, he’s family to me, so we will see.”
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In October 2019, Reigns talked about how he would love to have a match against The Rock.
“If it’s done right, I think, obviously the star that he is, where he’s at in his career, it would be huge. It would be great. But you know, we’re family, so it has to make sense. And free the guy up; can we get him a break? Can he take a day off? If he can get a week off, then we might be able to make it happen.”
Roman Reigns and The Rock were together in a WWE ring over five years ago at Royal Rumble 2015 when Reigns won the Royal Rumble match and was booed loudly even with The Rock there to help him.
There’s no official word on if WWE is planning a match between The Rock and Reigns, but considering they both want to do it there will be plenty of rumors about it over the next year.
TJR Thoughts: I thought it was a thoughtful answer from The Rock as you would expect from a well-spoken man like him. The fact that he is open to it should lead to Vince McMahon having dollar signs in his head. Next year’s WrestleMania 37 event is currently scheduled to be in Los Angeles at the brand new Sofi Stadium although there are questions about if WrestleMania can continue as normal with fans even as far as next April. In addition to questions about if fans can go to an event in April 2021 due to the health crisis, it’s possible that the brand new Sofi Stadium won’t be ready for LA Rams and LA Chargers football this fall, so who knows if it will be ready by April? It should be, but there’s no guarantee right now.
If Sofi Stadium is ready then they might be able to hold 100,000 people, so when Rock is talking about the venue and business model being right, I don’t think it can be much more right than being in a huge stadium in Hollywood where Rock is a major box office star.
If Rock is willing to do it then WWE should definitely think about Rock vs. Reigns match at next year’s WrestleMania and having The Rock put over Reigns would be a big thing for Roman.