Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson is now officially acting as WWE champ Roman Reigns’ ally instead of his WrestleMania opponent. New background on the 180-degree turnaround has now been revealed
Just two weeks ago, they appeared to be opponents in the biggest WWE match in a long time – now they’re suddenly best buddies.
Megastar Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson and Roman Reigns, the Undisputed Universal Champion, made an official pact in front of the WWE cameras over the weekend. League icon The Rock is now part of Reigns’ group Bloodline, completing his “heel turn”, his return to the role of arrogant villain – which once established his worldwide fame.
The wrestling empire thus completed a 180-degree turnaround after it seemed certain two weeks ago that Rock and Reigns would be opponents in the main match of the WrestleMania 40 mega-show at Philadelphia’s Super Bowl Stadium.
But how exactly did the radical switch come about? A detailed background report by a well-known insider has now shed more light on this.
The Rock changed tack after negative reactions
As scene guru Dave Meltzer reported in his Wrestling Observer some time ago, the Rock-Reigns match was actually part of the deal in which WWE parent company TKO gave Johnson a spot on the company’s board of directors
Having the match at WrestleMania was Johnson’s express wish, he said, and would have gone against concerns within WWE: Critics of the plan would have preferred to see the match at a later date from the outset, such as at one of WWE’s regular major events in Saudi Arabia.
Johnson, however, has been pursuing the idea of a big WrestleMania match against his “blood brother” Reigns for many years – he even included a hint of this in his TV series Young Rock, where he had the young alter egos of Reigns and him dream of a WrestleMania match in the then distant future as an inside gag.
As Meltzer now reports in his latest newsletter, Johnson has since changed his mind in response to the massive negative reactions from the WWE fanbase, where there have been numerous and vociferous calls for the long-term storyline between Reigns and Cody Rhodes to be completed at WrestleMania instead. Idol The Rock even got loud boos for interfering in the sentiment of these fans.
Extension of the echo surprised WWE
According to Meltzer, WWE creative director “Triple H” Paul Levesque had originally planned a storyline in which the Bloodline would injure Royal Rumble winner Rhodes, seemingly taking him out of the match for WrestleMania. The Rock was then supposed to shock Reigns and co. as “Deus ex Machina”.
The first change of plans would have come when the planned WrestleMania match between World Champion Seth Rollins and CM Punk was canceled due to Punk’s serious injury: Rhodes was scheduled as a replacement for Punk, the injury storyline was canceled – and the scenario that was instead seen on the SmackDown show on February 2 was designed: Rhodes left his WrestleMania match against Reigns to Johnson of his own accord.
Rhodes’ portrayal as a noble hero who put his own ambitions on hold was supposed to soften the blow of his fans’ displeasure. Instead, the staging may have actually intensified the negative response. According to Meltzer, the WWE management had expected a headwind, but not such a strong one.
A few days later, WWE reversed course and scrapped the match between Rock and Reigns when Rhodes suddenly demanded his title match against Reigns at the official WrestleMania PK.
Cody Rhodes takes center stage instead of Rock
According to Meltzer, this was preceded by intensive talks between WWE management and Johnson and his confidant Brian Gewirtz – a former WWE head writer who followed Johnson to Hollywood and helped shape various of his projects there.
Ultimately, Johnson came to the realization on his own that he should leave the WrestleMania match to Rhodes and switch to the villain role to satisfy the fans’ sensibilities. It is also said that he may have feared negative headlines and damage to his image if he had been unintentionally booed at Mania – having also taken a few scratches in Hollywood recently with the cancellation of “Young Rock” and the flop of the movie “Black Adam”.
It now looks like Rock and Reigns will have a match together against Rhodes and Seth Rollins on the first day of WrestleMania. On the second night of WrestleMania, the big match between Reigns and Rhodes will take place.
It is expected that Rhodes will then defeat and dethrone Reigns, who has reigned as champ since the summer of 2020, on Day 2. The fact that even Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson is now stepping aside for this big moment of the “American Nightmare” speaks volumes about how much impact Cody Rhodes’ story has developed in the meantime
