The Rock: WWE WrestleMania 39 match vs. Roman Reigns was ‘locked’ in

  • Ian Carey
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The Rock says a match between him and Roman Reigns at WrestleMania 39 was, at one point, “locked” in. 

The Rock told Pat McAfee on Friday that he met with Vince McMahon and Nick Khan in early 2022 and agreed to face his cousin in SoFi Stadium the following year. However, Rock says he didn’t just want to do a match, he wanted to do something unprecedented that would change the industry, but they never nailed down what that would be. 

“The Rock headlining WrestleMania with Roman Reigns, SoFi Stadium, that was locked,” Rock said. “We were doing it.” 

“In the beginning of 2022, Nick Khan – who we know, very good friend for years, he’s the man – he was very instrumental in bringing Vince and I together. We all flew to LA, we met, we sat.”

“We started talking about the potential of what this match could be between myself and Roman Reigns headlining WrestleMania at SoFi and we shook hands and we hugged right there, all three of us at the table and said, ‘Let’s do this.'”

“So, then we had a year to really think about this. The North Star thought was, ‘Okay, let’s not do something good, let’s not do something great, let’s do something unprecedented.'”

“We can have the match but the bigger thought was what can we do for the fans of this business that we love where WrestleMania isn’t the end of something, it’s actually the beginning of something bigger?”

When McAfee pressed Rock on why they weren’t able to make the match happen, Rock said they couldn’t determine what the “something bigger” would be. 

“We got really, really close but we couldn’t actually nail what that thing was. So, we decided to put our pencils down. Then we agreed, ‘Hey listen, there’s a merger coming up, eventually, that will happen, there’s WrestleMania in Philadelphia…’ I’m saying that’s a potential too, I’m open. But again, let’s figure out what that is because the fans deserve something just incredible and unprecedented, and not only that, but I also want to deliver to the locker room and the boys and the girls back there who are working their asses off. What can we do to put them in a position where they are part of something that is a new change, an era in this world of pro-wrestling?”

The Rock hasn’t wrestled since defeating Erik Rowan in an unadvertised six-second match at WrestleMania 32. His previous match before that was when he dropped the WWE Championship to John Cena at WrestleMania 29.