Original plans for The Rock at WrestleMania were pitched a year in advance.
Prior to Cody Rhodes winning the 2023 Royal Rumble the long-awaited Rock vs. Roman Reigns match was heavily rumoured. With Reigns running through everyone on the roster, Rock very much wanting to do the match and WrestleMania 39 taking place in Hollywood, the stars appeared to have aligned to make the dream match a reality. However, the match did not take place as Cody Rhodes unsuccessfully challenged Reigns in a crushing defeat that ended the show on a sour note to many. The next day, the plans started to be put into effect.
“There’s A Good Chance The Rock And Roman Might Be Possible For WrestleMania 40”: Brian Gewirtz
Appearing on Busted Open Radio, the longtime writer of The Rock’s Brian Gewirtz, who also previously served as the head writer in WWE, let the creative team know that The People’s Champion would be interested in making a comeback:
“When WrestleMania 39 happened, I called my friend at WWE on the creative team and I said, ‘Just so you know, I’ve been talking with The Rock.’ Similar to The Rock-Ronda tag match (that was set up, but didn’t happen), I said, ‘There is a chance, there is a good chance, that Rock and Roman might be a possibility for WrestleMania 40.’ This is a year before. I said, ‘What do you guys have planned for WrestleMania 40?’ This is the day after WrestleMania 39. ‘Cody lost, the idea is to give him a solid year to go through many trials and tribulations, starting with Brock, and then do the rematch at WrestleMania 40.’
I said, ‘Okay, great. Well, this might exist, just so you know. You don’t need to change anything because who knows.’ A year in advance, so many things can happen. ‘Just know, in the back of your mind, he’s thinking about it.’ It wasn’t just between me and the writer. It was in the inner circle. ‘That’s great, we’re going to do our thing, you let us know on your end. If it gets to it, it’s a great problem to have. A storyline that is a great build and this dream match.'”
Gewirtz continued, recalling the meeting he had with The Rock and WWE higher-ups about the plans which also included Rock’s Head of the Table tease during his New Year’s Day return:
“It started, in the fall, looking more and more like a possibility. That led us to January 1st and the promo with Jinder (Mahal). At that point, it was looking very much like a possibility that Rock and Roman was going to happen. We had a meeting in Rock’s hotel room. It was me, Rock, Triple H, and Nick Khan. We talked about it all.
Triple H was very aware and astute of the Cody storyline, and we brought that up and talked about it for a while. At the end of that meeting, everyone enjoyed the promo with Jinder, but what everyone was talking about was the ‘Head of the Table.’ That came about super late into our meeting at the hotel. As we were talking about Cody, it was said, ‘I hear you, maybe we should test poll the audience.’ Not just the audience in San Diego, but the audience all over the world. ‘What if I tease it, but not say it directly.’ We brainstormed on how do that.
He did it. The place went nuts. Online went nuts. For the most part, it was overwhelmingly positive when he teased Head of the Table. At that point, ‘That gives us our answer.’ He did the TKO announcement, he went to WWE HQ, I have 96 pages of merch and title belt ideas. It was pretty much locked in at that point, which begs the question, if all of that is the plan, why do you have Cody Rhodes win the Royal Rumble?”
Just as plans were seemingly locked in, WWE was left in a dilemma when Cody Rhodes won the Royal Rumble for a second time in 2024 and made it clear that he was going to challenge Roman Reigns once again at WrestleMania 40. Gewirtz admitted that fan favourite Rhodes won the Rumble caused an issue and would have preferred CM Punk to win as it would create an open path for Reigns due to Punk’s issues with then World Heavyweight Champion Seth Rollins:
“The idea of Cody winning the Rumble, I thought, was problematic. I said in San Diego, in that meeting, I thought the cleanest thing to do, if we’re booking Rock and Roman, is to have (CM) Punk win the Rumble and challenge Rollins because there is a difference, storyline-wise, of Cody wanting to finish the story and having earned the right to finish the story by winning the Royal Rumble. Once you win the Royal Rumble, that dynamic changes. It goes from something ‘we all want things,’ but now he’s got it. Why would he do anything other than focus on Roman?
That’s what he did when he pointed to him. Why wouldn’t he? That’s what the character would do. I’ll just say, with 100% certainty, the original plan is something many more people would have hated more than anything in life itself. I can’t state that any more clearly. Punk gets hurt, the dominos start falling, things start shifting, and we get to a point where the WrestleMania press conference is coming up and we need to promote something, and now we get to the infamous Alabama promo.”
The Alabama promo in question saw Rhodes seemingly relinquish his WrestleMania opportunity against Reigns and instead allow The Rock to become the new challenger. Gewirtz explained that Rhodes’ story did not have to finish at WrestleMania and how they were left in an unwinnable scenario due to the events that unfolded:
“The idea, it wasn’t necessarily my idea, but we all said, ‘This is where we’re at.’ The story for Cody is to win the belt that his dad could never win. It’s not to beat Roman Reigns and not to do it at WrestleMania. It’s technically, obviously, that’s the ideal place to do it, and it’s the best version of it, but the idea is, ‘I need to win this belt.’ I’m not saying this is a good idea, but it’s where we were left after the injuries and everything else.
If Cody himself somewhat endorses this idea and paves the way for Rock and Roman, and he does it in a confident, ‘I know what I’m doing.’ Maybe, maybe not, but maybe the audience would go along with it. It is nearly an impossible situation to put Cody in. He can’t be like he just won the Showcase Showdown on Price is Right. People would be like, ‘That’s insane, he would not be happy about this.’ If he’s too morose, that’s also not ideal. Certainly more natural, but not ideal.
You’re hoping for a sweet spot of steely confidence. ‘Roman, you’re going to get f*cked over twice and I’m going to finish my story in the end.’ You don’t know how it’s going to go until they step through the curtain. Cody and Rock did the segment. It was a little more down trodden than I was expecting, watching from the audience, but it’s an impossible position.
Gewirtz also stressed that there was no heat on Rhodes for how he handled the segment and that everyone assumed that they were getting ready for Rock vs. Reigns at WrestleMania until the discourse started:
“This is why I said I don’t blame Cody. Cody and Rock side barred on this. I think Cody’s attitude was, ‘I don’t like the decision, but I understand the business to be done here. I’ll go ahead the best that I can do it.’ He did it. At the time, we certainly weren’t thinking, ‘Cody ruined our brilliant creative.’
All of us going into it were like, ‘I don’t know if this is going to work, but let’s see what happens.’ For a second, it seemed fine, because the crowd popped big. Rock and Roman had their stare off. Everyone in Gorilla was like, ‘Great, we’re on track.’ Then, the vitriol came.”
Concluding, Gewirtz addressed the need to change plans and how the tag match came to light, adding that they were once again in a dilemma until Gewirtz pitched the Bloodline Rules stipulation:
“He proposed a tag match, as the main event of WrestleMania. He liked the elements, he liked teaming with Roman, the image of badassery, the throwback to WrestleMania 1 and the tag match that main evented. I said, ‘I love the tag match too, but that can’t be the main event. That can be night one, but I don’t think there is a world that exists anymore that can’t end with Cody beating Roman for the title on night two.’
It was agreed. ‘Figure out a way to get the tag match to the singles match.’ We had an idea, by the time we got to the press conference, it was a different stipulation than it ended up being. I don’t think anyone loved them. Without getting into specifics, it was more, ‘If this team wins, this is the match. If this team wins, this is the match.’ It was problematic because it required Cody winning twice.
You need that emotional release. He has to lose the first night. You have to have Cody win when he wins with everything on the line. Two days after the press conference, I threw out Bloodline rules or everyone is banned from ringside to Rock. Rock loved it. He called Nick (Khan), Ari (Emanuel), he talked to Triple H. I talked to Ed (Kosky) and Bruce (Prichard) on the creative team. Everyone was like, ‘Great, this is what we’re going to do now.’ We’re off to the races, and then everything started flowing.”
H/t to Fightful.