Despite months of speculation that Dwayne Johnson will be facing Roman Reigns at WrestleMania, the match appears far from set in stone.
While it was believed that the match was heavily favoured by WWE, it was recently reported that there’s a “strong” possibility the star known as The Rock could miss the event altogether.
One further complication is the WWE return of Vince McMahon. The billionaire retired from WWE back in July after being besieged by allegations of sexual misconduct and hush payments. Since then there have been further allegations of sexual assault. With McMahon back involved some fans have suggested that Johnson may steer clear of WWE for the time being as linking publicly with McMahon could be a PR disaster.
Dwayne Johnson’s WrestleMania Involvement Still Unconfirmed
However, it appears that McMahon will have no bearing on a potential appearance. Speaking on Wrestling Observer Radio, Dave Meltzer noted that one more match for The Rock is far more dependant on his famously hectic schedule.
“The basic thing is that Dwayne Johnson is going to do what he has the time to do. If he has time, the Vince stuff is going to have no impact whatsoever. He’s going to do it if he feels he can do it well and he has time to train for it. Which he may not because of the XFL.”
“The Vince thing will have no impact. A sale to Saudi Arabia is a different story but that’s not gonna happen before WrestleMania anyway most likely. Vince coming back, is it going to affect John Cena? Is it going to affect The Rock? No, they’re going to do whatever they were going to do before.”
“They expect John Cena at WrestleMania, and as far as The Rock goes, it just depends on his schedule. I would say we’re within two weeks of a yes or no on that one because they’ve got to have their answer by Royal Rumble because they’ve got to know what to do at the Rumble.”
“I don’t know what his answer is. I look at the schedule, he’s got to promote this XFL, I don’t know that him doing WrestleMania promotes the XFL. But if he’s got time to get in shape for the match and train for the match, he’ll do it, and if he doesn’t, I don’t believe he’ll go there to be out of condition and have a bad match.”
Despite Vince McMahon stating that he was only back with WWE to facilitate a sale, it has been reported that he is speaking with Triple H regarding creative and could even return to television.
H/t to WrestleTalk