The Rock Will "Fully Embrace" Heel Turn During Road to WWE WrestleMania 40

WWE WrestleMania 40 plans have changed. This past Thursday at WWE WrestleMania 40 Kickoff, Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson confronted Undisputed WWE Universal Champion Roman Reigns in an effort to lock in their WWE WrestleMania 40 match. The familial clash between the two was first set in motion the previous week on WWE SmackDown when Cody Rhodes essentially stepped aside so that The Rock could fight Reigns in April. Right before it could be made official, Rhodes interrupted Rock and Reigns's confrontation, announcing that he would in fact be using his Royal Rumble victory title shot against Reigns at WWE WrestleMania 40.

Things continued to escalate from there, with Rhodes telling the Tribal Chief that his ancestors would be ashamed of the man that he's become. This gave way for The Rock to step in, backing up his cousin and slapping Rhodes in the process. That moment seemed to cement The Rock as a heel, affirming his previous teasing of Rhodes and his "Cody crybaby" fanbase as being seeds for a turn to villainy.

The Rock Continuing Heel Persona Heading Into WrestleMania

The People's Champion has turned his back on the people.

Following his villainous actions at WWE WrestleMania 40 Kickoff, @WrestleVotes reports that Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson is "expected to fully embrace his heel turn." It was added that The Rock will draw inspiration from his "Hollywood" Rock persona from the early 2000s. This antagonist role will come in the form of merchandise too, as "Rock-branded Cody 'crybabies'" items are anticipated to hit WWEShop.com soon.

This represents the first time that The Rock has been a fully-fledged heel since 2003. Back then, he was working with the aforementioned "Hollywood" Rock persona, touting himself as a high-profile movie star who was becoming too big for WWE. Rock would regularly host "Rock concert" segments where he made fun of his rivals in sing-song fashion. Rock would bring back the "Rock concert" segments in the early 2010s in a babyface fashion.

It remains to be seen as to what kind of role The Rock will have at WWE WrestleMania 40. The latest WrestleMania teaser trailer has fans speculating that he could work a tag team match alongside Undisputed WWE Universal Champion Roman Reigns to face Cody Rhodes and WWE World Heavyweight Champion Seth Rollins.

The Rock is scheduled to appear alongside Roman Reigns this Friday on WWE SmackDown, airing at 8 PM ET on FOX.

WWE WrestleMania 40 goes down on April 6th and April 7th.