The Rock Confirms Match vs. Roman Reigns “Was Locked” For WWE WrestleMania 39

Leading into WWE WrestleMania 39 this past April, all eyes were on Undisputed WWE Universal Champion Roman Reigns defending his titles against Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson. While The Rock had not wrestled a proper match since 2013, Reigns’s ongoing storyline as the head of the Anoa’i family table and demanding acknowledgment from his bloodline seemed to be directly leading to a final boss clash against his cousin at the Showcase of the Immortals. Rumors ran rampant for years that The Rock vs. Roman Reigns would headline a WrestleMania, but a bout between the two has yet to materialize.

That said, it doesn’t mean it wasn’t discussed.

Rock vs. Roman at WWE WrestleMania 39 “Was Locked”

Speaking on The Pat McAfee Show, The Rock confirmed that a headlining match against Roman Reigns “was locked” for WWE WrestleMania 39.

“The Rock headlining WrestleMania with Roman Reigns, SoFi Stadium, that was locked. We were doing it,” Rock said. “In the beginning of 2022, (WWE CEO) Nick Khan was very instrumental in bringing Vince and I together. We all flew to LA. We met. We sat. We broke out the Teremana, and about an hour later we started talking about the potential of what this match could be. Myself and Roman Reigns headlining WrestleMania at SoFi. We shook hands and we hugged right there and said, ‘Let’s do this.’”

Rock added that the idea of a match against Reigns had to be unlike anything that had been done before, meaning it needed a beginning hook.

“The north star thought was let’s not do something good, let’s not do something great, let’s do something unprecedented. A match? Great. Roman’s an incredible athlete. He’s going to be on Mount Rushmore. The bigger thought was what can we do for the fans where WrestleMania isn’t the end of something, it’s actually the beginning of something bigger. We got really, really close but we couldn’t actually nail what that thing was.”

While the WWE WrestleMania 39 plans fizzled out, Rock noted that there is a possibility it gets revisited as soon as next April.

“We agreed, there is a merger coming up, there’s WrestleMania in Philadelphia,” Rock teased. “I’m saying that’s a potential. I’m open. Let’s figure out what that is.”

WWE WrestleMania 40 goes down next April at Philadelphia’s Lincoln Financial Field.