The Rock vs Roman Reigns May Not Happen Due to Unexpected Roadblock

While Roman Reigns having a potential match against a returning Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson has been one of the more exciting aspects of Reigns’ current trajectory as the WWE Universal Champion on Friday Night SmackDown, an unexpected roadblock could end up keeping this dream match from happening. As pointed out by the Wrestling Observer, what could keep this match from actually taking place is the insurances Johnson has on him from his multiple film projects currently in the works. In fact, since he last had a match against John Cena these insurance issues have been popping up.

These film insurances have played a key role in keeping Johnson from working in the ring again (h/t WrestlingNews.co) as a number of these projects he’s involved in would be concerned that he’d hurt himself and potentially impact his schedules. Wrestling Observer even noted how he’s been pitched many matches since the match with Cena that fell through as well.

In a recent interview with Bleacher Report, Paul Heyman even mentioned how he’s not exactly willing to name potential opponents for Reigns, “Anyone that I mention, I would be advocating for their box-office appeal,” Heyman said. “Since I don’t derive from anybody else’s box-office money except Roman Reigns, I’m hesitant to endorse anybody as a box-office attraction because I’m not making any money by doing so.”

He even went as far to dismiss Reigns challenging The Rock in the first place, “Roman Reigns never called out The Rock. Paul Heyman never called out The Rock. Neither one of us was looking for publicity by using The Rock’s name,” Heyman stated. “The Rock watched SmackDown, saw how Roman Reigns was head-and-shoulders above everybody else in WWE, and The Rock started throwing around Roman Reigns’ name because The Rock wanted the rub from the single biggest box-office attraction in sports entertainment today and Fox Network’s biggest star, Roman Reigns.”

But in a previous interview with the Load Management podcast, Reigns mentioned how he would be the one to bring Johnson back to the ring with some more polishing of his heel persona, ” think I’m the guy. If there is anybody that he would feel comfortable with in the ring, and have the proper build up and can rise to that occasion, there’s no doubt I’m the guy. We will definitely have to crack a lot of eggs to get to that…l’d have to build that villain to get to that point.”