WWE Report Reveals Backstage Reaction to The Rock Facing Roman Reigns Instead of Cody Rhodes

WWE truly shocked the world last night on SmackDown when The Rock was revealed to be Roman Reigns’ WrestleMania opponent instead of Cody Rhodes. Since the segment debuted, the clip of it has drawn a significant amount of downvotes and negative reactions, as has the decision to have Rhodes step out of the way for Rock in general. While there are plenty of people excited about the prospect of Rock finally facing Roman, the fact that Rhodes’ story has to be sacrificed for it is not sitting right with many others, and a new report from Fightful Select indicates that sentiment is echoed backstage and by other superstars.

As of right now, the plan is for The Rock to face Reigns at WrestleMania, while Rhodes will face Seth Rollins. Sources in creative confirm that recently the plan was for Rhodes vs Reigns and CM Punk vs Rollins, and Punk’s shot at the Title was supposed to be set up at Elimination Chamber. Punk was hurt at the Royal Rumble though and will be out of action for a while, so that match can’t happen.

Meanwhile, other plans were affected due to the lawsuit against Vince McMahon indicating Brock Lesnar’s role in those allegations without mentioning him by name. Since then WWE reportedly canceled Lesnar’s return at the Rumble and then pulled him from WWE SuperCard, and that’s also affected plans for him at Elimination Chamber and WrestleMania. According to the report, creative plans for Lesnar included a match against Dominik Mysterio at Elimination Chamber and a match against Gunther at WrestleMania, but those have been canceled.

As for Rhodes, while he spoke of going after Reigns at the Rumble, some in the company indicated that they had heard as of that afternoon that Rock had agreed to face Reigns. There were also reportedly Rock “Head of the Table” WrestleMania merchandise prototypes being worked on. The exact timeline of events isn’t clear, but many they spoke to were hoping that WWE and TKO would see the reaction to this move and pivot accordingly.

Multiple people who were spoken to said that they looked at this as a political move that TKO believes will hit big financially more immediately than the feud with Rhodes would have. Sources within TKO say this wasn’t done out of malice to Rhodes and they value him as a talent. They do however believe that those who are involved with those decisions underestimated how thin the patience of the audience has grown to be in all this.

The current thought right now is that Rock will attempt to wrestle a full-length match, but it’s not known if he’s open to wrestling more after this. There were some concerns about him working a WrestleMania main event full-length match after recent appearances. Everyone that the report spoke to understood the impact this match could have on business, but also believed it wasn’t a good decision for long-term impact on that business.

“I’ve known Dwayne a long time,” one wrestler said. “Not only did the look on Cody’s face tell a story, the look on Dwayne’s told a story. I think in that moment he knew that this decision wasn’t going to work out quite the way that he imagined it. He was experiencing the same thing that he and Roman experienced in Philadelphia. He was being co-signed for something the vast majority didn’t want.”

“The Rock vs. Roman made sense several years ago when we were running back Roman and Lesnar repeatedly. It could have made sense this year had Cody won the title last year. This is one of the few years it just doesn’t make sense in any capacity,” one former world champion said. One source in WWE Creative said that many on the team were deflated and that it felt like a decision that would have been sprung on them under the previous regime, noting that it also felt like a decision made at the expense of cultivating new crossover talent.

A source who has worked with The Rock said, “The Rock eroded his trust with the comic and superhero community, with the film community, maybe with the football community, and might do it with the one he has almost universal goodwill with. He’s not a bad guy, don’t mistake that or get me wrong – he’s a great guy. However, bad timing and overexposure and fatigue will make fools of us all. You have to know when to take a back seat.”

One top talent sent Fightful a screenshot and said “I truly believe that The Rock wasn’t being malicious. Not being malicious with intent and actions not having malicious repercussions aren’t exclusive.” 

A longtime member of WWE Creative said, “There have been numerous meetings, pitches, attempts to get The Rock in on this match, or really any match, for years and it never happened. One year the excuse was that the story didn’t make sense. Not only does it make less sense than ever right now, it’s undermining one of the biggest stories we’ve ever told and turning off a lot of our fans.” 

A person who has worked with all parties involved many times in the past said, “The Rock’s family passed the McMahon family in the past week as far as power dynamic in pro wrestling, and it’s probably not going to change any time soon.”