WWE Royal Rumble: The Rock “Being Talked About” as Match Winner

Roman Reigns is in the middle of the most dominant title reign in the 21st century. The Tribal Chief has held the WWE Universal Title for well over two years now, making him the longest-reigning world champion in WWE since Hulk Hogan’s 1980s run with the WWF Championship. During this run, Reigns has bested the likes of Brock Lesnar, John Cena, Bryan Danielson, and Kevin Owens, as well as defeating WWE Hall of Famers Edge and Goldberg. While Reigns is quite literally running out of viable contenders, there is one dream match left: a WWE WrestleMania encounter with The Rock.

While a clash of Anoa’i family members has been fantasy booked for years now, WWE finds themselves at a bit of a booking roadblock. With Reigns holding both of the company’s world titles, he would need to lose at least one of them before April or he would be forced to defend against the winner of the men’s Royal Rumble match. That said, WWE might have a solution.

As reported by the Wrestling Observer Newsletter, The Rock is “being talked about behind the scenes” as being an entrant and the winner of the 2023 men’s Royal Rumble match, but there remains “no real answer” regarding his status. The report continued that WWE has set a deadline of “mid-January” to lock in its plans for the WWE WrestleMania 39 main event, as the WWE Royal Rumble takes place at the end of that month. The internal belief is that if Rock’s schedule allows it, he would face Reigns in what would “likely” be his last match.

Beyond that, the Wrestling Observer adds that Rock specifically wants the match to go down in Los Angeles. There were reportedly conversations of doing Rock vs. Reigns in Dallas, Texas for this past April’s WWE WrestleMania 38, but Rock favored having the bout in La La Land.

During a recent press tour for Black Adam, Rock teased a possible Mania confrontation with his cousin. When asked about who he sees as the head of the table, the Brahma Bull replied simply, “You’re looking at him.” In another interview, Rock noted that he does acknowledge the Tribal Chief.

The Rock’s last true wrestling match came in 2013 when he lost the WWE Title to John Cena at WWE WrestleMania 29. He did have an impromptu match at WWE WrestleMania 32 against Erick Rowan, but it lasted for just six seconds. In the years since, Rock has made one-off appearances on WWE programming, with his last coming on the FOX premiere of WWE SmackDown.

Stay tuned to ComicBook.com for updates on The Rock’s WWE status.