WWE WrestleMania Report Confirms The Rock’s Match Status Despite Cody Rhodes Backlash

A new report updates the status of Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson’s WrestleMania match against Roman Reigns. After referencing “The Head of the Table” during a surprise appearance on Raw a few weeks ago, The Rock popped up again on last week’s SmackDown to confront Roman Reigns, leading many to assume that the two will face off at WrestleMania 40. Normally the WWE Universe would be elated at this news, but they had already set their minds to Royal Rumble winner Cody Rhodes finishing his story by finally defeating Reigns at WrestleMania to earn his first WWE World Title. While WWE is monitoring the backlash to The Rock replacing Cody Rhodes as Roman Reigns’ WrestleMania challenger, a report states that Rock vs. Reigns is all but confirmed.

According to PWInsider (via Wrestle Ops), “There is ‘no scenario’ where Rock is not wrestling Roman Reigns at the show, unless something unforeseen happens, like an injury.” The show in question is WrestleMania 40, and the belief is The Rock vs. Roman Reigns is something that was part of The Rock’s deal as joining the TKO Board of Directors. If this report is true, fans may have to settle for seeing Cody Rhodes cash in his Royal Rumble win against WWE Raw Champion Seth Rollins, who he has already beaten on a number of occasions. 

WWE fans react negatively to The Rock taking Cody Rhodes’ WrestleMania spot

WWE’s YouTube upload of The Rock and Roman Reigns’s WWE SmackDown segment shattered the company’s record for most disliked YouTube video, beating the previous all-time marker within nine hours of being uploaded. It currently sits at over 500,000 dislikes. Beyond that, the hashtag #WeWantCody trended worldwide for the majority of the weekend. The topic currently has over 321,000 tweets, while #WeWantRocky sits at just over 50,000.

This brings back memories of Daniel Bryan’s (AEW’s Bryan Danielson) groundswell of fan support en route to a definitive world title victory at WWE WrestleMania 30. Fans rallied behind Bryan throughout 2013, eventually seeing him capture the WWE Championship at WWE SummerSlam 2013. He would be screwed out of the title minutes later when Triple H attacked him and Randy Orton cashed in his Money in the Bank to steal the gold. 

Support for Bryan carried into 2014, as fans hijacked WWE Royal Rumble when Bryan was not involved in the titular battle royal. “Yes!” and “Daniel Bryan!” chants became too deafening to ignore, and WWE elected to pivot WWE WrestleMania 30 plans by having Bryan inserted into the headlining WWE Championship bout between Orton and Batista. Bryan went on to win the match, celebrating in front of a raucous New Orleans crowd in a moment commentator Michael Cole dubbed the “miracle on Bourbon Street.”