Young Rock Features Roman Reigns as a Child, Teases Reigns vs. The Rock at WrestleMania

Roman Reigns (sort of) made a surprise cameo on this week’s Young Rock. The episode was once again set in 1996 as Dwayne Johnson (played by Uli Latukefu) begins training under his father, WWE Hall of Famer Rocky Johnson (Joseph Lee Anderson). Midway through the episode, Johnson is seen sitting in his family home watching the 1996 Royal Rumble event alongside his parents, grandmother, The Iron Shiek and The Wild Samoans. At one point a young child jumps into the lap of Afa and Sika, who show him Yokozuna as he enters the Rumble match. The child then tries to get somebody to hit him with a Samoan Drop, but nobody is paying attention. He then points right at the camera and shouts, “Acknowledge me!”

The Rock, who is narrating the story from the year 2032, then points out the kid’s name is Joe, better known to the wrestling world as Roman Reigns. An infographic suddenly pops up to point out all of his accomplishments, though is just outdated enough to not include his latest WWE Championship win at WrestleMania 38 earlier this month.

Young Reigns then tries to put Rock in a headlock, saying, “Come on Dewey, let’s wrestle!” Johnson responds with, “No, the world’s not ready. A match that big can only happen at WrestleMania.” Reigns vs. The Rock has been a dream match WWE fans have been wanting to see for years, with many believing it will finally happen at WrestleMania 39 next year in Los Angeles. 

Johnson spoke with ComicBook last November and talked about the possibility of a return, saying, “I don’t know if I have another title run, considering I’m the People’s Champion, but I don’t know if it’s another title run. I think possibly, you know, there might be another match down the road. It would have to make sense.”

“It seems like Roman, you know, I’m very close with Roman obviously, and we talk about this all the time, and I continue to encourage him to keep doing your thing, keep sharpening those skills,” he later added. “I think he’s doing a great job with his promo, his execution, his in-ring work. It all continues to improve and grow. And that’s always the best part, I think, about that world of professional wrestling is that when someone gets anointed and given the ball to run, they either score a touchdown with it or they don’t. But then some, not only score a touchdown with it, but then they begin to change the way the game is played. And in Roman’s case, he’s slowly doing that, and you could start to read the tea leaves. And again, I’m very, very proud of him. I like everything that he’s doing. I like everything that the Usos are doing. I like what they’re doing together, and we’ll see down the road.”