The fallout continues from WWE’s decision to go with The Rock vs. Roman Reigns at WrestleMania 40 instead of having Reigns defend the Undisputed WWE Universal Title against Cody Rhodes following Friday’s SmackDown.
WWE is expected to make Reigns vs. Rock official at WrestleMania this coming Thursday at the WrestleMania Kickoff event.
The change
Pwinsider confirmed Dave Meltzer’s report about plans was changed after a strong push by The Rock and was backed by TKO execs.
The report said, “Some sources believe it was done by Johnson to, as one source stated, “save Wrestlemania” after CM Punk and Brock Lesnar, for very different reasons, were taken off the board from the biggest weekend of the year.”
Other sources think Rock pushed for it given his massive $30 million stock payday, and the stock may have been contingent on him hitting certain milestones. Sources noted Rock felt wrestling Reigns was a bigger match for the company than Rhodes. This may have happened regardless of the other Mania plans changing as “The Rock was back in the game, and the most important members of company management were going to acquiesce to Dwayne Johnson’s ideas.”
The company felt with The Rock being on the Board of Directors, his standing in Hollywood, and the backing of Ari Emanuel, Nick Khan, and others, Rock vs. Reigns would serve as a greater mainstream attraction while also helping to push positive momentum in the company at a time where the Vince McMahon allegations have dominated headlines.
Takeover
A source did make a comparison to when Rock tried to take over the overall creative for the DC film franchise, but that was nixed after he went over the heads of executives to their superiors to get his ideas approved and make Black Adam a new franchise after one film. He lost that battle when Warner Bros. Discovery gave that power to James Gunn and Peter Saffron instead.
Pwinsider was told Rock replacing Rhodes wasn’t done to target him or politic Rhodes out of the match with malice, but felt he was the better person to make money now and respect his new position with the company’s parent company.
“This was a strategic move to give Johnson more political power overall and to show Endeavor’s faith in his involvement and that even Paul Levesque, who has done an admirable job as the Chief Creative Officer, would “lose that power struggle with Johnson at this point,” as one source surmised.”
Brian Gewirtz
Pwinsider confirmed former Senior Vice President of Development at Johnson’s Seven Bucks Productions, Brian Gewirtz, will be in the mix as usual as he is always involved whenever Rock is doing something with WWE as he helps with The Rock’s creative process considering his history as a former head of WWE creative for several years.
Some people think he could even be a “Plan B” if Endeavor ever needs to pivot WWE’s direction creatively under Triple H and go with a Rock-backed creative team down the line.
