WWE had hoped for nearly a year to have The Rock return to wrestle Undisputed WWE Universal Champion Roman Reigns in the main event of WrestleMania 39.
As previously reported, The Rock implied to WWE that he didn’t feel like he had enough time to get into ring shape for a Mania main event and passed on the bout, although he has left the door open for next year.
WWE is going with Cody Rhodes challenging Reigns for the Undisputed WWE Universal Title at WrestleMania.
As WrestlingNews.co exclusively reported in December when the possibility of The Rock wrestling at Mania was still in play, WWE had plans to separate the Undisputed WWE Universal Title – WWE Championship and Universal Championship.
The first night would’ve seen Seth Rollins vs. Drew McIntyre vs. Cody Rhodes for the WWE Title, while Reigns vs. Rock for the Universal Title would’ve headlined the second night.
Current plan for the #WrestleMania main event:
Night 1
Seth Rollins vs. Drew McIntyre or Cody Rhodes for the WWE ChampionshipNight 2
Roman Reigns vs. TBD for the Universal ChampionshipIf they can't get The Rock then Cody will be in the spot against Roman.
— Wrestling News (@WrestlingNewsCo) December 26, 2022
While speaking on Wrestling Observer Radio, Dave Meltzer confirmed this was Mania’s original plan before The Rock decided not to wrestle.
Meltzer: “The key to this is they are not creating a new championship on the Saturday night show.”
Bryan Alvarez: “They’re not creating a new championship?”
Meltzer: “Yeah, there was talk of doing the second title on Saturday night.”
Alvarez: “I’d always been under the impression that Roman was defending both titles.”
Meltzer: “No, if it was Roman and The Rock, they were gonna create a championship on Saturday night that Cody probably would have ended up winning. But it was Cody, Drew or Rollins that was gonna come out of that one. Because they wanna go back to two titles….Obviously, at WrestleMania, it’s for both belts. They did explain, again they did say it’s now two belts again. It’s not one belt. It’s back to two belts. They are, at some point, going to separate them.
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