All we know about Cody Rhodes, The Rock and Roman Reigns (Patreon)

In one of the most controversial moves in wrestling booking history, The Rock is poised to face Roman Reigns at WrestleMania 40 instead of Cody Rhodes.

We will preface this story by stating that nothing has been officially announced, and as always in pro wrestling, plans can change – just as they did over the last week. There are many in the company that are cautiously optimistic that if the reaction that WWE received Friday night doesn't change, maybe a pivot could be in order.

As of now, the plan for WrestleMania is The Rock vs. Roman Reigns, Cody Rhodes vs. Seth Rollins. Sources in creative confirmed that as of recently, the working plan was Cody Rhodes vs. Roman Reigns, and CM Punk vs. Seth Rollins. Punk’s title shot was to be set up at the WWE Elimination Chamber PLE. Brock Lesnar vs. Dominik Mysterio at Elimination Chamber and Lesnar vs. Gunther from WrestleMania were also canceled from creative plans, as Lesnar and Punk were eliminated from creative moving forward. 

While Cody Rhodes professed loudly at Royal Rumble that he was coming after Roman Reigns, there were some in the company that claimed that they heard as of that afternoon that The Rock had agreed to face Reigns. We’ve also heard that there was Rock “Head of the Table” WrestleMania themed merchandise prototypes within the company by that weekend.

Nobody we spoke to could make the order of operations make sense, but many were hopeful that WWE and TKO would see the reaction and pivot. You can see many of the reactions we’ve garnered below.

Those that we’ve spoken to said that The Rock had not only pushed to work the match, some thought he was even pushing to win the match. Regardless of what the finish will be, multiple sources said that they viewed this as a political move that TKO believes will result in more immediate money than what would have been with Cody Rhodes vs. Roman Reigns. Sources within TKO swore this wasn’t done out of malice to Rhodes, and value him as a talent, but believe that those involved with the decision making underestimated how the patience of the audience has worn thin on the situation.

There have been some creative shakeups within WWE of late, and sources on the creative team expect Rock’s longtime business partner and friend, and former WWE creative member Brian Gewritz to factor in heavily to the Rock’s creative plans moving forward. He’s expected to be around from time physically, as well. Fightful reached out to Gewirtz about his role, but were not immediately able to get comment unless it was an interview approved by WWE. TKO sources did say they valued Gewirtz’s skill set and that they could see him in a key WWE role creatively if the right situation aligned between all parties.

Regarding the timeline of events, we’re told that Cody at least was informed as of Friday that this was the decision, and he didn’t travel to Smackdown without knowing. Talent, including The Rock, had all been booked for the February 8 press conference in Las Vegas by that time, though The Rock’s involvement wasn’t clear.

Naturally, Fightful asked if this move was done in order to take attention or publicity away from the WWE, Vince McMahon and John Laurinaitis scandal and lawsuits that were going on. Sources in the know claimed that The Rock was actually pushing for this before, but admitted that it couldn’t have hurt the process to get any mainstream publicity that was not associated with the scandals.

It’s work noting that The Rock and Ari Emanuel have had a long standing relationship, and The Rock is the biggest star tied to the Endeavor brand. Fightful had heard as of three weeks ago there was a talent element being pitched for his role with TKO, as both sides wanted to maximize the huge deal they made around the board position, licensing fees, and rights of “The Rock” name.

For those wondering, the early word is that The Rock will attempt to work a full-length match, but there’s no word on if he’d be open to continuing to wrestle. There were some concerns about him working a WrestleMania main event-length match after his recent appearances.

All parties involved will be at the Las Vegas media presser Thursday. Fightful's Sean Ross Sapp and Instinct Culture's Denise Salcedo will be on the scene. 

Reactions Within WWE

For the sake of transparency, Fightful reached out to over three dozen contacts within WWE across all departments. None that got back to us even played devil’s advocate for the decision to run The Rock vs. Roman Reigns, and the decision was universally panned from those we spoke with.

“I’ve known Dwayne a long time,” one wrestler told Fightful. “Not only did the look on Cody’s face tell a story, the look on Dwayne’s told a story. I think in that moment he knew that this decision wasn’t going to work out quite the way that he imagined it. He was experiencing the same thing that he and Roman experienced in Philadelphia. He was being co-signed for something the vast majority didn’t want.”

Everyone that we heard back from understood the business implications of running the match, but believed it wasn’t a good decision for long-term WWE business.

“The Rock vs. Roman made sense several years ago when we were running back Roman and Lesnar repeatedly. It could have made sense this year had Cody won the title last year. This is one of the few years it just doesn’t make sense in any capacity,” one former world champion told Fightful.

A source in creative said that many on the team were deflated, and it felt like a decision they’d hear about being made under the previous regime at the expense of helping cultivate new crossover talent.

Another source that had worked with the Rock was much more stern, saying “The Rock eroded his trust with the comic and superhero community, with the film community, maybe with the football community, and might do it with the one he has almost universal goodwill with. He’s not a bad guy, don’t mistake that or get me wrong – he’s a great guy. However, bad timing and overexposure and fatigue will make fools of us all. You have to know when to take a back seat.”

PWInsider was told that the move was not done to politic Cody out of his main event with malice, and one top talent sent Fightful a screenshot and said “I truly believe that The Rock wasn’t being malicious. Not being malicious with intent and actions not having malicious repercussions aren’t exclusive.”

Another longtime member of the creative team said “there have been numerous meetings, pitches, attempts to get The Rock in on this match, or really any match, for years and it never happened. One year the excuse was that the story didn’t make sense. Not only does it make less sense than ever right now, it’s undermining one of the biggest stories we’ve ever told and turning off a lot of our fans.”

“The Rock’s family passed the McMahon family in the past week as far as power dynamic in pro wrestling, and it’s probably not going to change any time soon,” said one person who has worked with all parties involved numerous times.