The Rock Vs. Roman Reigns WWE WrestleMania XL Match Was Decided A MONTH Ago

Despite Cody Rhodes winning the 2024 men's Royal Rumble and pointing to Undisputed WWE Universal Champion Roman Reigns ahead of a supposed WrestleMania XL match between the two, it was supposedly known in early January that the 'Mania match would actually be The Rock taking on Roman.

This bizarre news comes via the latest episode of Wrestling Observer Radio, where Dave Meltzer notes how the decision to do Rock vs. Reigns at 'Mania XL was made on 3 January.

As Meltzer explained:

"When [Rock] made the deal on January 3rd to come in, that was part of the deal. Why Cody Rhodes won the Royal Rumble is a question I can't answer because nobody will answer it for me, but the belief was that it was Roman Reigns and Cody Rhodes, and nobody knew but the deal had been made prior to that. [It] played out the way they wanted it to play out. The plan as of Friday night was Seth Rollins and Cody Rhodes, and we'll see how it plays out, because now they're trying to turn it into a story, and see how the story goes."

When pushed by co-host Bryan Alvarez to clarify that WWE had Cody Rhodes win the Rumble to suggest a WrestleMania rematch with Roman Reigns, while it had already been decided on 3 January that The Rock would be the one to face the Tribal Chief, Meltzer reiterated that was indeed the case - saying this was part of a deal made by Dwayne Johnson, WWE President Nick Khan, and Endeavor CEO Ari Emanuel; a deal it seems few others were actually aware of.

From Meltzer:

"I can't tell you that they didn't tell anybody, but certainly they didn't tell many people or almost anyone. He got $30 million, and that was a deal with Nick Khan and Ari Emanuel. It was way above the head of everybody in WWE other than Nick. Nick and Rock, Dwayne, are friends, and Ari represents Dwayne and signed the deal. That was part of it."

While it's pure speculation and spitballing by your writer, could it be that The Rock vs. Roman Reigns had been agreed upon without the knowledge of Paul Levesque and the majority of those within WWE? That remains to be seen, but it would certainly explain why Cody Rhodes won the Royal Rumble and made it clear he was coming after Roman Reigns at WrestleMania XL...

Meltzer also noted how WWE was expecting Cody to "turn into Daniel Bryan" and be viewed as a "martyr" who would become a bigger babyface by him being switched out of the Roman match. The Wrestler Observer founder was unsure, though, whether the company expected such a negative reaction to The Rock.

As for whether there is concern that fans will turn on the Rock vs. Roman 'Mania bout, Meltzer added:

"I don't know, how much do they care? They're gonna be getting more eyeballs for this match than any match they've ever had. They're gonna have more sponsorship revenue, based on the fact Dwayne's wrestling, than any match they've ever had, so they might go in there and just go, 'Let them boo. It's the biggest money match we could ever make, so that's the match we're gonna make'."

For those who may have missed it, the Cody/Roman/Rock segment from last week's SmackDown has become easily the most disliked WWE video in history on YouTube, a replay of that segment was booed at a house show over the weekend, and even Ava Raine - as in, The Rock's daughter - was booed at NXT Vengeance Day last night.

As for the 3 January deal referenced by Dave Meltzer in these latest comments, that seems to be the deal which saw Dwayne Johnson officially join the TKO Board of Directors on 23 January. Even if the Rock vs. Roman decision was made at that point, that was still before this year's Royal Rumble, where clearly plans were put in motion for that Cody Rhodes and Roman Reigns rematch.

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