At WrestleMania 39, Roman Reigns will defend his Undisputed WWE Universal title against Cody Rhodes. That’s the match as it stands with a little over a month left. However, throughout 2022–even with Cody, Sami, Brock, Owens, Drew, and so on as the likely suspects, everyone was still eyeing Roman Reigns vs. The Rock.
WWE or the Fans: Who’s to Blame for The Rock vs. Roman Reigns Expectations for WrestleMania 39?
Well, let’s say most were expecting these two to face off. After all, Dwayne Johnson has come in to wrestle during his busy career in Hollywood. Hell, he even won the WWE Championship in 2013 and lost the belt at WrestleMania 29 to fellow crossover star John Cena.
The Rock would announce his retirement in 2019 but in wrestling, you never say never. Besides being Roman’s cousin, the only throwback heading into a potential Roman-Rock match would’ve been a young Tribal Chief being in The Shield, a group which attacked The Rock during his 2013 WWE title reign.
However, that was resolved—although Dwayne Johnson still has a title rematch against Cena. The expiration date on rematch clause matches was never specified but I’m certain it’s not flexible like Money in the Bank where it can be cashed in regardless of the champion.
So, there was nothing there to start in regards to Johnson wrestling Roman. They could’ve started any time in 2022 if that was in the cards. Royal Rumble 2023 would’ve been the last day to make something happen on that front without pushing someone else back until next year.
The Match Was Never Seriously Considered
The Rock had his last actual match in 2013 and his last WrestleMania bout in 2016, defeating Rowan in under 10 seconds. After that, his schedule had just enough room for special appearances.
It would be hard for him to take a few weeks across two months aside so that his involvement in the title match made sense. However, Cody Rhodes and any of the full-time main eventers could be penciled in and booked without issues—bar injury.
With WWE knowing this, an effort was never made to drop bread crumbs at Roman Reigns vs. The Rock. The whole year, WWE has been consistent in feeding Reigns challengers and the Tribal Chief hasn’t missed a meal.
That’s the thing from WWE’s side: the match was never strongly considered. It was a dream match or the most obvious big challenge for Roman. That’s where the fans ran with the booking.
I believe it’s say to say that Triple H never put much stock in The Rock potentially wrestling Roman Reigns. He was busy hiring people back, bringing his people up, and plugging them in where he wanted them.
Johnson returning always seemed like a potential Vince McMahon plan. Hey, they got Stone Cold back in the ring! If he could’ve gotten Triple H and Foley back in there Vince would’ve had an Attitude Era champion slam.
So Who’s to Blame?
Under Triple H, it’s more like if it happens it happens with The Rock wrestling. With that said, Roman smashing through each challenger for two years straight, main event stars not appearing as threat afterwards, and the main event looking thinner as a result would have fans looking beyond the roster.
Not only that but Roman Reigns needs time between clapping an opponent a few times before we see the return challenge. Basically, if we’ve seen two superstars square off two or three times in three or so months, we don’t need to see those two square off again for a while.
While the matches haven’t been bad at all—at least in my opinion—some of the challenges seem overdone or done to death. Roman-Brock is still on cool down while Roman-Owens’ cool down might be ending.
Not only does The Rock present a new challenge to Reigns, he also comes off as the only hope at beating the champion—never mind giving the undefeated Cody taking a swing.
Ultimately, I’d say this is more on the fans for running with the idea of Roman-Rock when nothing really pointed to this besides a roster with matches that fans either don’t want to see at all or don’t want to see for a while.
Who do you think is to blame for the unmet expectations: the fans or WWE? Let us know down below!
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