An in-ring return for ‘The Final Boss’ at WrestleMania 41 looks unlikely.
This past Monday’s episode of RAW, the show’s debut episode on Netflix, saw the return of Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson. Speculation had been rampant regarding The Rock’s potential involvement at WrestleMania 41, with an Undisputed WWE Championship match against Cody Rhodes at one point seeming like the show’s most likely main event.
However, The Rock surprisingly returned to RAW as a babyface and seemingly ended his feud with Rhodes, and in today’s edition of the Wrestling Observer Newsletter, Dave Meltzer revealed that the match is no longer set to take place.
“According to those in the company, as was made clear, Rock vs. Rhodes, the originally planned main event for this year’s Mania, is not happening.”
-Dave Meltzer
Alongside Rhodes, The Rock also shared a moment with Roman Reigns on Monday, with the pair also having been rumoured to finally face off at several editions of WrestleMania at this point.
Whilst the pair’s interaction this week was respectful, with The Rock labelling Reigns the “Original Tribal Chief”, Meltzer notes that the idea of a match between the two could still be something WWE returns to, although much is dependant on The Rock’s schedule.
“The idea of Rock vs. Reigns we have been told by several is not dead and they still could go to that in the future, perhaps Mania but the idea of somewhere else, particularly with the crazy money some places are paying fighters, that could also be an option. It’s up to him if he wants and has time to go through the training camp he feels is necessary to prepare himself at his age to do the match.”
-Dave Meltzer
Overall, it appears unlikely that The Rock will be stepping into the ring at WrestleMania 41 as it stands, although nothing is official at the time of writing.
As always, we’ll aim to provide any further updates on future plans for The Rock’s involvement with WWE as soon as we hear more.
