WrestleMania match vs. Roman Reigns part of The Rock’s deal to join TKO board
The deal for The Rock to face Roman Reigns at WrestleMania was made weeks before Cody Rhodes won the Royal Rumble.
The Rock was appointed to the TKO Board of Directors last month. As part of the deal, he was given full ownership of “The Rock” name as well as $30 million worth of company stock. Our own Dave Meltzer noted on Wrestling Observer Radio, that The Rock wrestling Reigns at WrestleMania was also part of the agreement.
Meltzer said:
When (Rock) made the deal on January 3 to come in (facing Roman at WrestleMania) was part of the deal. Why Cody Rhodes won the Royal Rumble is a question that I cannot answer because nobody will answer it for me.
Outside of Nick Khan and Ari Emanuel, very few people, if any, were made aware that a deal had been made for Rock to face Reigns at WrestleMania. The belief backstage at the Royal Rumble was that it would be Rhodes vs. Reigns.
Subscribers can click here to listen to the full episode of Wrestling Observer Radio.
The negative reaction to Rhodes being removed from the WrestleMania main event is something WWE now plans on turning into part of the story.
Meltzer continued:
(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 we’ll see how the story goes.
WWE does plan on having Rhodes vs. Reigns somewhere down the line, but the match is not currently planned for WrestleMania.
Like Cody said, they’re going to do that Cody Rhodes match, just not this year at WrestleMania unless they change and do it this year at WrestleMania. Everything’s up in the air, nothing is locked in stone.
Our own Bryan Alvarez asked Meltzer if WWE was expecting the backlash they have received as a result of booking Reigns vs. Rhodes.
Meltzer responded:
I don’t know what they were expecting but they were expecting Cody Rhodes to turn into Daniel Bryan, yes.
They were expecting to make Cody Rhodes into a martyr and make him a bigger babyface out of that. Were they expecting peope to boo Dwayne? I don’t know because I’ve asked that one and haven’t got a straight answer.
Meltzer continued to say that WWE might not care if fans reject Reigns vs. Rock.
I don’t know how much do they care because the’re going to be getting more eyeballs for this match than any match they’ve ever had, they’re going to have more sponsorship revenue based on the fact Dwayne’s wrestling than any match they’ve had so they may go in there and just go, ‘let ’em boo!’ It’s the biggest money match that we can ever make and that’s the match that we’re going to make.
Subscribers can click here to listen to the full episode of Wrestling Observer Radio.
