CM Punk securing his first-ever Royal Rumble win and completing the most unlikely romantic wrestling return seemed to be the obvious play for WWE’s first pay-per-view of the year.
Sometimes the obvious idea is still the right one. CM Punk returned to the company that he swore turned him off professional wrestling for seven years so that he could main event WrestleMania.
The Rock recently returned – and we’re talking before he became a big cheese board member for TKO – and heavily hinted he would face Roman Reigns in the near future, insisting he wants to ‘sit at the head of the table’.
With those two ideas in mind, WrestleMania’s title matches would be CM Punk vs Seth Rollins and The Rock vs Roman Reigns – but then Cody Rhodes won the Royal Rumble.
After coming so close at WrestleMania 39 in LA, the American Nightmare will get another chance at the 40th iteration in Philadelphia and he’s made it very clear that Reigns is who he will face. So how will the rest of the cards fall?
WrestleMania… 41?
The Rock and Roman Reigns is going to happen. It’s just a case of when. During an interview with ESPN First Take, the Hollywood box office star insinuated the story may be one that takes a while to build.
‘You guys know, I’m a long-gamer, and I like to build,’ The Rock said. ‘Something this, what this is, if myself and Roman Reigns were to main event WrestleMania, and I mean this very respectfully of all the WrestleManias prior because I grew up in this business, and I love it, we could possibly put on, with us as a main event and this incredible group of men and women who are these incredible performers, we could possibly put on the greatest and the biggest WrestleMania of all time.
‘There’s a chance [laughs],’ he said. ‘There’s a chance. I love this business. I love pro wrestling, I love WWE, but I also have this deep passion to grow it and to build it, and if we’re gonna do something like this, I want the world to watch.’
The Rock did have a full-year build with John Cena before they clashed at WrestleMania 28. Still, that was approaching 12 years ago and The Great One will be just a month shy of his 52nd birthday when this year’s Showpiece of the Immortals goes down.
If WWE does go this route, CM Punk can have his main event and Cody Rhodes can finish his story. Reigns does not need to have the world title belt to face The Rock and equally, fans might not appreciate two part-timers taking a year to build to a match over it.
Roman Reigns main events BOTH nights of WrestleMania
Could The Tribal Chief main event on both April 6 and 7? Potentially, yes he could. Outside of CM Punk, there is no other standout main event match to compete with right now.
Reigns could defeat The Rock on night one and then lose to Cody Rhodes on night two. But, there’s two problems.
One, The Rock would likely want to be (and realistically, should be) the night two main event who truly closes. If that was the plan, then Roman couldn’t lose to Rhodes on night one and appear weaker or less than heading into night two.
The Rock has the family business in his veins (as he will remind people at every opportunity, charmingly), so it’s plausible that he would aid Cody in his bid to make the biggest moment possible, which is also logical given his new board position.
But to make this the greatest and biggest WrestleMania ever like he said? It has to be about him and Roman, that’s the story.
Could Rock and Roman clash elsewhere?
Not really, no.
The Elimination Chamber show in Australia would air in the early hours for American fans and although this British writer would enjoy them feeling my pain, it’s not how WWE maximises a match like that.
It doesn’t make commercial sense and Roman isn’t advertised for the show either. This show is the last stop on the way to WrestleMania; if Rock vs Roman isn’t solid by then, it won’t be.
Could they collide at SummerSlam or in Saudi Arabia? It’s possible but it’s unlikely. The Rock has said WrestleMania himself, I’ve been told they’ve been angling for this match going back three years and the end destination was always WrestleMania.
That’s the only stage for it, Saudi money be damned.
So what’s going on?
Reigns had two stories running concurrently last year with Sami Zayn and Cody Rhodes. If The Rock was going to challenge Roman, that story would unfold imminently. A story of this magnitude needs time.
Given Rock’s quotes about going the long way, it seems he’s bracing us for WrestleMania next year. Would that be the right call? After he’s lost the belt to Rhodes and then isn’t around long? There’s many questions that only Triple H can answer, but if he’s going to pull a two-night Mania main event out of the hat, time is running out.
