In professional wrestling, plans always change. All writers and executives must adhere to what the fans want to see and adjust to any unexpected roadblocks, such as injuries among the wrestlers. This is precisely what happened with the plans for WrestleMania 40.
WWE released a documentary on YouTube called WrestleMania XL: Behind the Curtain. In it, Triple H, among others who were heavily involved in making the WrestleMania main event, spoke about their original plans and why they were changed.
WWE WrestleMania 40 Main Event
Since WrestleMania 36, it has been a two-night event, meaning the fans get double the matches and two main events. The main event of night one for WrestleMania 40 was Roman Reigns and The Rock vs. Seth Rollins and Cody Rhodes in a tag team match. The main event for night two was Cody Rhodes vs. Roman Reigns.
On night one, Reigns and Rock were victorious. They had a vicious and personal storyline leading up to this match among all members. From Rock beating Rhodes outside of his bus with his belt and wiping it in his blood to the history that Reigns and Rollins have from their Shield days. Many fans were as invested in this match as in the one on night two.
After two long and hard-fought years, Cody Rhodes finished his story on night two of WrestleMania 40. He pinned Roman Reigns to win the World Heavyweight Championship, becoming the first Rhodes to win a WWE World title. While it took him time to finish his story, it wouldn’t be as meaningful if it happened any other way.
Original Plans for WrestleMania 40
In this documentary, we were taken behind the scenes in creating the WrestleMania 40 main events. Triple H himself told us that the rumors were true. The two main events originally planned for WrestleMania 40 were Seth Rollins vs CM Punk and Roman Reigns vs The Rock.
These matches were planned to occur months before the big event. Plans started to change after the Royal Rumble 2024 when CM Punk suffered a torn right tricep. That left Rollins’s plans in the air, so they started inserting him into Reigns and Rhodes’ storylines as a backup measure.
When The Rock returned as The Final Boss, all the fans knew that his return at this time of year only meant one thing. They were finally setting up one of the most anticipated matches in WWE, Reigns vs Rock, a match that big can only take place at WrestleMania.
However, once Rhodes stepped aside for The Rock, fans turned on The Rock. That speaks volumes, considering Rock’s legendary status in WWE and how long this match has been discussed. Fans last turned on The Rock years ago, and this pivotal moment officially switched the WrestleMania plans to Reigns vs Rock.
Rock discusses in this documentary how he felt after listening to the fans,
“I knew that the choice was essentially mine. It’s either that we truck through this and make this main event, or we don’t, and I went with the latter and told those guys, ‘Here’s what I believe we should do. I believe we should go, Roman, Cody, let Cody finish his story, and take care of those fans, because it’s critical and important; the Cody crybabies, so I call them.”
Rock understood what the fans wanted to see and that timing is everything in this business. He understood how plans needed to pivot, and he did just that by taking jabs at Rhodes before making a complete heel turn and aligning himself with Reigns. From there, the main event for WrestleMania 40 would fall into place.
What Can We Expect?
As far as we know, no plans are scheduled for a match between Reigns and Rock. We can assume it will be at the next WrestleMania, but as we know, plans have changed before. Both Reigns and Rock have been on a hiatus since WrestleMania 40. However, with Solo Sikoa taking over The Bloodline and claiming himself as the new Tribal Chief, they are teasing the return of Roman Reigns
There is a possibility of a future match between Reigns and Sikoa regarding who is the real Tribal Chief, but what would the feud between Reigns and Rock be about? Before WrestleMania 40, we got a tease of The Tribal Chief vs. The Final Boss. It is unknown if they would want to stick with the same story, but a lot could be done with the feud, especially since they are family.
It will be exciting to see everything unfold in the future. The only way to know what will happen is by watching weekly.
