Ever since Roman Reigns took on the mantle of ‘Tribal Chief’, fans have been clamouring for a showdown between Reigns and undoubtedly the Anoa’i family’s biggest name – Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson. Rumours of a potential WrestleMania dream match between the two have floated around the wrestling community for years, but it has yet to come to fruition with ‘The Great One’ making his last WWE appearance almost four years ago.
Unfortunately, it looks like we won’t be seeing The Rock come home to WWE quite yet according to Brian Gewirtz, former WWE head writer and current Senior Vice President of Johnson’s Seven Bucks Productions. Gewirtz discussed why the current SAG-AFTRA strike could be holding the process back during an appearance on The Ringer Wrestling Show.
“Even though WWE is not affiliated with any of the guilds and not affiliated with SAG, I still think it’s a bad look for a prominent actor like The Rock, Cena, Batista to appear on an entertainment programme while there’s a strike going on, while people are not getting paid and are striking and picketing every single day,” Gerwirtz noted.
“Yes, it’s not the same, but appearing on television and in an entertainment capacity, it’s just not a great look when there’s a strike going on for one thing. I would say this, I would be shocked if The Rock appeared anytime soon while the strike is going on, but I would be equally, if not more, shocked if The Rock never appeared in a WWE ring again.
[The Rock getting involved with The Bloodline] needs to be crafted and discussed and thought about and let’s say again, we’ve never talked about this, just my opinion. If The Rock, all of a sudden, tweeted something about The Bloodline, It’s not like if I tweeted something about The Bloodline, like ‘Who gives a sh-t?’ If he writes something about The Bloodline, the gates of hell are open and it’s hard to close the door again once you do it. Once you dip your toe into the pool, it’s on.
You could tweet Grayson Waller and he could tweet back and it could be a funny little exchange and you can mention it again. But there’s not gonna be this pitchfork-like mentality of, ‘What are you waiting for? Do it! You started it!’ So you can have fun with that sort of thing but once you start doing The Bloodline thing, then it’s time to go and that’s why you got to be very judicious and careful about it in my opinion.”
Whilst Johnson has never discussed the possibility of facing ‘The Tribal Chief’, Reigns tackled the rumors directly whilst speaking to ESPN this past April. The Bloodline leader stated that he wants the biggest match for the fans and if Reigns vs Rock is one of them, then he’d be open to it. Equally, however, he’s willing to go with the flow in whatever his future holds.
If you use any quotes from this article, please give a h/t to Haus of Wrestling and credit The Ringer Wrestling Show.