WWE WrestleMania 39 was headlined by Roman Reigns defending his Undisputed WWE Universal Championship against Cody Rhodes. It was a marquee match-up with a great storyline to go with it, but it wasn’t what many fans thought would be the main event of the show months earlier. Heading into the WWE Royal Rumble in January, fans were abuzz that Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson could make a last-minute return to the promotion to set up a mega match against his cousin, Reigns, for WrestleMania.
Earlier today, on The Pat McAfee show, Johnson was asked about the speculation regarding the potential blockbuster matchup.
“Alright, so The Rock headlining WrestleMania with Roman Reigns, SoFi stadium, that was locked,” he said. “We were doing it. No, we, we were doing it. We were doing it, but let me just tell you. So, in the beginning of 2022. Nick Kahn, who we know, Nick, a very good friend for years. He’s the man, and he was very instrumental in bringing Vince and I together.
“We all flew to LA, we met, we sat, this is the beginning of 2022, and we broke out the Teremana, we toasted life, toasted the business we love, and about an hour later, we started talking about the potential of what this match could be between myself and Roman Reigns headlining WrestleMania at Sofi. And we shook hands, and we hugged right there, all three of us at the table, and said, ‘Let’s do this.’ And so the North Star; so then we had a year to really think about this, so the North Star thought was, ‘Okay, let’s not do something good. Let’s do something great. Let’s do something unprecedented.’
“And it was in, what can we create for the fans that has never been done before? A match? Great. Roman, incredible athlete. He’s going to be on Mount Rushmore. Super handsome, good dude, my cousin, family. It’s amazing. We can have the match, but the bigger thought was, what can we do for the fans in this business that we love that will, where WrestleMania isn’t the end of something, it’s actually the beginning of something bigger.”
This is when the crowd around McAfee’s set burst into cheers at the failed idea of Rock and Reigns clashing at WWE WrestleMania 39. McAfee then proceeded to prod the former WWE Champion about why the mega match did not come together.
“So, we got really, really close, but we couldn’t actually nail what that thing was,” he lamented. “So, we decided to put our pencils down, and then when we agreed, ‘Hey, listen, there is a merger coming up. Eventually, that will happen. There’s WrestleMania in Philadelphia…'”
“What are you saying?!” McAfee exclaimed.
“I’m saying that’s a potential, too,” Rock shot back. ” I’m open, but again, let’s figure out what that is. Because the fans deserve something just incredible and unprecedented, and not only that, but I also want to deliver to the locker room and the boys and the girls back there working their asses off. What can we do to put them in a position where they’re part of something that is a new change? An era in this world of pro wrestling. And again, Vince is a big-picture thinker, as you know, and this is why we’ve gotten along for years just trying to think big picture.”
While on the subject of McMahon, McAfee asked for Johnson’s thoughts on the TKO Group Holding Executive Chairman’s new pencil-thin mustache, to which he said it was “solid.”
If you use any quotes from this article, please give a h/t to Haus of Wrestling and credit The Pat McAfee Show