Roman Reigns is one of the biggest stars in WWE today. Whether he’s holding a championship or not, the 32-year-old is positioned as a top guy that has headlined the last three WrestleManias and is likely going to headline many more as long as he’s healthy. While Reigns has improved as an overall performer, it’s frustrating to watch Reigns get booed nearly every week for about three years while the WWE Universe rejects him as a top face. Despite the crowd reactions, WWE management continues to push him as if he’s the next Hulk Hogan, Steve Austin or John Cena.
As we have reported several times this year (going as far back as March), the plan is for Reigns to headline next year’s WrestleMania against Brock Lesnar, who is the current Universal Champion on WWE’s Raw brand. However, Reigns has another when he was asked about another big name in WWE history. When Reigns was asked about a future match with The Rock, Reigns thought WrestleMania would be the perfect setting for that.
Reigns did a conference call with the United Kingdom media recently and was asked specifically about facing The Rock in a match. Here’s what he said with thanks to The Mirror for sharing it.
“Yeah I mean, when I first heard about the match with Cena, I immediately was thinking ‘man, let’s save this, let’s do this at WrestleMania’. But when the time is right, the time is right. But in the same light, I can only see me and Rock going at WrestleMania. Not only because of his schedule, but just the level of that match and the level of superstar that he is and you know, where I’m trying to get. But we also have a deep family tie. We represent the same family tree and having the opportunity to represent our culture, there would obviously have to be a sit down and we would have to express how we feel and the light we want to do this in … because there’s a lot of people we represent watching. The last thing I want to do is make it confusing or anything like that.
“But at the end of the day, I know it’s a money match. And I’m the guy who is still in the ring, so if someone who isn’t in the ring every single night wants to come back in the ring, we now call it my yard, so he is going to have to come to me and then we’ll go from there. It won’t go down anywhere other than a WWE ring, that’s all I’m saying. If he wants to get it, then I’m not stepping back for anybody.”
Reigns is right in saying that it would be a money match. Any time The Rock wrestles it’s a money match and since Reigns is a top guy in today’s WWE, he would be one of the better opponents if The Rock were to wrestle again. Other than Reigns, I think Brock Lesnar would be the best choice, but I certainly wouldn’t mind seeing Reigns vs. Rock.
The problem with the idea is that it’s unlikely that The Rock will ever have a proper match again. The Rock is 45 years old and his last real match was against John Cena at WrestleMania 29 in 2013. Sure, he had that “match” at WrestleMania 32 in 2016 when he beat Erick Rowan in about seven seconds, but he didn’t bump there. It was impromptu. The Rock suffered a number of injuries during the WM29 match including torn abdominal and adductor tendons that required surgery. Since then, the reports on a Rock return were stopped by Hollywood production companies not allowing him to wrestle again because he was an insurance liability. Those stories are from two years ago and nothing has changed since then.
If you’re wondering if The Rock and Reigns ever got involved in the ring before, the answer is yes because Reigns and The Sheild destroyed The Rock on the January 21, 2013 edition of Raw.
Two years later is when The Rock showed up at the 2015 Royal Rumble to raise Reigns’ hand the as the crowd booed.
What Reigns said will get people talking, but realistically it may be difficult to make that dream match a reality.
