Several weeks ago, former WWE World Heavyweight Champion turned mega-movie star Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson announced – via Instagram – that he would be appearing at this spring’s WrestleMania 32 at AT&T Stadium. Before The Rock made it official, most people, including WWE, assumed that he wouldn’t be appearing at the show.
With The Rock making the announcement so many months in advance, the assumption was that he would be having a match on the show, most likely with either Triple H or Brock Lesnar, then after it was made clear that Triple H would be wrestling Roman Reigns on the show, most believed that Lesnar would be “The Great One’s” opponent on the grandest stage of them all.
Then, there was a rumor, which started on WWE’s website , that The Rock would be wrestling The Undertaker in April. But, as of this writing, that match doesn’t seem like it’s going to happen. In fact, according to Dave Meltzer of the Wrestling Observer , there won’t be any matches involving The Rock at WrestleMania 32 .
“(WWE) wants people to think that this is going to be a really big show, so, whatever idea that they have for (The Rock) is a pretty big idea. If it’s a small idea, it’s going to be a letdown. I thought, because of how big they made it, that he was going to wrestle, but I found out that he’s not. It’s not impossible that he’s going to wrestle, but there’s an insurance issue on it, and it hasn’t been resolved, and, right now, it doesn’t look like he’s going to wrestle.”
If The Rock doesn’t end up wrestling on the show, then WWE will have their two biggest stars of all-time – The Rock and “Stone Cold” Steve Austin (who confirmed that he would be on the show during his appearance on The Ross Report ) – be on the show in non-wrestling situations. So it’ll be interesting to see how both men are used if that ends up being the case.
During his appearance on JR’s podcast, Austin did admit to having an idea for his role at WrestleMania 32 that he was planning on talking to Vince McMahon about, which is presumably that he wants to be the host of the show. There’s a possibility that he could end up being a referee, but due to the fact that he’s been a referee three different times at a WrestleMania , he feels that the referee idea for him is pretty worn out.
With Roman Reigns, who is billed as The Rock’s cousin, even though they’re not truly related, wrestling Triple H at WrestleMania 32 , the natural role for The Rock would be to be in the corner of Reigns during his match with “The Game.”
Of course, WWE has already tried to have The Rock endorse Reigns, and it didn’t work out too well. So, they may be against the idea of pairing The Rock with Roman Reigns due to the fact that the people have already turn on it once.
There’s some talk that former UFC women’s bantamweight champion Ronda Rousey will be at AT&T Stadium on the day of the show, so it’s possible that The Rock and Rousey could end up doing something with Triple H and Stephanie McMahon at some point in the show to follow up on what they did last year.
It’s worth noting that The Rock is still trying to work though the insurance issue that is preventing him from wrestling, so if he’s able to work through it at some point in the near-future, he’ll end up wrestling on the show.
(Featured image via WWE)