Last night, The Rock made his return on SmackDown and stopped Cody Rhodes from finishing his story at WrestleMania 40. The Hollywood megastar is set to challenge Roman Reigns for the Undisputed WWE Universal Championship at WrestleMania on Thursday’s media event.
PWInsider reported that The Rock forced WWE management to make the match against Roman Reigns. Executives of TKO Group have also given support to Rock’s decision. A source told PWInsider that WWE decided to change the Cody Rhodes vs. Roman Reigns match to “save WrestleMania” because CM Punk and Brock Lesnar have been off this season for different reasons.
WWE believes The Rock vs. Roman Reigns “would be a greater attraction for the mainstream and also help push some positive momentum for the company.” PWInsider was told that “this wasn’t done to target and politic Cody out of his main event out of malice.” The company believes The Rock was “the best idea to make money now and respect his new position” as a TKO board member. Former head writer of WWE Brian Gewirtz will be the representative of The Rock regarding the creative process going forward.
As of now, the plan is for Cody Rhodes to face Seth Rollins for the World Heavyweight Championship at WrestleMania. Some people in WWE are discussing the idea of Cody winning the World Heavyweight Title and challenging Undisputed WWE Universal Champion Roman Reigns in a title unification match at SummerSlam.