WWE: Roman Reigns on The Rock WrestleMania Rumors, Another Executive Departs, Women’s Rumble Notes

WWE

Jan 28, 2023

Roman Reigns Comments on Rumors of Match Against The Rock at WrestleMania 39

A recent episode of The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon show had Roman Reigns as the guest. One of the topics discussed included Reigns’ thoughts on the recent rumors of a potential match between himself and Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson at this April’s WrestleMania 39 event.

“That’s been the rumors, and there’s been a huge buzz on that for a long time, I mean for years now, but it’s really picked up in the past couple years. I believe he just came out with a statement saying that he’s not gonna be ready in time, which, that’s the face that everyone’s making. ‘Hold on, he trains every single day. He’s huge.’ But to his defense, it’s one thing to train with weights and the bodybuilding to look the part. But to be able to get in the ring and do a main event match, a championship match, an Undisputed WWE Championship match, it takes a lot of conditioning, it beats up your body, so there’s more that goes into it than just training in the weight room. It’s a professional athlete type of situation, where you have to condition. He does two out of the three things perfectly. His nutrition and his weight training’s on point, but you have to condition yourself. You gotta be ready to fall down. You never get away from that.”

Reigns also responded to a comment made by Fallon about people needing to be ready to fall down when they face against him.

“That’s number one, Dwayne. When you’re going up against Roman Reigns, you better get ready to fall down.”

Reigns also gave his thoughts on other potential challengers for his Undisputed WWE Universal Championship at WrestleMania 39.

“That’s the beauty of it now. We got so much stuff going on. Right now, we hit Sami Zayn that’s in the mix. That’s within my Bloodline. We’ve been doing some beautiful TV over the past six months. We have another guy by the name of Cody Rhodes who’s coming back from injury. He was super white-hot. If you go back to, I believe it was a Hell a Cell match he had with Seth Rollins, his pectoral muscle was completely torn in half. If you go back and look, it’s completely black, a giant bruise covering this guy, a fourth of his body is completely broken. He goes out there and he puts on a 40-minute performance, and just completely wins over our entire fanbase. So lotta guts, lot of courage out of him. He’s gonna be coming back soon too.”

Transcript h/t: Fightful.com

WWE Head of International Recently Departs from the Company

WWE Head of International Matthew Drew reportedly recently departed from the company, according to PWInsider.

Mike Johnson reported that his sources stated that prior to his departure, Drew held the official title of Senior Vice President, International in WWE since his hiring in June of 2021.

Johnson reported that Drew’s official executive duties in the company involved “growing WWE’s brand and business outside of the United States” and working “with other company leaders to devise WWE’s international strategy for live events, digital, consumer products and new revenue opportunities.”

Women’s Royal Rumble Match News & Notes

The Wrestling Observer’s Dave Meltzer reported in Friday’s Daily Update that his sources stated that as of Friday morning, WWE officials had yet to make a decision regarding the final list of competitors for their Women’s Royal Rumble match. Meltzer reported that WWE has brought in more than thirty women to San Antonio for the pool of competitors and would be making their final decision on the official field for the match from that pool.

In regards to potential surprise entrants, PWInsider’s Mike Johnson reported that his sources stated that Indi Hartwell, Ivy Nile, Zoey Stark, and Roxanne Perez were among those from the NXT brand who were brought in as potential surprise entrants.