Backstage Update on WWE’s Decision to Drop Cody Rhodes vs. Roman Reigns for The Rock vs. Roman Reigns at WrestleMania 40

As noted before, Friday’s WWE SmackDown show in Birmingham, Alabama featured this year’s Men’s Royal Rumble winner Cody Rhodes giving up his rematch with Roman Reigns for the Undisputed WWE Universal Championship at WrestleMania 40. Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson was revealed to be getting Rhodes’ spot instead for Reigns’ title match at the event and Rhodes stating that he will be holding off on “finishing the story” for another time.

PWInsider’s Mike Johnson reported that his sources stated that WWE’s decision to go with The Rock vs. Reigns for WrestleMania 40 was something that was pushed by Johnson and was backed by top TKO Group executives.

In regards to the reason for the decision, several of those spoken to reportedly stated that they believed that this was done by Johnson as a way to “save WrestleMania” after both CM Punk and Brock Lesnar were taken off the board for the event for different reasons.

Several others spoken to reportedly stated that they believed Johnson pushed for that decision to be made due to his $30 million stock payouts in his deal to join TKO’s Board of Directors was contingent on him hitting certain milestones. Those spoken to familiar with the situation reportedly stated that they believe that one of those milestones required him to return to the ring this year. Those same sources spoken to reportedly stated that Johnson had pushed for this match with Reigns to happen sooner than later since he felt that this match was a far bigger attraction for the company for WrestleMania 40.

Johnson speculated that even without CM Punk and Lesnar being out for WrestleMania 40, it is likely that Rhodes vs. Reigns would still not have happened due to Johnson being back in the game and the most important members of TKO’s management were going to acquiesce to Johnson’s ideas for WWE.

Another reason for the decision reportedly was due to Johnson and other TKO executives wanted to help push some positive momentum for the company following the recent negative attention and mainstream media headlines from the recent Vince McMahon sex trafficking lawsuit allegations.

One source spoken to reportedly compared Johnson’s push for his match against Reigns for WrestleMania 40 to Johnson’s attempts to take over the overall creative direction for the DC film franchise. This same source reportedly also stated that Johnson came in originally as an actor to portray Black Adam but over time he had managed to change the original trajectory for the plans from playing the antagonist for the Shazam film to pushing for Black Adam to have his own film so he could eventually be set up to face Superman. This same source continued stating that Johnson even went over the heads of executives to their superiors to get his ideas approved as part of his long-term goal to gain control over the entire DC film franchise, which was put to an end when Warner Bros Discovery gave that power to James Gunn and Peter Saffron instead.

In regards to Rhodes, Johnson reported that those spoken to stated that WWE officials decision to remove Rhodes out of his main event spot for WrestleMania 40 was not done out of malice or to politic him out of that spot but simply due to the belief that Johnson was the best idea available to make money now and respect his new position in TKO’s Board. One source spoken to reportedly stated that this was a strategic move done to give Johnson more political power overall and show Endeavor’s faith in his involvement in the company and that even WWE CCO Paul “Triple H” Levesque would “lose that power struggle with Johnson at this point.”

In regards to Johnson’s impact on WWE’s creative team, one source spoken to reportedly stated that former Seven Bucks Productions’ Senior Vice President of Development and former WWE head writer Brian Gewirtz will now be involved in the creative team as the voice representing Johnson in WWE’s creative process going forward. Several within WWE reportedly are currently under the belief that Gewirtz will be around physically at least for major WWE shows going forward and could even be there as a “Plan B” if Endeavor ever feels the need to pivot from WWE’s direction for plans and go with Johnson-backed creative team in the future.

In regards to the backstage reaction within WWE’s locker room, one talent spoken to reportedly stated that they felt that Johnson’s match against Reigns for WrestleMania 40 might have been the plan all along but Johnson had not committed to it until late in the game. This same talent reportedly also stated that they also wondered where CM Punk would have been positioned for the event had he not suffered a torn triceps injury and if it prevented Punk from leaving that he also was going to lose his planned WrestleMania main event spot.

In regards to WWE’s current plans for Rhodes, Johnson reported that the current plans are for him to face off against Seth Rollins for the WWE World Heavyweight Championship at WrestleMania 40. Johnson also reported that several WWE officials have already openly talked about the idea of Rhodes winning the World Heavyweight title from Rollins and then challenging the winner of The Rock vs. Reigns at this year’s SummerSlam 2024 event in a title unification match so that Rhodes can “finish the story.”

Fightful Select reported that their sources provided some additional details.

It was reported that as of the afternoon of last Saturday’s Royal Rumble 2024 event, Johnson had agreed to work a match against Reigns at WrestleMania 40. It was also reported that despite this deal being made, WWE officials still went ahead with their plans for Rhodes to win the Men’s Royal Rumble match and openly challenge Reigns at the end of the show.

It was reported that those spoken to confirmed that Johnson had pushed for having a match with Reigns at WrestleMania 40 and some of those also claimed that he has been pushing to win this match.

It was also reported that while online reactions and receptions over this decision have been very vocal negatively, several of those within WWE are “cautiously optimistic” that things can still pivot back to Rhodes vs. Reigns since things have not officially been announced yet.

It was also reported that the general reaction from those spoken to over this decision was one of being universally negative. One talent spoken to reportedly stated “I’ve known Dwayne a long time. Not only did the look on Cody’s face tell a story, the look on Dwayne’s told a story. I think in that moment he knew that this decision wasn’t going to work out quite the way that he imagined it. He was experiencing the same thing that he and Roman experienced in Philadelphia. He was being co-signed for something the vast majority didn’t want.”