15 September 2023 , 20:17
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Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson has revealed his long-awaited comeback could come at Wrestlemania in 2024 after revealing a fantasy showdown with Roman Reigns was agreed earlier this year.
The 51-year-old has not officially competed in the WWE for a decade, but fans of the Brahma Bull may not have to wait much longer to see him back in the squared circle. Johnson made his name as one of the most popular wrestlers of his generation, and he has since transitioned into acting with a net worth in the region of £650million.
But wrestling will always be in his heart and, speaking on The Pat McAfee show on Friday, Johnson revealed he was on the verge of making his WWE return at Wrestlemania 39 in Los Angeles in April against his distant cousin Reigns. “The Rock headlining Wrestlemania with Roman Reigns at SoFi Stadium, that was locked,” Johnson revealed to the amazement of McAfee, a former NFL punter and part-time WWE wrestler alongside his broadcasting career.
“We were doing it. In the beginning of 2022, (WWE president) Nick Khan who is a very good man was instrumental in bringing (WWE founder) Vince McMahon and I together. We all flew to LA, we broke out the Teremana (Johnson’s tequila brand) and we toasted life and we toasted the business we love. About an hour later, we talked about the potential of what this match could be between myself and Roman Reigns headlining Wrestlemania at SoFi.
“We shook hands and we hugged right there, all three of us at the table and said ‘Let’s do this’. Then we had a year to really think about this, so the North Star thought was ‘Let’s not do something good, let’s not do something great, let’s do something unprecedented’.”
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Ultimately, The Rock and the WWE agreed to put his return plans on the backburner, with the organisation involved in a merger with the UFC to create TKO Group. That deal was finally completed this week, and Johnson believes the merger opens up possibilities for his return to the ring, potentially at Wrestlemania 40 in Philadelphia next year.
“It was 'What could we create for the fans that has never been done before?' A match, great. Roman, an incredible athlete, he’s going to be on Mt. Rushmore,” Johnson explained. “We can have the match, but the bigger thought was what can we do for the fans and the business that we love, where Wrestlemania isn’t the end of something but it’s actually the beginning of something bigger?
“So we got really close, but we couldn’t actually nail what that thing was. We decided to put our pencils down and we agreed. Hey listen, there is a merger coming up (and) eventually that will happen. “There’s Wrestlemania in Philadelphia. There’s potential, I’m open. But let’s figure out what it is because the fans deserve something incredible and unprecedented.
"Not only that, but I also want to deliver to the locker room and the boys and the girls back there who are working their asses off. What can we do to put them in a position where they are part of something that is a huge change in era of this world of pro wrestling?”
Johnson has been among the leading actors in the world in recent years, raking in hundreds of millions of dollars, but he insists injury risks that could affect his film career is not stopping him from wrestling.
“It’s not the injury that I’m concerned about because that’s just part of the game,” he added. “You sign up for it and we all get hurt, that’s just the way it is. It’s not even the schedule because I can control the schedule to a large degree. Me going back to WWE and wrestling a match, it always comes down to the reason why and what can we create that’s never been done before for the fans. That’s the idea.”