Full Details Of The Drama Around WWE WrestleMania 40 Main Event, The Rock Changing Plans

The exact timeline and circumstances behind changes to the WrestleMania 40 main event hasn't been 100 percent clear in recent weeks, with differing reports about what exactly brought WWE to the point of confirming Roman Reigns vs. Cody Rhodes as the main event for April 7. 

What played out on WWE programming was Cody Rhodes won the 2024 men's Royal Rumble match and signalled he would be challenging Roman Reigns at WrestleMania 40, only for Rhodes to suddenly step aside for The Rock on the February 2 episode of SmackDown. This led to a tremendous backlash from WWE fans and by Thursday, February 8, Cody had changed his mind and declared at the WrestleMania 40 press conference he would be challenging Roman Reigns for the Undisputed WWE Universal Championship after all. One heel turn and slap from The Rock later and the press conference descended into a brawl with The Rock & Roman Reigns on one side and Cody Rhodes and & Seth Rollins on the other. 

In an account of what happened with the WrestleMania 40 main event in the Wrestling Observer Newsletter, Dave Meltzer has detailed a possible ongoing creative power struggle within WWE between Triple H and The Rock. 

As one of the conditions for joining the TKO Board of Directors, it was agreed on January 3 that The Rock would face Roman Reigns in the main event of WrestleMania 40. That remained the plan even beyond WWE booking Cody Rhodes to win the men's Royal Rumble match. 

The story within WWE is that "Johnson and Gewirtz were pushing for things that those involved on the creative side had different ideas about," although Meltzer noted this should be taken with a grain of salt as it is part of the storyline on WWE TV of Rock as a member of the TKO Board of Directors. 

Triple H, meanwhile, "scrambled behind the scenes" to keep Cody Rhodes involved. The original plan for February 2 from Triple H would have seen The Bloodline take out Cody ahead of the official announcement of Roman Reigns vs. The Rock for WrestleMania. Cody Rhodes would then return at some point and win the title, although it is unclear if this would have happened at WrestleMania or shortly after the Showcase of the Immortals. 

Following CM Punk's injury at the Rumble, though, WWE internally scheduled Cody Rhodes to instead challenge Seth Rollins for the World Heavyweight Championship at WrestleMania, a match Punk was originally booked for before his torn triceps. Triple H with input from The Rock and Brian Gewirtz then booked for Cody Rhodes to endorse The Rock on the February 2 edition of SmackDown in the hopes the endorsement from Rhodes would avoid the backlash against The Rock. which WWE expected although not to the extent it reached. 

WWE scrapped the originally planned injury angle for Cody as the company "didn't want Reigns doing the angle to injure Rhodes, since if they did that angle, it would make no sense to do Rollins vs. Rhodes." 

WWE initially believed the endorsement angle had been a major success due to the crowd reaction in Birmingham, Alabama, only to quickly realise "instead it was the one thing they were trying to avoid, which was Johnson getting more bad publicity and being the real-life bad guy in the situation."

This resulted in The Rock changing his own WrestleMania 40 plans and wanting to become a heel.

Meltzer added: "There is said to be far more behind the scenes that hasn't come out but given the timing can't be talked about now. But Johnson over the weekend said it was best to be out of the Reigns match, put Cody in, which by this point everyone conceded by then. It was Johnson who then pitched the heel turn and he did pitch the idea of the Reigns & Rock vs. Rhodes & Rollins match for night one. So that was his idea if that is how it turns out."