As WWE looks set to descend on Hollywood for the biggest event of the year, WrestleMania, there’s still plenty of speculation surrounding the show.
The card for WWE’s two-night spectacular is filling up nicely, and should be almost complete after next week’s programming.
As it’s WWE’s showpiece offering, the wrestling world is still awash with who may or may not appear at the Premium Live Event inside LA’s SoFi Stadium.
One name in particular, who was heavily rumoured to main event the weekend, may yet still make his presence known in Los Angeles.
Sportsmail rounds-up the latest rumours in the wrestling world.
Roman Reigns will headline WrestleMania 39 when he takes on Cody Rhodes in Los Angeles
Rockin’ WWE
It’s no secret that one of WWE’s original plans for the main event of this year’s WrestleMania was WWE Undisputed Universal champion Roman Reigns taking on The Rock.
A blockbuster headliner, befitting it’s Hollywood surroundings that would pit cousin vs cousin in the ultimate generation vs generation dream WWE match.
However, with time running out to lock in one of WrestleMania’s biggest ever main events, WWE had to pivot and instead set up the championship clash between Reigns and Royal Rumble winner Cody Rhodes.
Reports then emerged that stated Rock had turned down the marquee bout because he didn’t feel ‘match ready’ to main event the show. However, former WWE writer and SVP of Development at Rock’s Seven Bucks Productions, Brian Gewirtz, has shut down the notion – leaving the door open to still possibly seeing Dwayne Johnson make some kind of appearance.
Talking on the Bill Simmons Podcast, Gerwirtz says the report wasn’t true and somehow it took on a life of it’s own.
‘A source tells him [Dave Meltzer], ‘The Rock is not going to make it to WrestleMania because he feels he doesn’t have time to get into match shape.’ I know that it is not the case.
That is not the reason, whether it happens or doesn’t happen, I know it’s a line. Then, it just took a life of it’s own where, all of a sudden, everyone reading it on the internet and Twitter takes it as fact, to the point where Roman goes on the Tonight Show and tells Jimmy Fallon, ‘I understand Rock made a statement and doesn’t have time to get into ring shape.’ I’m watching this like, ‘What? What statement? Show me the statement. There is no statement.’
This is a quote that some stooge reported to a wrestling insider newsletter and now it’s written in granite and stone. That’s the stuff that drives me nuts.’
The Rock hasn’t wrestled a WWE match since his quick-fire victory over Erick Rowan at WrestleMania 32 seven years ago.
WWE legend Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson could still make an appearance at WrestleMania
You can still see him
One WWE legend that will be in LA for WrestleMania is 16-time world champion John Cena, who makes his return to WWE by taking on Austin Theory for his United States Championship.
Cena hasn’t wrestled a match since SummerSlam 2021, when he was defeated by Roman Reigns, and his transition into Hollywood has seen him almost put his WWE days behind him.
After his return to Raw earlier this month to set-up his WrestleMania date with Theory, Cena posted a cryptic tweet thanking the fans for the reception they gave him and suggested it could be the last time he appeared in a WWE arena – sparking rumours that the WWE icon was contemplating retirement.
However, the 45-year-old has been quick to quash that speculation and has now clarified the message he was trying to tweet.
‘I tried to put it in words in Twitter. I guess I didn’t explain myself correctly.’ Cena told the AP.
‘It was the first time I came out into the arena knowing that this has a definitive end. Normally, you come out, you get all excited, OK, this is the next one and I’m waiting for the next one.
I’m not done, of course. I made that statement accepting a match at WrestleMania so I know I have at least one more in front of me. But what I was trying to convey was, that was the first time I looked at all that excitement and energy and realised this is the twilight of that journey.’
This year’s WrestleMania will be the first time Cena has competed at the event since his infamous Firefly Funhouse match with Bray Wyatt at WrestleMania 36, three years ago.
John Cena will be back in a WWE ring for his WrestleMania clash with Austin Theory in April
Not so rosey
WrestleMania 35 will go down as one of the most important event’s in WWE history, as for the first time the show was headlined by an women’s main event.
In the night’s headliner, Becky Lynch defeated Ronda Rousey and Charlotte Flair to win both the Raw and SmackDown Women’s Championship in a landmark WWE moment.
Yet, that wasn’t the original plan, at least for one of the titles that Lynch went home with that night, according to former WWE writer Dave Schilling.
Schilling posted a thread on his social media feed, where he live tweeted a commentary to WrestleMania 35, a show he produced.
During a series of tweets, Schilling revealed that the original plan for the SmackDown Women’s Championship would have seen reigning champion Asuka taking on then tag team partners Mandy Rose and Sonya Deville – with Rose going over and winning the belt.
Instead, Flair defeated Asuka in the run-up to WrestleMania and was added to the main event match involving Rousey and Lynch. While Rose has to settled for a spot in the women’s battle royal, and never actually got her hands on a main roster title.
Mandy Rose could have been holding a SmackDown Women’s Championship at WrestleMania
A bad day
The New Day have been one of the most successful acts of the modern era in WWE, boasting multiple WWE Tag Team Title reigns as well as WWE Championship runs for both Kofi Kingston and Big E.
In a world where groups are often broken-up to fuel new storylines for each of it’s members, Kingston, E and Xavier Woods have bucked the trend and remained together since 2014, while still being able to accomplish milestones on their own.
That may not have been the case had Vince McMahon has his way, however. According to a report from Fightful Select, the WWE Chairman pitched on a number of occasions to split up the trio.
When Woods became King of the Ring in 2021, Vince suggested he turned on Kingston as ‘it’s what a King would do.’ But Woods, as has always been the case, refused to turn on his New Day pals.
As well as suggestions during each WWE Draft to break-up the group, another pitch was to spilt the threesome after Kingston’s emotional WWE Championship victory at WrestleMania 35.
There was even planned instructions for when Big E was eventually drafted to Raw in 2020, that WWE would stop referring to Woods and Kingston as ‘The New Day’, but again this failed to materialise.
Vince McMahon tried on a number of occasions to spilt up WWE stars The New Day
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