There has been much talk on WWE’s plans heading into WrestleMania 40, with conflicting angles regarding whether or not it was Cody Rhodes or The Rock originally planned to take on Roman Reigns for the Undisputed WWE Championship.

With the likes of Brian Gewirtz claiming Rhodes was supposed to be more enthusiastic onscreen about handing The Rock his spot at the show, the insinuation is that the plan was going to be Rock vs. Reigns, with Rhodes taking a backseat.

Recent reports have suggested that The Rock not only wanted the match with Reigns, but also had the idea to win the match too, before vacating the Undisputed WWE Championship and going forward as just the “People’s Champion”, though a report from Dave Meltzer of the Wrestling Observer Newsletter has revealed that those in WWE, namely Triple H and Roman Reigns, were ‘strongly opposed’ to this. The report goes on to say that due to this, The Rock’s pitch was unlikely to ever happen. Ezoic

In an interview, Rhodes revealed that on the day he won the 2024 Royal Rumble, he was told that plans were changing and that the title match at WrestleMania would be changed to The Rock vs. Roman Reigns. In the end, fan backlash prevailed as The Rock would turn heel and Rhodes would go on to headline WrestleMania, defeating Roman Reigns to become the new Undisputed WWE Champion.