The Rock says he’s open to returning to the ring for WrestleMania at Lincoln Financial Field
A matchup between The Rock and Roman Reigns would be a major attraction for the Philly ‘Mania, which set a record with more than 90,000 tickets sold.
The Rock said Friday that his in-ring return nearly happened in April at WrestleMania in Los Angeles before plans for a match against Roman Reigns at WWE’s signature event ultimately fell through. And that could be good news for wrestling fans in Philly.
”We decided to put our pencils down,” said The Rock, whose real name is Dwayne Johnson, while appearing on ESPN’s Pat McAfee Show. “...There’s WrestleMania in Philadelphia. That is potential, too. I’m open.”
WWE set a record last month by selling more than 90,000 tickets to next April’s WrestleMania — a two-night showcase at Lincoln Financial Field — despite not announcing a single match. The card for WrestleMania usually begins to take shape in the winter as storylines are built toward the big show. A matchup between The Rock and Reigns, who are billed as cousins, would be a major attraction.
Outside of an impromptu six-second match in 2016, The Rock has not wrestled since he main evented WrestleMania against John Cena in 2013. He faced Steve Austin in the main event of WrestleMania 15, Philly’s only other ‘Mania, and appeared at the Royal Rumble in 2015 to assist Reigns at the Wells Fargo Center.
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WrestleMania in Philadelphia will be the company’s first since merging this month with Endeavor, the parent company of UFC, to form TKO Group Holdings. The new company would likely want something significant for their first WrestleMania.
”The North Star was ‘Let’s not do something good, let’s not do something great, let’s do something unprecedented,’” said The Rock about a meeting he had with WWE’s Vince McMahon and Nick Khan. “Something that has never been done before…We got really, really close but we couldn’t nail what that thing actually was.”