The Rock returned on the January 1st episode of RAW and teased facing then Undisputed WWE Universal Champion Roman Reigns.
It looked like WWE was going in this direction, but plan got changed and we got Roman Reigns vs. Cody Rhodes II for the Title in the main event of WrestleMania 40.
According to the Wrestling Observer, there was a plan at one point to have The Rock defeat The Tribal Chief for the Undisputed Title, and then “give up” the Title to go back to Hollywood. However, The Rock would then award himself The People’s Championship.
Since WWE didn’t go with this plan, the People’s Championship was introduced at the 2024 Hall of Fame ceremony, where Lonnie Ali (Muhammad Ali’s wife) awarded the title to The Rock.
Here’s what The Observer reported:
“Rhodes was always going to get the title, even after all this went down, but for a time it would not have been at Mania.
The decision for Rhodes to win the Rumble was to set up a future title match after they would do an injury angle which would lead to Rock getting the title shot and Rhodes would get his shot and victory later.
At one point there was an idea that Rock would win the title from Reigns, and then give up the title to go to Hollywood and end the streak, but always call himself ‘The People’s Champion’, which is where that idea and belt came in, which was long before the Hall of Fame ceremony.
The idea that many were fighting against was the title win, and then Reigns after losing getting it back and then losing again to Rhodes, feeling that would greatly hurt Rhodes’ eventual win, and Rhodes was the guy who was going to have to carry the company in 2024 and 2025.
Others were strongly against that, saying no matter what happened as far as Rock getting the match, he could not win the title and Rhodes had to be the one who beats Reigns first and wins the title first.”
On RAW after WrestleMania 40, The Rock teased facing Cody when he returns from Hollywood, and it doesn’t matter if Cody is still the champion at that point or not.
