The Rock’s involvement at WrestleMania 41 has undergone significant changes, with evolving backstage decisions reshaping the initial plan for his match against Cody Rhodes.
Billi Bhatti highlighted a key turning point at Survivor Series 2024 when Seth Rollins (the originally planned 5th member of the OG Bloodline) was unexpectedly replaced by CM Punk. Bhatti explained:
“The first thing we saw was Seth Rollins being replaced at Survivor Series with CM Punk. This led to WWE fast forwarding to the main event match between Seth Rollins and CM Punk, thinking that they needed a different match for Punk (at WrestleMania 41) if The Rock wasn’t going to do the show.”
As plans continued to shift, WWE explored new headlining options, including a potential Roman Reigns vs. CM Punk match to replace the original Cody Rhodes vs. The Rock. Bhatti noted:
“This is where they started to discuss the possibility of Roman vs. Punk as a replacement for Cody vs. The Rock as a match that could potentially be big enough to headline Night 2 of WrestleMania.”
The most dramatic shift came when The Rock proposed a new focus for WrestleMania 41, suggesting it should revolve around John Cena instead of his anticipated clash with Rhodes. Bhatti explained:
“This is where it began. The seeds were planted when they took Seth Rollins out of the match (at Survivor Series). Since then, things have very much changed because going into [the RAW Netflix premiere], where it was the first time they could sit down and nail down proper discussions with The Rock over his suggestion that WrestleMania should be about John Cena, they didn’t have a single match nailed down for WrestleMania.”
This means Seth Rollins didn’t get to be a part of Survivor Series 2024 and won’t face CM Punk at WrestleMania because The Rock pulled out of his planned WrestleMania 41 match.
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