Less than two weeks ago, it appeared the WWE WrestleMania XL main event was set when Cody Rhodes pointed at Undisputed WWE Universal Champion Roman Reigns following his Men’s Royal Rumble victory. Since then, however, the waters have been mudded thanks to The Rock’s surprise appearance on last week’s SmackDown where he appeared to have his sights set on Reigns himself and seemingly overruled Rhodes, leading to a major social media outcry.
Last night, the company attempted to clear up all uncertainty by hosting a WrestleMania XL Kickoff event featuring a face-to-face confrontation between Reigns and The Rock. As World Heavyweight Champion Seth Rollins watched on, the latter took constant shots at Rhodes, branding fans advocating for The American Nightmare to face Reigns as “Cody crybabies” and even declaring that the Anoa’i family were the only dominant and powerful royal family in professional wrestling, before announcing that he and Reigns would headline WrestleMania XL.
Rhodes himself then interrupted and hit out at both Reigns and The Rock for attempting to decide the WrestleMania main event themselves. After pointing out that he’s the only one who gets that privilege through winning the Men’s Royal Rumble, he declared that he had chosen Reigns as his WrestleMania opponent. The ensuing back and forth between Rhodes and Reigns led the former to state that Reigns’ father and grandfather would be “ashamed” of him if they were still here.
The jab struck a nerve for a now-emotional Rock who stated that by taking a shot at Reigns’ ancestors, he was also taking a shot at his ancestors and that they now had a problem before slapping Rhodes. This led to a major brawl with Reigns and Rock on one side while Rhodes and Rollins stood side-by-side on the other. After a few minutes of arguing, all four men were eventually led off the stage. Later, The Rock could be seen demanding that Triple H “fix it” before angrily stating that he’d “slap the f–king teeth out” of Rhodes’ mouth for talking badly about their family.
Shortly after the event came to an end, however, Triple H took to his X account to silence all doubts: In the main event of WWE WrestleMania XL, Undisputed WWE Universal Champion Roman Reigns will defend his title against Cody Rhodes.