Dave Meltzer Discusses Dwayne The Rock Johnson's WWE Return

Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson made a surprise appearance on "WWE Raw: Day 1" last night, and teased a possible showdown with Roman Reigns after referencing his "Head of the Table" nickname. On "Wrestling Observer Radio," Bryan Alvarez said it sounded like Johnson would wrestle at WrestleMania 40.

"I would think that," Dave Meltzer replied. "I don't have that confirmed ... That whole thing, 'The Head of the Table' and all that, and 'Tribal Chief,' was all done originally to build up the Roman Reigns-Rock match. ... This match had been on the table, um jeez, I think probably before the pandemic maybe? Or maybe right after? I mean, I remember they were gonna do the Dallas show [WrestleMania 38] and then it was gonna be Los Angeles [WrestleMania 39] ... I mean, he turned down the first one to do the second one, which would have been Los Angeles. Then Los Angeles ended up being canceled, kind of in December, I think."

Johnson — whose segment last night reportedly went about five minutes over its allocated time — revealed last year that he was locked in to face Reigns at WrestleMania 39 following a meeting with current WWE president Nick Khan and former WWE chairman Vince McMahon. However, the bout was later called off because the trio could not come up with a significant storyline plan. Nevertheless, Johnson made it clear that he would be open to stepping into the ring with Reigns at WrestleMania 40 in April.

If you use any of the quotes in this article, please credit "Wrestling Observer Radio" with a h/t to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription.