After
more than a year of assuming it would be the main event of
WrestleMania 39, most of the wrestling world’s moved on from thinking Roman Reigns vs. The Rock will happen this April. Word is that with the relaunch of the XFL, not to mention everything else he already has on his plate, Dwayne Johnson
doesn’t feel like he can get himself ring ready in time.
It’s word that’s gotten to Reigns, based on how he answered Jimmy Fallon on
The Tonight Show last night (Jan. 27) when the host brought up rumors Roman would be facing his cousin Dwayne in SoFi Stadium. Outside of mentioning Rock’s alleged training excuse, the Undisputed WWE Universal champ talked enough trash to keep the door open for the mega-match to happen somewhere down the line:
“That’s been the rumors — there’s been a huge buzz on that for a long time now. I mean for years now. But it’s really picked up in the last couple of years.
“I believe he just came out with a statement saying that he’s not gonna be ready in time, which — that’s the kind of face everyone’s making, like, ‘Hold on, he trains every single day... He’s huge!’
“To his defense, it’s one thing to train with weights, and the bodybuilding to look the part. But to be able to get in the ring and do a main event match — a championship match, an Undisputed WWE Universal championship match — it takes a lot of conditioning. It beats up your body.
“So there’s more that goes into it than just training in the weight room... it’s a professional athlete type of situation where you have to condition, you have to — you know, he does two out of the three things perfectly. His nutrition and his weight training is on point, but you have to condition yourself And you’ve gotta be ready to be ready to fall down. You’re never gonna get away from that.”
Fallon plays hype man for the Tribal Chief, saying that’s especially true when facing Reigns. The champ agreed:
“That’s number one, Dwayne. When you’re going up against Roman Reigns, you better get ready to fall down.”
Asked about other possible ‘Mania opponents, Roman mentioned the current frontrunners. Of Sami Zayn, he said “within my Bloodline we’ve been doing some beautiful TV over the past six months.” He also put over Cody Rhodes, talking at some length about how impressive his Hell in a Cell performance was last year.
Is Reigns getting ahead of himself? Asked about
Royal Rumble, the Head of the Table told Fallon his strategy was “don’t change anything” because he’s “been beating up Kevin Owens for years now.”
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