WWE presents the Royal Rumble premium live event on Saturday, Jan. 28. Will The Rock be a competitor in the Royal Rumble match?
One of the most anticipated professional wrestling events of the year is WWE’s Royal Rumble. On Saturday, Jan. 28, WWE presents their 36th edition of the premium live event. The show is headlined by two Royal Rumble matches, in which the winner of the over-the-top rope battle royals will earn a world championship match at WrestleMania 39 in Inglewood, Calif.
Much of the anticipation entering the Royal Rumble is who will be challenging Roman Reigns for the Undisputed WWE Universal Championship. For months, the reported plans had been for Reigns to face Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson. With the event having arrived, will The Rock be participating in the Royal Rumble match?
Will The Rock be competing at WWE Royal Rumble?
As of this writing, there is no indication as to if The Rock will actually be showing up at the event at the Alamodome in San Antonio, Texas.
While previous reports months ago indicating that Reigns vs. The Rock was the plan to main event WrestleMania as it “goes Hollywood,” a recent report seemingly put the kibosh on it. Dave Meltzer of the Wrestling Observer Newsletter reported that The Rock indicated that he would not be in the shape that he feels he needs to be in to compete in a main event match. However, Meltzer notes that it could be something that is being done to keep it a secret.
Here’s what Meltzer said regarding The Rock’s status for WrestleMania:
“Those close to the situation have noted WWE coming out with new Rock merchandise, but said that is more related to the 30th anniversary of Raw. We were told that unless he changes his mind in the next few days, since a deadline for Mania plans is coming, that he’s indicated he won’t have time to get into the kind of shape he feels he needs to be in to do a main event match with Roman Reigns, but kept the door open for something in the future,” said Meltzer, h/t Figure Four Online. “Of course it is a possibility that it’s something being kept a secret from everyone. WWE has always had a backup direction this year given they were aware Johnson was not a sure thing for some time, and as time went on and he didn’t agree, felt the likelihood had lessened. I don’t know that he’s officially turned it down, but the only indication is that it was considered less likely than a few months ago. Johnson right now has different projects going on, most importantly the launching of the XFL which debuts the weekend of 2/18 and he will be very heavily involved with the promotion of the league. He had said he would need to have training time to be able to get in ring shape. So his decision comes down to his belief of having adequate time to prepare.
Reigns weighed in on the topic when making an appearance on NBC’s “The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon.” The host asked Reigns about the talk of him facing The Rock at WrestleMania this year.
“That’s been the rumors, and there’s been a huge buzz on that for a long time now, for years now. But it’s really picked up in the past couple of years,” said Reigns. “I believe he just came out with a statement saying that he’s not going to be ready in time, which that’s the face that everyone’s making, like ‘Hold on, wait, he trains every single day. He’s huge!’ But 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.”
On the morning of the Royal Rumble event, The Rock posted a video of himself on the set of his upcoming action/adventure Christmas film “Red One,” scheduled to be released sometime in 2023. Of course, this only increased the discussion on if he will be appearing at the Royal Rumble.
You can check out his Instagram post at this link.
“2 am on a Friday night — we’re still going strong,” said Johnson in his Instagram post. “May not look very sexy right now but in our Christmas movie, this will become a thing of beauty. Months of hard work with very talented crew of filmmakers. We’re making a good one. More to come. #OnSet #RedOne #AmazonStudios.”
In professional wrestling, anything can happen, and you can never say never. When it comes to whether The Rock will show up to compete in the Royal Rumble match, you will just have to watch the show and find out live.
Royal Rumble 2023 airs at 8:00 p.m. ET on Saturday, Jan. 28. The event will be air on NBC’s Peacock streaming service in the United States, and on the WWE Network in international markets.
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