WWE News: Major Update On The Rock And His Status For ‘WrestleMania 32’
With Seth Rollins, Randy Orton, and Daniel Bryan likely missing WrestleMania 32 due to injury, WWE is in dire need of star power for that show. It’s been known for quite some time that WWE has been trying to get some major names to appear on the show, one of which being ex-WWE Champion turned Hollywood mega-star Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson. However, it appears that The Rock will not be available to wrestle on the show due to an insurance issue.
This week’s Wrestling Observer Newsletter went into detail as to why The Rock won’t be wrestling at WrestleMania 32, and it also notes that the WWE creative team has been told that “The Peoples Champ” won’t be available for a match on the show. However, there still is a possibility that he could appear on the show for a talking segment, much like he has done in the past two years.
Below is an excerpt from this week’s Observer, explaining The Rock’s current situation and why he may not be able to have a match at WrestleMania 32.
“WWE creative had been told that The Rock is not going to be able to wrestle. Rock is currently wrestling with an insurance issue, as a movie he will be filming next year, was having an issue with insurance coverage if Dwayne Johnson did any pro wrestling before the movie was filmed due to the injury risk. Johnson can and may very well be on the show in some form, probably similar to the past two years, but not in a match situation, unless that issue is worked out.”
From that excerpt, it looks like The Rock could very well be interested in wrestling at WrestleMania 32, but the insurance issue is the main hold up right now. Unless WWE is able to work something out with the movie studio, The Rock won’t be wrestling on the show.
Back at WrestleMania 29, The Rock suffered some very serious injuries in his match with John Cena, which forced the filming of the movie Hercules, which was set to begin filming immediately after the event, to be pushed back several weeks, as The Rock was the films’ leading man. Since then, movie studios have been very hesitant to allow The Rock to wrestle before the filming of a movie that he’s committed to, due to the Hercules situation in 2013.
It has been expected for quite some time now that The Rock would wrestle Triple H, as he shot an angle with The Authority at this past year’s WrestleMania. The Observer had also reported, when Rock vs. Triple H was still on the table, that The Rock wanted to work with Triple H instead of someone like Brock Lesnar because he absolutely trusts Triple H and believed that he would be able to have a safe match with him. Whereas with Lesnar, he believed that he wouldn’t get hurt, but he knew that it would be a physical match with a higher chance of injury.
In an interview with Chris Van Vliet earlier this year, The Rock didn’t rule out a match at WrestleMania 32, saying that he would like to be part of what should be a record-breaking show, but he also noted that he would have to be involved in something special for that to happen.
The Rock also didn’t rule out that his match with John Cena at WrestleMania 29 could have been the last match of his career due to the fact that he can’t afford to risk a serious injury again, as it could greatly effect his movie career, and certain studios’ willingness to work with him.
[Image via WWE]
