Dwayne 'The Rock Johnson' Shares Bad News About Potential WWE Return

Many WWE fans are hoping that Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson makes his WWE return at WrestleMania 39 and takes on his cousin Roman Reigns for the Undisputed WWE Universal Championship. But as WrestleMania gets closer, it looks like the Johnson-Reigns match will not happen. Dave Meltzer of the Wrestling Observer Newsletter said unless Johnson changes his mind in the next few days, he has indicated he won't have time to get in the shape he feels he needs to be in to compete against Reigns in a main event match at 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," Meltzer wrote. "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. Of course it is a possibility that it's something being kept a secret from everyone.

Meltzer went on to mention that Johnson is currently working on a few projects. "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," he wrote. "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."

The last time Johnson appeared at a live WWE TV event was at the Fox premiere of WWE SmackDown in 2019. The last match Johnson competed in was against John Cena at WrestleMania 29 in 2013. He originally competed in WWE from 1996-2004 before becoming an actor full-time. Johnson would return to compete on a part-time basis in 2011 and in his career, Johnson won the WWE Championship eight times and the WCW Championship twice.