"They're planning it now"- Veteran comments on Roman Reigns possibly facing top WWE RAW star at WrestleMania 40 (Exclusive)

Wrestling veteran Dutch Mantell, also known as Zeb Colter during his time with WWE, shared his thoughts on a possible WrestleMania 40 match between Roman Reigns and Cody Rhodes.

The ending of Roman Reigns vs. Cody Rhodes at this year's WrestleMania received a lot of flak as many felt the latter should've finished his story. However, it seems like Triple H and Co. have bigger plans in mind for the two stars, as it was recently reported that another showdown between the two "is very much on the table" and could main event WrestleMania 40.

Speaking on Sportskeeda Wrestling's Smack Talk, Dutch Mantell highlighted that the company usually starts planning events months in advance, and the match could very well take place in Philadelphia next year.

"I think they have work on it. When you think of a year, a year to WWE is nothing. I mean, we go through week after week after week, and all of a sudden WrestleMania is right on us. They start planning WrestleMania now, but they push that in the back because they don't want that on everybody's [mind] in the creative. It's easy when you can do that," said Mantell. [From 30:21 - 30:52]

The former WWE manager added that the same has been the norm in the past:

"See the thing about booking, even back in the old days, you couldn't book for just next week, you had to book for next month. You always book three weeks ahead. WWE books 3 or 4 months in advance and with WrestleMania, they're planning it now. I mean, it's not written in stone, but they basically know what the main event is. That's all they need to do anyway. The main event of the guys and the main event of the females." [From 30:55 - 31:33]

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Roman Reigns and Cody Rhodes were drafted to different brands at WWE Draft 2023

WWE Draft 2023 kicked off on this week's SmackDown, where Roman Reigns, Solo Sikoa, and Paul Heyman were the combined number-one picks. The blue brand picked The Bloodline, while RAW chose Cody Rhodes as their first pick.

This means that Reigns and The American Nightmare are likely to be kept apart for the foreseeable future. With the company reportedly planning another match between them down the line, it'll be interesting to see how the bout can be set up.

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