Why did The Rock push to take Cody Rhodes' spot against Roman Reigns at WrestleMania 40? The Great One's motivations reportedly revealed

On the latest episode of WWE SmackDown, The Rock made another sensational comeback to the Stamford-based Promotion and confronted Roman Reigns. This earth-shaking segment was initiated by Reigns and The Bloodline, who got interrupted by Cody Rhodes as The American Nightmare was set to make his WrestleMania decision.

However, things unfold unexpectedly when Rhodes confirmed that he would not finish his story at WrestleMania 40 and introduced The People's Champion. Later, both Roman Reigns and The Rock were involved in a heated eye-to-eye showdown. Meanwhile, this segment received mixed responses from WWE Universe as many fans wanted Cody Rhodes to finish his story instead of getting replaced by the Hollywood star.

Amid this, recent reports from PWInsider stated potential reasons why The Rock pushed to take the spot of Cody against Reigns at WrestleMania 40. The report disclosed that some sources believe that the absence of CM Punk and Brock Lesnar is one of the major motives behind this move.

The rationale is to save WrestleMania after these unexpected circumstances. The reports stated that:

"While WWE had been expertly building to a Cody Rhodes vs. Roman Reigns rematch, some sources believe it was done by The Rock to, as one source stated, “save #WrestleMania” after CM Punk and Brock Lesnar, for very different reasons, were taken off the board from the biggest weekend of the year," PWlnsider reports.

On the other hand, the other sources believe that The People's Champion himself pushed hard for this dream showdown at the Grandest Stage of Them All. So even if no person is injured, the company still heads with the clash between these two Samoan titans.

Further, the report added that there is a belief in the company that The Rock vs. Roman Reigns is a bigger attraction for the company, especially in the mainstream media. This will also likely help the company to gain some positive momentum ahead of WrestleMania 40.

Also, The People's Champion position on the TKO Board of Directors, Hollywood standing, and the backing of Ari Emanuel, Nick Khan, and others played a crucial role in this decision.

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WWE announced a major segment for The Rock at WrestleMania Kickoff

To heighten more anticipation among the fans, the company has announced a WrestleMania Kickoff event in Las Vegas, where the Hollywood star is also scheduled to appear. In addition, WWE has also disclosed that this event will feature an iconic face-off between The Tribal Chief and The People's Champion.

Besides Roman and Rock, this Kickoff event will feature Cody Rhodes, Seth Rollins, Rhea Ripley, Bianca Belair, and more. It will be streaming live from T-Mobile Arena on Feb. 8 at 4 pm PT across WWE social platforms and Peacock network.

It will be interesting to witness what will happen when The Rock and Roman Reigns will be a face-off segment during this Mania Kickoff event.