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Vince Russo believes Vince McMahon's controversies could have prevented The Rock from agreeing to return to face Roman Reigns at WrestleMania 39.
In a recent interview, The Brahma Bull revealed that he was supposed to wrestle The Tribal Chief at WrestleMania 39, but things didn't fall in place at the time. Roman Reigns went on to defend his Undisputed Title against Cody Rhodes at the event, where he retained his gold despite being predicted to lose by many.
On the latest episode of Writing with Russo, the former WCW personality speculated that Vince's hush money allegations might have made The Rock's team wary. Vince Russo added that the former WWE champion was giving a "lame excuse," and hiding the real reason why he chose not to return.
"That is so bogus. If you go back and look at the timeline, I guarantee you, bro; WrestleMania 39, a Rock return. I guarantee you, bro, that was right around the time of NDAs, and everything going on with Vince McMahon. And Rock's people were like, 'Let's do this next year.' Come on, bro, what a lame excuse. Rock is basically saying creative couldn't come with anything for me. Get out of here, bro," said Vince Russo.
Russo added that the Hollywood megastar's associates and studio executives could have suggested he wait until next year when things cool down.
"They had it on the table. That's where they were going, and that's when all this stuff started. Rock's people would definitely tell him, studio executives, 'You need to stay away from that. Let the air clear; let's see where they are. But no, you can't do that,'" Vince Russo said. [2:20 - 3:22]
Check out the full video below:
Dutch Mantell on WWE teasing Roman Reigns vs Cody Rhodes again
On a recent edition of Sportskeeda's Smack Talk, Dutch Mantell spoke about how WWE went from teasing The Rock challenging Reigns at WrestleMania 40, to Cody possibly facing the latter again. Mantell believes some undisclosed issues with The Brahma Bull could have made the promotion alter its plans.
“Something happened that we don’t know about, and it happened with Rock, that’s where it happened. Because, Cody was gonna be there anyway, I think they wanted, and they painted the whole picture that it’s gonna be Roman Reigns and The Rock at WrestleMania, and that’s what I come away with, as you guys do, right? Everybody thought that’s what they painted, and then something happened, and it changed it all. But at least they can switch it to a guy that they know can produce, and has already been there, so I don’t think they are really perturbed about it," Mantell said.
Roman Reigns and Cody Rhodes had a wordless staredown on the entrance ramp on SmackDown, which was enough to get the fans buzzing.
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