Dwayne Johnson to ‘Rock’ WrestleMania

THE greatest party of them all, WrestleMania, is ready to ‘Rock’.

Dwayne Johnson, aka The Rock, will take on Roman Reigns at next year’s Wrestlemania 39 in the City of Angels (Los Angeles) at California’s SoFi Stadium in the first week of April. And no, this is no April Fool joke! One of the highest paid and busiest actors in Hollywood, The Rock has cleared his working schedule for early 2023 – January to April. He is expected to take part in one to three fights before heading back to the bright lights of Hollywood.

Commitments to the film industry prevented him from taking part in this year’s WrestleMania 38, considered the best ever performance of the athletes over the two-day weekend event. It was also the most lucrative.

Some may snigger and wonder how a now 49-year-old Rock can be expected to take on Reigns – one of the great WWE champions.

Reigns won the Universal Title in August 2020 and unified it with the WWE Championship at WrestleMania in April.

No one in the WWE has ruled for this long since Hulk Hogan’s first WWE Championship reign ended in February 1988.

Quite a feat as The Rock, The Undertaker, John Cena, ‘Stone Cold’ Steve Austin, ‘The Heartbreak Kid’ Shawn Michaels, ‘The Nature Boy’ Ric Flair and Hogan got past 700 days.

So can The Rock be competitive against the mighty Reigns? Yes he will. He will give his cousin, The Tribal Chief, Reigns a run for his money.

On what grounds. Easy answer. The Rock is in even better shape than when he ruled the WWE Universe.

He has remained a gym fanatic. His conditioning can be seen in his movies. The Rock has looked after himself.

However, it needs to be pointed out that the last time The Rock wrestled was in 2016.

This was a six-second victory over Erick Rowan (Redbeard) at WrestleMania 32 in 2016.

The Rock’s last full match took place at WrestleMania 29 in 2014, against John Cena.

The WWE and The Rock are keeping mum on his return. They wanted it to be a surprise.

However, it would now be like receiving a Christmas present knowing what is under the wrapping paper.

Top US wrestling writer Dave Meltzer on Wrestling Observer Radio confirmed the bout is scheduled to headline the April 2023 event. “It’s the plan. It’s 100% the plan for WrestleMania 39.”

Bryan Alvarez of The Wrestling Observer (via Mandatory) tagged with Meltzer, saying: “The Rock is intentionally keeping his schedule clear when 2023 kicks off.”

■ Another big talking point is the suspension of Ronda Rousey following her brutal attack on ‘blind’ referee Dan Engler.

A video of the incident shows Rousey grabbing the referee by the arm and flipping him over her shoulder onto the ring’s floor, where she pinned him down until another official got involved.

Rousey posted photos of the match to Instagram, writing, “Hey @wwe if you guys could stop screwing me to put over your golden girls at every major pay for view that’d be greaaaaaat.”

Rousey will not be wrestling any time soon. The fighter has also been fined an undisclosed amount.

The WWE in a statement said: “An irate Rousey attacked the official after her SmackDown Women’s Title Match, claiming he missed [her opponent] Liv Morgan tapping out to the Armbar while he counted the pinfall.”

Whie Iron Mike Tyson in his prime was regarded as the ‘Baddest Man on the Planet’, Rousey is viewed as the ‘Baddest Woman on the Planet’.

Rousey represented the US in wrestling at the 2008 Olympics where she won bronze, the first time an American had won a medal in the sport.

She then switched to Mixed Martial Arts (MMA) and made history as the first woman to win both the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) and the WWE championship.

■ Corey Graves took to Twitter to blast the WWE after eye candy Carmella suffered an injury at a Raw show in Charleston.

An irate Graves, Raw commentator and husband of Carmella, wrote: Love learning that my wife got injured at a live event via Twitter. @WWE

The clip did the rounds on Twitter the moment it looked like Carmella got seriously injured during a three-way match with Bianca Belair and Asuka, fondly known as Oscar.

However, to be fair to the WWE, the tweets were being posted as soon as the incident occurred.

The WWE’s doctors on duty needed time to assess the status of the injury before contacting Graves.