Nick Khan Contradicts the Rock With New Claims About WrestleMania XL Main Event

WWE president Nick Khan has made a bold claim regarding one of the most infamous and triumphant angles in WWE history.

At WrestleMania XL, Cody Rhodes was finally able to "finish his story," overcoming Roman Reigns in the main event in Philadelphia and winning the WWE Championship for the first time. This ended Reigns' historic title run, culminating in an event that is heralded as one of the greatest Premium Live Events in WWE history.

The night prior, Reigns had teamed with The Rock against Rhodes and Seth Rollins in a match that would determine the stipulation for the following evening's main event. It was heavily reported at the time that the original plans for the WrestleMania main event that year would have seen The Rock vs. Roman Reigns for the WWE Championship, a match that was even confirmed by the company after Rhodes seemingly gave up his intention to challenge for the belt despite winning the Royal Rumble.

In a podcast with the Sports Business Journal, Khan was asked about what level of fan backlash would be required for WWE creative to change its plans, referencing what happened at WrestleMania XL. Khan disputed that plans changed at all.

“By the way, the plan was always how it ended up in Philly two years ago," he said. "It’s a pre-determined outcome in wrestling. You want to throw the fans off, you want to let things bake, and then boom, it ends up the way that we wanted it to end up. It never changed. That was just online rumors and gossip that we were changing. It never changed."

WWE contradicts Khan's claims

The main dispute with Khan's assertion is that WWE itself has openly discussed pivoting from original plans.

Both The Rock and Triple H (WWE's head of creative, Paul Levesque) detailed the process at length in the WrestleMania XL: Behind the Curtain documentary and have also spoken about it in interviews over the past couple of years. The Rock had been scheduled to face Reigns, but turned heel into "The Final Boss" character he would take on in the build to the big show.

Despite this, Khan maintained that WWE called The Rock out of the bullpen for the tag team match with Reigns against Rollins and Rhodes.

"We convinced Dwayne Johnson to come back. He’s on our board of directors. It was a Tag Team Match. He’s about the same age I am, so two years ago, let’s say he was fifty." Khan said. "He was obviously in phenomenal shape. He did everything that we asked of him and then some. But that was always the result we were looking for.”

The Rock has not wrestled since that show, though he is rumored to return for WrestleMania 43 in Saudi Arabia.

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