When Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson joined TKO's board, it's believed he pushed to headline WrestleMania alongside Roman Reigns under the guise of "saving" the Show of Shows.
That meant robbing Cody Rhodes of his chance to finish the story by defeating the Tribal Chief, and an attempt on SmackDown to have the American Nightmare hand the baton to The Rock landed with a thud. #WeWantCody trended worldwide for days and the YouTube video of Johnson's WWE return became the most disliked in company history.
WWE has since pivoted and turned The Rock heel. Rhodes now has his match back. However, we still have a lot of big questions heading into WrestleMania which Dave Meltzer has answered at least a few of in the latest Wrestling Observer Newsletter.
It's said that The Rock acknowledged that he had to give up his match with Reigns and that a heel turn became the best course of action because he felt "the booing can be explained as him playing heel wrestler and he’s even said he is very happy to do that."
While many fans will book Johnson because he's now a bad guy, the reality is they were planning to give him the same treatment as Batista in 2014 when he returned to WWE and was given a match at WrestleMania most felt belonged to Daniel Bryan.
With his reputation tarnished by Black Adam and the XFL's failings, not to mention Young Rock's cancellation, Johnson understandably decided he didn't want to be booed as a babyface.
"There is said to be far more behind the scenes that hasn’t come out but, given the timing, can’t be talked about now," Meltzer cryptically added. "But Johnson over the weekend said it was best to be out of the Reigns match, put Cody in, which by this point everyone conceded by then."
"It was Johnson who then pitched the heel turn and he did pitch the idea of the Reigns & Rock vs. Rhodes & Rollins match for night one. So that was his idea if that is how it turns out."
We'd bet on The Rock vs. Reigns happening at next year's WrestleMania, giving the company a whole year to build to the match. Rushing to that as soon as this April always seemed like an odd decision, even with WWE's original plans thrown into disarray by CM Punk's injury at the Royal Rumble.
Stay tuned for updates as we have them.