New report disputes Nick Khan’s claims of unchanged WWE WrestleMania 40 main event plans
(Courtesy : WWE)
The WWE President claimed WrestleMania 40 plans never changed.
WWE President Nick Khan, in a conversation with the Sports Business Journal, claimed that the main event plans for WrestleMania 40 never changed. The appearance took place in April before WrestleMania 42, but the video was released earlier this week.
Khan was talking about the Night 2 main event that saw Cody Rhodes defeat Roman Reigns to become Undisputed WWE Champion. Cody was initially replaced by Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson. However, severe fan backlash forced WWE to alter plans and put Cody back in the main event against Reigns.
Notably, post-Mania 40, WWE released a WrestleMania XL: Behind the Curtain documentary detailing how fan backlash led to the pivot. Khan’s comments, however, disputed these claims that the plans never changed and WWE intentionally fooled fans.
“The plan was always how it ended up. Sometimes, it’s a predetermined outcome in wrestling. You want to throw the fans off and let things bake, and then boom, it ends up the way we wanted it to end up. It never changed. That was just online rumors and gossip that we were changing it. It never changed.
We convinced Dwayne Johnson to come back. He’s on our board of directors. It was a tag team match. He was in phenomenal shape. He did everything we asked of him and then some, but that was always the result we were looking for,”
[H/T: Fightful]
Fightful debunks Nick Khan’s claims
According to a recent report by Fightful Select, The Rock initially assured Cody Rhodes before the Royal Rumble that he had no intention of interfering in WWE’s creative direction for WrestleMania 40. However, that situation reportedly shifted around the Royal Rumble.
The report added that, on the day of the PLE, discussions began circulating backstage that The Rock was set to wrestle at Mania. Around the same time, Cody was informed that adjustments had been made to WWE’s initial WrestleMania plans.
The report also noted that Rhodes has both publicly and privately indicated that fan backlash would have been even stronger had people known WWE’s original WrestleMania plans for him.
That said, the specifics of the plans hinted at by Cody have never been revealed, but the report reiterated that the plans were certainly changed.
Fan backlash forced The Rock to turn heel and join forces with Roman Reigns, debuting the ‘Final Boss’ moniker, even attacking Cody. This ultimately led to a tag team match where Seth Rollins joined Cody on Night 1 of the PLE, where The Rock and Reigns won to make the Night 2 main event a Bloodline rules match.
What were Nick Khan’s claims about WrestleMania 40?
WWE President Nick Khan, in a conversation with the Sports Business Journal, claimed that the main event plans for WrestleMania 40 never changed and WWE intentionally fooled fans into thinking that it did.
Did Nick Khan lie about WrestleMania 40 plans never changing?
Yes, per Fightful, plans did change for Mania 40 once it became clear that The Rock would wrestle at the PLE. However, fans’ backlash ultimately forced WWE to pivot.
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Abhijit Singh is a budding sports journalist with over three years of experience in the field, and a photographer capturing stories through his lens since 2018. With a background in philosophy and political science, he brings a thoughtful, analytical edge to his reporting where every word is guided by curiosity and intent. Whether he's capturing the emotion of a moment or unpacking the deeper narratives within the game, Abhijit’s work is rooted in insight and passion. When he’s not covering sports, he’s often exploring new ideas through reading, traveling or just procrastinating.