According to Meltzer, even fewer people than knew about the plan to stage Reigns vs. Rock knew about the proposed injury angle that would have been a way to take Rhodes out of the match so Rock could be inserted. The main reason for this being that Rock didn’t want to wrestle at the Elimination Chamber event in Australia as he, and WWE, didn’t want to dilute the impact of his return match by having it take place at a show that airs at 5 AM EST. Basically, Rock vs. Reigns needed to be established and rubber-stamped as soon as possible.

Meltzer noted that the backlash to the angle that did make it to air (Rhodes stepping aside) would have been the exact same or even worse if WWE chose to “injure” Rhodes the week after the Royal Rumble, despite the company believing that the angle had worked given the crowd reaction on the night it was executed. The social media reaction was enough to prompt Rock to turn heel, and the company has since gone back to the original idea of having Rhodes vs. Reigns instead.

However, the teases Rock made on the January 1 “WWE Raw” were enough of a sign that WWE still wants to book Rock vs. Reigns at some point in the near future, especially given that the idea for Rock vs. Reigns at WrestleMania was reportedly discussed heavily in December 2023, something Rhodes also didn’t know about. So, there you have it. A complicated web that has been weaved over weeks of discussions on and off-screen has ultimately led WWE back to where they started, the outcome that fans all over the world have been asking for since the end of WrestleMania 39; the “American Nightmare” against “The Tribal Chief.”