WrestleMania 32 looks like a lesser card if the Rock and Ronda Rousey aren’t on it.
I didn’t write about this earlier because I don’t like doing what most blogs do, which is wait until the Wrestling Observer comes out and then re-write Dave Meltzer’s stories into their own blog posts. For one, it’s a paid newsletter so those who have access are paying customers. And secondly, they often miswrite what he writes in their rewriting of it. I don’t like to be grouped in with those blogs.
However, Meltzer joined Bryan Alvarez on today’s Wrestling Observer Live, which is a free show and they discussed it in a lot of detail.
Here’s what Meltzer wrote in his newsletter:
WWE creative had been told that both Rock and Ronda Rousey are not going to be available to wrestle, and they were the two headliners hoped to be the mainstream draws for the show. Rousey is filming a movie in Indonesia at the time and would also need UFC clearance. Rock is currently wrestling with an insurance issue, as a movie he will be filming next year, was having an issue with insurance coverage if Dwayne Johnson did any pro wrestling before the movie was filmed due to the injury risk. Johnson can and may very well be on the show in some form, probably similar to the past two years, but not in a match situation, unless that issue is worked out, and that’s why the match was changed. With the show on the network at a $9.99 price, him not in a main event match won’t have as much effect as if it was still an expensive PPV show. But it does leave the show missing a lot as far as the “special” match feel for a WrestleMania.
I think some things need to be made clear. Meltzer talks about an insurance issue that Rock is “wrestling” with (I see what you did there Dave) as it pertains to a film being shot next year. Notice that Meltzer didn’t say that the issue couldn’t be fixed. It may be fixed and then he could be on the show. But as of right now, WWE seems to be going with the idea that it won’t be.
As for Rousey, she’s also filming a movie and Dana White has said specifically in the past that he wouldn’t let her do a match. But Rousey is been secretive about the issue recently when asked. She didn’t say that it wasn’t happening.
Here was her actual quote from her Reddit AMA:
I loved being in WrestleMania and will find a way to get back in the squared circle. I just have no clue when. And any real wrestling fan would want to be surprised anyway.
While they both very well may not be wrestling, things can change. In WWE, they always do.
