The Rock says fans “voices matter” being the reason why plans changed for WrestleMania XL

The Rock said the fans “voices matter” and that’s why there was a pivot from the original plan for him to face Roman Reigns for the Undisputed WWE Universal Championship at WrestleMania XL: Night 2 to Cody Rhodes challenging Reigns when asked about the change in plans for his match at WrestleMania this year.

Speaking at the WrestleMania XL: Night 1 press conference, Rock said the original goal was him vs Reigns. As they continued on with the story on TV, they had the opportunity to listen to the fans complaints about him replacing Cody Rhodes or plow through it. The Rock said some of the people in on the meetings wanted to plow through the protests of Rhodes fans.

However, The Rock said fans voices matter. He said it was crystal clear after he had the moment in the ring with Cody on Smackdown when he stepped aside for The Rock to challenge Reigns that a change needed to be made. The Rock said he woke up a few days later and knew what the pivot should be.

He said he wanted to give fans what they wanted to invest in, which was the build to WrestleMania being about Cody finishing his story by challenging Reigns for the Undisputed WWE Universal Championship at WrestleMania.

The Rock said he came up with The Final Boss/Rock 10.0 character and developed ideas for it. He said he wanted to see what that character would look like and leverage him as a board member  as part of his heel persona and inject it into the story leading into WrestleMania.