The Rock slaps Cody Rhodes at the WWE press conference, but it will officially be Rhodes vs Roman Reigns at WrestleMania 40

Tonight’s WrestleMania 40 press conference was far more chaotic than WWE fans expected, but there were some big answers delivered in regard to the main event of WrestleMania. Things really started to go off the rails after The Rock came out and joined Roman Reigns and Seth Rollins on stage, as Rock couldn’t even make it through his usual promo without the crowd booing. Then Reigns chose Rock as his opponent for WrestleMania, but that was followed by more boos for Rock, who then showed a graphic of his family tree and the much-talked-about bloodline of his family. After a comment about being the royal family of wrestling, Cody Rhodes came out and called it BS, following it up with choosing Reigns as his WrestleMania opponent. After more back and forth, Rock slapped Rhodes in the face and caused them to be broken up.

OH IT'S GOING DOWN. 🫢@TheRock just slapped @CodyRhodes at the #WrestleMania XL Kickoff. pic.twitter.com/nN0MTYIoRk

— WWE (@WWE) February 9, 2024

The Rock was getting divisive reactions even before all that went down, getting What chants while he was speaking and then getting a healthy amount of boos mixed in with the cheers. Then he started to hype up the match between himself and Reigns, but nothing stopped the backlash. At that point, Rock showcased his family’s bloodline in a graphic, and then he said this was the royal family of wrestling.

You heard a mic turn on and Rhodes started to speak before he even hit the stage. Rhodes then said, “Roman you’re out here calling the shots, dictating WrestleMania 40. But it is not your right, your distinction, to determine the main event. I won the Royal Rumble. I have made my decision. I choose Roman Reigns.”

The crowd cheered but Reigns wasn’t having it, telling Rhodes that he had his chance and he didn’t get it done. Reigns said Rhodes’ story is done and that no one cares about him. “You’re embarrassing your entire family ow. You’re irrelevant. Just like your dad,” Reigns said.

Rhodes challenged Reigns on his supposed caring about family. Rhodes said, “Let me ask you a question, how’s Jey? You’re a meal ticket, and they are nothing but lackeys. Yes men. They’re goons!” Then Rhodes said, “You want to bring up my father. Let me go ahead and do the same. If your grandfather was here. His grandfather was here, they’d be ashamed of you.”

The Rock then got in Rhodes’ face. “Let me make something perfectly clear to you,” Rock told Rhodes. “When you talk about his family, you’re talking about my family. When you’re talking about his ancestors, you’re talking about my ancestors. And when you’re talking about his blood, you’re talking about my blood. So now, we have a problem.”

Rock then slapped Rhodes and people had to separate them. That ended the conference, but Rock would confront Triple H backstage about what Rhodes said, and Triple H called him out of line. Reigns and Rock made a new enemy in Triple H by the end of it, who is now probably not going to go out of his way to help that match happen.

What did you think of the conference, and are you excited for Rhodes to face Reigns at WrestleMania? Let us know in the comments and as always you can talk all things wrestling with me on Threads @mattaguilarcb!