Inside Cody Rhodes-Rock-Reigns WWE Angle; Rumors on SummerSlam 2026, NXT Battleground

Bleacher Report catches you up on the latest news from the WWE Universe.

WWE Was "Locked In" with Reigns vs. The Rock for WM 40 in January

Cody Rhodes finished his story by beating Roman Reigns for the undisputed WWE Championship in the main event of WrestleMania 40, but WWE was apparently planning to go in a different direction before things changed.

The Rock's longtime writer and business partner, Brian Gewirtz, appeared on Busted Open Radio (h/t Subhojeet Mukherjee of Ringside News) this week, and he provided some insight into the build toward WrestleMania 40.

Gewirtz said meeting were had about doing The Rock vs. Reigns at WrestleMania 40, which led to The Rock making a surprise appearance on the Jan. 1 episode of Raw.

The plan was for The Rock to allude to Reigns by mentioning The Head of the Table in order to gauge fan interest, and after it was clearly positive, the decision was made to move forward with The Rock vs. Reigns:

"It started, in the fall, looking more and more like a possibility. That led us to Jan. 1 and the promo with Jinder [Mahal]. At that point, it was looking very much like a possibility that Rock and Roman was going to happen. We had a meeting in Rock's hotel room. It was me, Rock, [WWE head of creative]. Triple H, and [WWE president] Nick Khan. We talked about it all. Triple H was very aware and astute of the Cody storyline, and we brought that up and talked about it for a while. At the end of that meeting, everyone enjoyed the promo with Jinder, but what everyone was talking about was the 'Head of the Table.' That came about super late into our meeting at the hotel.

"As we were talking about Cody, it was said, 'I hear you, maybe we should test poll the audience.' Not just the audience in San Diego, but the audience all over the world. 'What if I tease it, but not say it directly?' We brainstormed on how do that. He did it. The place went nuts. Online went nuts. For the most part, it was overwhelmingly positive when he teased Head of the Table. At that point, 'That gives us our answer.' He did the TKO announcement, he went to WWE HQ, I have 96 pages of merch and title belt ideas. It was pretty much locked in at that point, which begs the question, if all of that is the plan, why do you have Cody Rhodes win the Royal Rumble?"

After Rhodes lost to Reigns at WrestleMania 39, it seemed likely that WWE was going to build Cody back up over the next year and have him challenge Roman again.

Rhodes went on to win the men's Royal Rumble match for a second consecutive year and pointed at Reigns afterward, which seemed to indicate the match was on even after The Rock's Jan. 1 promo.

However, on the ensuing episode of SmackDown, Rhodes stepped aside for The Rock. Fans rebelled against the apparent decision on line, and Rhodes later reversed course and challenged Reigns to a title match at WrestleMania.

The Rock turned heel, began calling himself The Final Boss and went on to enjoy one of the best runs of his career. He and Reigns beat Rhodes and Seth Rollins in a tag team match on Night 1 of WrestleMania, and after Rhodes won on Night 2, The Rock made it clear he was coming for Rhodes in the future.

Reported Reasoning for 2-Night SummerSlam

WWE announced a landmark event Thursday, as the first-ever two-night SummerSlam will be held in Minneapolis in 2026.

WrestleMania is the only WWE premium live event that has been two nights to this point, and it has been done to great success over the past five years.

According to Dave Meltzer of the Wrestling Observer Newsletter (h/t Nikunj Walia of Ringside News), the decision to make SummerSlam two nights in 2026 has to do with the possibility of taking WrestleMania international.

Should WWE decide to hold WrestleMania overseas at some point in a locale such as London or Saudi Arabia, making SummerSlam two nights would still allow WWE to stage a huge, multi-day event in the United States.

Minneapolis had been in the running to host next year's WrestleMania 41 and was even thought to be the front-runner at one point, but the honor ended up going to Las Vegas.

While SummerSlam isn't as big as WrestleMania, expanding it to two nights gets it closer, and makes it a solid consolation prize for Minnesota.

WWE Reportedly Pivots from Planned NXT Battleground Main Event

The NXT Battleground premium live event will be held at the UFC Apex in Las Vegas on June 9, but there is some uncertainty regarding what the main event will be.

According to Meltzer (h/t Ishaan Rathi of Ringside News), the original plan was for Trick Williams to defend the NXT Championship against Noam Dar, but that may no longer be the case.

Meltzer noted that Dar being written off the television in recent weeks and Gallus attacking Williams on this week's NXT could be a sign that Williams vs. Dar is no longer in the cards.

After Williams beat Ilja Dragunov for the NXT title, Dar confronted him and showed him a photo of a match they previously had against each other. Dar's foot was under the ropes when he was pinned, and he claimed he deserved a title shot as a result.

Adding fuel to the rivalry was the implication that Williams and Meta-Four member Lash Legend have been dating.

Dar was attacked backstage a couple of weeks ago, and on the following episode of NXT, Meta-Four members Oro Mensah and Jakara Jackson accused Williams of doing it.

Trick denied any involvement and was attacked by Joe Coffey, Mark Coffey and Wolfgang, who recently returned to NXT programming.

That seemed to suggest that Gallus may have attacked Dar, and it could potentially lead to Williams defending his title against a Gallus member at Battleground.

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