4 months ago
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Earlier this week, WWE premiered "WrestleMania XL: Behind the Curtain," an hour-long documentary showing the lead-up to this year's big event. The doc primarily focused on the backstage drama revolving around the main event, which was initially scheduled to feature Cody Rhodes vs. Roman Reigns before Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson introduced some uncertainty into the situation. Rhodes wound up performing in the match, and "Behind the Curtain" claims to reveal the journey there.
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However, writing in today's Wrestling Observer Newsletter, Dave Meltzer took issue with some of what was presented in the documentary. According to the reporter, the events depicted in the special are a "sanitized" version of what actually took place.
While "Behind the Curtain" made it seem as though The Rock named himself the true "Head of the Table" in a promo to gauge interest in a match against Reigns, Meltzer claims that he and WWE had started negotiating that match the previous month. The deal signed at the beginning of January, which saw Johnson join the TKO Board of Directors, also included the WrestleMania match, which contradicts the story in the doc.
Though Meltzer's interpretation of the documentary was that the company was deciding between Rhodes and The Rock as Reigns' opponent, the writer claims WWE higher-ups had already made a definitive decision on the matter in favor of The Rock, which was obviously changed down the line. In "WrestleMania XL: Behind the Curtain," Johnson is depicted as understanding that the fans want Rhodes vs. Reigns and gladly stepping aside, while Meltzer indicated that the situation was much more complicated than that.
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"Stuff like that isn't going to be in a WWE documentary," Meltzer wrote. "It was basically there to tell a story people largely knew, while still portraying the key players, Levesque and Johnson, as being completely cohesive and listening to the fans."
If you use any of the quotes in this article, please credit the Wrestling Observer Newsletter with a h/t to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription.
