Speculation On Sting vs. The Rock Taking Place At WWE WrestleMania 31

With Sting on board with WWE and the in-ring future of The Undertaker, his most desired opponent in doubt, there is a good chance that the WCW icon could wind up facing Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson at next year’s WrestleMania in Santa Clara, California. (Photos: The Rock’s Current Girlfriend)

In 2004, Johnson was only making sporadic appearances for WWE due to his thriving acting career and having accomplished most of his goals in the professional wrestling industry. While he still desired to wrestle, it was primarily against opponents of his choosing. For WrestleMania XX, he proposed to WWE chief Vince McMahon that he face either Hulk Hogan or Goldberg in return matches from the prior year, or Randy Savage. McMahon, however, had no interest in having Johnson facing any of the three, instead wanting him to reunite with Mick Foley against the trio of Randy Orton, Batista and Ric Flair. Later that year, Johnson proposed that at WrestleMania 21, he face Savage or Sting. Both “dream matches” were not viable options. Sting had no desire to join WWE at the time due to his belief that that the sports-entertainment organization had buried WCW mainstays during The Invasion storyline in 2001 and therefore could not be trusted. In the case of Savage, McMahon refused to consider bringing him back for reasons which remain unclear to this day. (Photos: Sting’s First Appearance On WWE Network)

WrestleMania 21 came and went without an appearance from Johnson because he was no longer contractually obligated to the sports-entertainment organization. His WWE contract expired on December 31, 2004 without even a quick phone call from McMahon to say thanks for his enormous contributions and good luck with your future endeavors. This snub did not go unnoticed, as Johnson told Wrestling Observer Newsletter editor Dave Meltzer in January 2005, “The company and I are at an odd crossroad. It was an oddly quiet ending, without any interaction or communication from the front office or the old man [Vince McMahon]. Surprising to say the least, especially after eight years.”

Relations were ultimately patched up and as you know, Johnson has continued to wrestle on a sporadic basis. He has not competed since WrestleMania 29, where he tore his abdominal and adductor tendons from his pelvis while giving the Rock Bottom John Cena — he later underwent surgery to reattach the torn tendons. Despite the debilitating injury, Johnson has publicly not ruled out a return to the ring.

During a Twitter question and answer session on December 31, 2013, he revealed that he was originally scheduled to wrestle Brock Lesnar at WrestleMania XXX and left the possibility of the match being held at WrestleMania 31. The match, however, is not guaranteed to take place, and with WWE wanting Sting to compete in at least one mega match before he retires, Johnson could be his opponent. Now questions remain whether Johnson is still interested in facing Sting, if a match is even feasible in 2015, or be a good situation for the both of them as well as WWE.

Photos Of The Rock On Set Of “Hercules: The Thracian Wars”