WWE Superstars all have their own ways of preparing for WrestleMania. The biggest show of the year will see The Rock return for a match, and he had some special assistance. 

Gallus is a stable that has been largely underutilized by WWE, but they put them to good use when training The Rock for his WrestleMania match. Wolfgang, Joe Coffey and Mark Coffey were up for the task.

During WWE’s media day before WrestleMania, Shawn Michaels spoke to SEScoops about Gallus training with The Rock. He said that this came out because the faction is so reliable, and they are also incredibly professional.

These are three guys who know what they’re doing, understand every aspect of it, sometimes you need a guy who’s younger who can fly around, but sometimes you need guys who are mature, and professional, who can adjust to everything to what Rock wants. Obviously, I’m partial to those guys, they’re fantastic guys, they’re professional and very dependable.

HBK then said that he received a photo of Gallus and The Rock doing the stable’s trademark pose. We hope that they release that soon. It seems that WWE picked the right people for the job to help train The Rock.

More on The Rock’s WrestleMania Training

The Rock had a lot of help to prepare for his in-ring return. After all, he is promoting this as the biggest tag team match in history, and it very well may be. 

WWE assisted in transporting two rings, one to Los Angeles and the other to Hawaii, working with Johnson’s team to secure warehouses for training venues. This arrangement provided The Rock with the necessary resources for his training regimen.

During his training, The Rock participated in simulated matches with NXT’s Gallus faction. As he prepared for an upcoming tag-team match, Johnson needed three wrestlers to practice in-ring sequences and refine his timing. Therefore, Wolfgang, along with real-life brothers Joe Coffey and Mark Coffey, were selected for this specific task.

Supervising the training sessions were Michael Hayes and Bobby Roode, accompanied by referee Chad Patton. Additionally, WWE medical personnel were present to oversee the safety of the rehearsals.

The Rock is training hard for his tag team match at WrestleMania 40. This requires a lot of work, and WWE is helping him get ready for greatness on the grandest stage of them all.

ESPN ran an article about The Rock’s return to the ring, and just how much work he’s putting into getting ready. Dwayne Johnson established a training camp, reminiscent of those commonly seen in MMA or boxing circles. Johnson first began training for WrestleMania in February.

WWE facilitated the transportation of two rings, one to Los Angeles and the other to Hawaii, collaborating with Johnson’s team to secure warehouses for use as training venues. That gave The Rock the tools he needed for this training schedule.

The Rock had mock matches alongside NXT’s Gallus faction. Given his upcoming participation in a tag-team match, Johnson required three wrestlers to rehearse in-ring sequences and get his timing down. So, Wolfgang and real-life brothers Joe Coffey and Mark Coffey made the trip for this special assignment.

Michael Hayes and Bobby Roode were also there to supervise the training sessions, with referee Chad Patton there as well. WWE medical personnel were also present to ensure the safety of the rehearsals.

WWE is promoting the WrestleMania 40 tag team match as the biggest of all time. The Rock will team up with Roman Reigns to take on Seth Rollins and Cody Rhodes in the main event of WrestleMania 40 on April 6.

Plans After WrestleMania 40

The Rock is training hard for his return to the ring for WrestleMania 40, but he’s already making plans afterward. The Great One will start filming on his upcoming movie, The Smashing Machine, a couple of weeks after WrestleMania 40.

The possibility of The Rock’s return to a full-fledged singles wrestling match remains uncertain. However, his impact will keep going, both within and beyond the wrestling world. He made it very clear that he will still be on TKO’s Board of Directors, so his influence will remain within the company.

“I’m not off the Board after WrestleMania. I’m still on the Board, and I will always be a part of this & we are in it now. This is our thing & will forever be our thing.”

The Rock’s writer Brian Gewirtz clarified to ESPN that The Rock’s presence on RAW won’t necessarily become a regular occurrence. We will have to see if the stars can align for another return run of any kind for the shoo-in WWE Hall of Famer.

NXT Tag Team Champions New Day vs. Gallus (Mark Coffey and Wolfgang) vs. Pretty Deadly (Elton Prince and Kit Wilson) vs. Andre Chase and Duke Hudson were booked at Saturday’s Vengeance Day special. 

The match took place in the middle of the card and was a typical multi-team match where it started slow and built from there with chaotic moments. 

Wolfgang put Hudson through the announce table. Kofi went for a wild dive on the outside from the top rope only to be caught by Pretty Deadly. The finish saw Woods go for an elbow drop. However, he was caught by Wolfgang and Gallus hit their finisher for the win.

New Day defeated Pretty Deadly (Elton Prince and Kit Wilson) on December 10, 2022 at NXT Deadline to win the titles.

WWE holds the fallout episode from this show of NXT on Tuesday. It will be interesting to see if WWE continues this feud or goes in a different direction with the Tag Team Titles as New Day are still a main roster tag team. 

What are your thoughts on Gallus winning the NXT Tag Team Titles? Was this the right call by WWE officials? Sound off in the comment section.

Fans shouldn’t expect to see the likes of Doudrop, Gallus, and others on WWE programming for the time being due to a series of Visa issues.

In August of last year, WWE closed their NXT UK brand ahead of the launch of NXT Europe this year, and retained only a handful of the NXT UK talent.

Speaking on Wrestling Observer Radio, Dave Meltzer explained why some non-American stars have been missing.

“It’s Visa (issues.) What they’re doing is they went back over visa situations. They got to get the visas taken care of. So there’s a lot of people, a lot of the Gallus boys and Tyler Bate…Piper Niven’s (Doudrop) being gone is another one.

“What’s her name? Is it Davenport? Is that her name? Blair Davenport? What’s her name? The Bea Priestly, her too. But yeah, a lot of them, that’s basically the situation with a lot of them is just getting the visa stuff worked out.”

Visa Issues

It was only a few weeks back that several wrestlers were reported as missing from TV due to problems with their visas.

In November 2022, it was noted that Gallus, JD McDonagh and Ilja Dragunov would be unable to return until these issues were sorted out.

It has been reported that plans for Tyson Fury in WWE are uncertain due to Visa issues and an alleged ban from entering the United States.

Fury is believed to be banned due to allegations of ties to Irish mafia boss Daniel Kinahan, a claim the boxing star has vehemently denied.

There have been speculations about the future of the NXT UK stars recently. It now appears that NXT 2.0 is going to be their new home for the time being.

The development brand presented the Heatwave special this week. What’s notable is that multiple NXT UK stars made their presence felt during the show.

First The Diamond Mine was attacked by longtime UK stable Gallus. The group was arguing that Roderick Strong wanted to end the faction in a segment.

This came after Diamond Mine was defeated by Tony D’Angelo and others during the July 26 episode of the show. Strong cost them the match after he accidentally hit his own team member Julius Creed.

After attacking the NXT faction, the group of Wolfgang, Joe Coffey, and Mark Coffey went to the back. They confronted the current NXT UK tag team champions Josh Briggs & Brooks Jensen and challenged them for the title match next week.

Though these three weren’t the only UK stars to show up on the show. The main event of the episode saw Bron Breakker successfully defending his NXT Championship against JD McDonagh.

After the bout, the NXT UK champion Tyler Bate came to the ring and confronted Baker. Both the stars held up their belts high as the episode went off air.

Bate won the vacant NXT UK championship during a match taped on July 7. However, the bout is yet to air and he isn’t officially recognized as the champion as of now.

• High Flying Star ‘Banned’ From NXT 2.0