The Rock and Steve Austin Being Considered as Referees for Lesnar v Mahal

As previously mentioned, WWE is considering adding a special guest referee to the Brock Lesnar vs. Jinder Mahal match at Survivor Series since it’ll be a non-title match and they want to spruce it up.

The leading name that has been rumored to be in the guest referee role is John Cena. However, according to the Wrestling Observer Newsletter, Vince McMahon is also considering The Rock or Steve Austin in the role, but it would depend on a lot of things, with the main thing being whether or not they would actually want to do it. There would also be scheduling and money issues that could get in the way.

It’s very unlikely that the referee spot would lead to a match between Lesnar and The Rock or Austin. Austin is done in the ring and hasn’t wrestled since 2003. With The Rock, movie studios frown upon him returning to the ring ever since he suffered a series of muscle tears in a 2013 WrestleMania match against John Cena, which delayed the filming of Hercules. The Rock had actually been planned to face Brock Lesnar at WrestleMania in 2014, but that match was scrapped.

However, WWE would still obviously like the spectacle of Lesnar being in the same ring as a star like Austin or The Rock even if they’re not wrestling. They hope that Jinder Mahal would also get a rub from being in the same ring as two big stars, since most people’s expectation is that it would make no sense for Jinder to actually win the match.