The Rock Finally Showed Off His Injury From A24’s The Smashing Machine And It Looks Gruesome

Dwayne Johnson in the Fate of the Furious.
(Image credit: Universal Pictures)

Dwayne Johnson is one of the best wrestler turned actors ever, and has had a wildly successful career. During this, he earned a reputation for being one of the hardest work people in Hollywood. Unfortunately, The Rock suffered an injury filming A24's upcoming drama The Smashing Machine. Johnson finally showed off his injury on social media, and it looks gruesome.

What we know about The Smashing Machine is limited, but fans are eager to see The Rock blend his two careers for his role. Unfortunately, he might be in some pain for the remainder of filming the project. Johnson posted on Instagram revealing his gnarly busted elbow. Check it out below:

Yikes. While Dwayne Johnson doesn't look all that concerned, this image is sure to go viral thanks how bad his elbow looks. That's a seriously large and dark bruise, and smart money says it's going to take a while for it to heal. We'll just have to wait and see how long filming for Benny Safdie's upcoming movie ends up being for The Rock; he's presumably going to have to work through some pain.

The Moana actor shared this wild black and blue to his whopping 396 million followers on Instagram. While it looks horribly painful, he said that tequila was helping him in that regard. He also thanked fans for recommending medicine and healing practices for him. 

It should be fascinating to see what Johnson and Safdie have up their sleeves for The Smashing Machine. The movie is a biopic about Mark Kerr, who is a former wrestler and mixed martial artist. Johnson was almost unrecognizable in the first image from the film, which is saying a lot considering just how iconic he is as an entity. And this is the 52 year-old actor's first shot at a prestige film. 

Production on The Smashing Machine comes shortly after rumors about The Rock's behavior on set began circulating online. Some of his colleagues have come to his defense, and it doesn't seem to have affected his career at the point of writing this story. Because in addition to the upcoming Benny Safdie film, he's also leading the cast of Moana 2, as well as playing Maui in the developing live-action Moana film.

While Zac Efron was recently praised for playing a professional wrestler in The Iron Claw, it should be fascinating to see how The Smashing Machine performs when its released. Having a wrestler turned actor like Dwayne Johnson at the center of the narrative will no doubt give it a sense of realism... including his injury.

The Smashing Machine doesn't currently have a release date. In the meantime, check the 2025 movie release dates to start planning your trips to the movies next year.

Corey Chichizola
Movies Editor

Corey was born and raised in New Jersey. Graduated with degrees theater and literature from Ramapo College of New Jersey. After working in administrative theater for a year in New York, he started as the Weekend Editor at CinemaBlend. He's since been able to work himself up to reviews, phoners, and press junkets-- and is now able to appear on camera with some of his favorite actors... just not as he would have predicted as a kid. He's particularly proud of covering horror franchises like Scream and Halloween, as well as movie musicals like West Side Story. Favorite interviews include Steven Spielberg, Spike Lee, Jamie Lee Curtis, and more.