A Complete Backstory On Why WWE Fans Turned On The Rock And What Parent Company TKO Should Do About It

The Rock has been trending pretty much constantly on social media since WrestleMania this past Sunday, and it has not been for positive reasons. First, it was about him not showing up to ‘Mania, despite having previously been involved in the main event storyline. Then, it was about going on The Pat McAfee Show and defending his decision not to attend, while simultaneously claiming he only got involved in the storyline to begin with because of low ticket sales at Elimination Chamber. Then, it was about a double whammy of a comment he left on a wrestling journalist’s Instagram that claimed people shouldn't get worked up about wrestling because it’s not real, among other things.

Yeah, it was a really bad week for Dwayne Johnson, at least amongst wrestling fans, and it’s leading to a lot of conversations about whether The Rock should have any place in WWE moving forward. Unfortunately, the answer to that question is really complicated, and it’s made all the more complicated because of Johnson’s very real executive position on the Board Of Directors for WWE’s parent company TKO. The whole thing is a mess, and anyone who tells you there’s an easy solution is being disingenuous. So, let’s just attempt to talk this out in a fair and balanced way.

Why The Rock Is So Valuable

The Rock is, by pretty much any definition, one of the greatest and most important superstars in the history of the wrestling business. He’s certainly the biggest crossover actor ever, and he’s able to attract mainstream eyeballs in a way that no one currently involved in the business, John Cena included, can. He’s just another level of famous, and also, he’s at another level when it comes to getting himself over.

If you’re not a huge wrestling fan, getting yourself over basically means connecting with the crowd to the point where you inspire a reaction. It could be as a good guy. It could be as a bad guy. All that matters is that the crowd specifically cares about seeing you. The most over superstars are the ones people are buying tickets for, and they’re the ones the show is built around. No one on WWE’s roster, not Cody Rhodes, not Roman Reigns, not John Cena, is as over as The Rock. The crowd pops when he walks through the curtain in a completely different way.

So, it’s easy to see why WWE and parent company TKO would like him to be a part of ongoing storylines. It’s why the company offered him ownership over his WWE-related trademarks, and it’s why he was given a seat on the Board Of Directors and a huge bonus to come back after Vince McMahon sold the company. He can move the needle in a way no one else can, whether it be ticket sales, merchandise or general crossover interest.

That Rock effect was seen very clearly last year in the lead-up to WrestleMania. The People’s Champion returned on a near weekly basis between the Royal Rumble and WrestleMania 40 to support his cousin Roman Reigns in his war against Cody Rhodes, and he delivered terrific ratings and a bunch of sold out arenas. He also did some of the best work of his entire career. His new character, The Final Boss, was very well received, and it culminated in a very good WrestleMania tag team match alongside Reigns against Cody and Seth Rollins, as well as an appearance during the Main Event of Night 2 between Roman and Cody.

So, yeah, it’s obvious why TKO wants The Rock around whenever his schedule allows it, but unfortunately, what his schedule has allowed in the last year turned out to be a huge net negative.

Why The Last Year Has Gone So Poorly

First, The Rock appeared on the Raw after WrestleMania 40 to announce he was going back to Hollywood. That was widely expected amongst wrestling fans. Unfortunately, what we also got was an extremely awkward and extended segment with WWE Champion Cody Rhodes where he held his title belt for awhile and seemed to imply he’d be coming back in the near future to take it from him.

So, as wrestling fans, we all waited as Rhodes won his post-WrestleMania feuds, assuming the plan down the road was going to be for The Rock and Cody to finally square off. Months passed, however, and it became clear Johnson probably wasn’t coming back anytime soon. So, we all moved on and started investing in other stories. Then in October, the obvious main event for Bad Blood, Drew McIntyre vs CM Punk, was abruptly moved to the beginning of the show, and Cody Rhodes and Roman Reigns vs Solo Sikoa and Jacob Fatu was moved to the end. It turns out that was because Johnson made a surprise appearance after the match in which he stared down Rhodes and Reigns, counted to three and did a throat slashing gesture before the PLE went off the air.

For months, WWE fans speculated on what that could mean. They waited for The Rock to reemerge and explain himself, waited for some announcement on the inevitable Rock and Cody Rhodes match. We didn’t get any sort of explanation until the Raw on Netflix premiere in January. Unfortunately, that did nothing but create confusion. Johnson gave a bizarre, rambling promo in which he essentially patted himself and WWE on the back for how good business has been and then thanked Rhodes for all the great work he’s done.

Fans, myself included, were very confused because it made literally no sense. We had watched The Rock and Rhodes feud for basically a year at that point, and given The Rock was calling himself ‘The Final Boss’, it seemed obvious in his name that he’d be the last big challenge for Rhodes. Instead, however, we got compliments, which kinda sorta seemed like they were coming from Johnson as TKO Board Member and not The Rock, the character Johnson plays on TV, though it was never made clear on air.

Anyway, Johnson made another appearance in February, this time seeming to take everyone’s feedback into account. He again complimented Rhodes but this time said it was because he wanted to help him get to the next level but in order to do that, he’d need Cody to give him his soul. The language was overly simplistic, once again repetitive and rambly and kind of stupid, but it was at least a direct storyline for fans to invest in that explained why The Rock had been nicer to Cody recently. He apparently wanted him to do his bidding in WWE while The Rock was off in Hollywood and having him be The Rock’s champion and forfeit his soul would allow that.

A week or so later, The Rock showed up to Elimination Chamber alongside platinum rapper Travis Scott and once again asked for Cody’s soul. Predictably, Cody colorfully told him he would not give it to him, but much more unpredictably, The Rock then made a gesture at John Cena and Cena promptly turned on Rhodes, signalling that he was the one who sold his soul to The Rock. The moment almost instantly became WWE’s biggest in months. Cena’s heel turn was covered in the mainstream press, and most fans agreed it was the biggest since Hulk Hogan famously joined the nWo in 1996.

What followed was weeks of speculation about why The Rock and John Cena were working together and what the two of them might do together. Unfortunately, The Rock never actually showed up again. He didn’t make any appearances on Raw. He didn’t make any appearances on SmackDown. Even more bizarrely, he was barely mentioned by anyone involved. Cena never really explained why he sold his soul to The Rock. Instead, he explained he turned on the fans and Rhodes because he was sick of the mixed reaction he’d gotten for his entire career. Rhodes didn’t really talk about The Rock either. He focused on the betrayal by Cena and mostly pretended that whole soul thing never happened.

That brings us to WrestleMania. Given the lack of any mention about The Rock, some fans assumed that storyline had simply been dropped and we wouldn’t hear about it again. Others were convinced he’d show up and actually finish the story he started to tell. Unfortunately, we got the worst of both worlds. The Rock didn’t show up, but his henchman Travis Scott did. His music interrupted the main event between Cena and Rhodes, and he interfered to help Cena win. So, in essence, it was like WWE tried to finish the story The Rock started telling but didn’t actually use The Rock.

The main event was very, very poorly received by wrestling fans. As a whole, they couldn’t understand why Travis Scott showed up without The Rock, and they couldn’t understand why The Rock had gotten involved at all if he wasn’t even going to be at WrestleMania. The outrage was pretty loud on social media, and then suddenly Johnson was announced for The Pat McAfee Show the following day. I think his appearance was meant to do some damage control, but it only made things worse.

The Rock said he’d only made the last two appearances, the one where he asked for Cody’s soul and the one at Elimination Chamber, because ticket sales were down and he was asked by TKO to help. He said he then stepped away because the story didn’t need him, and he didn’t want to step on Cena’s moment. The comments didn’t sit well with wrestling fans, since he basically made it clear he only got involved for money, which was particularly insulting since TKO has jacked up ticket prices exponentially over the past few years, and they also didn’t make logical sense since Travis Scott literally came to the ring in the middle of the main event and stepped all over Cena’s moment.

All of these comments made the backlash even louder, to the point where angry social media posts and clips from various wrestling podcasts ranting about The Rock were suddenly everywhere. In another effort to do damage control, The Rock responded to one of the rants and claimed everyone needs to calm down because wrestling is “a complete work.” In wrestling terms, that means it’s fake. He then invited the podcaster in question, Dave LaGreca, to join the creative discussions between him, Cody, Cena and his personal writer Brian Gewirtz and “the rest” of WWE to see how the decisions are made and change his perspective.

Once again, fans were not happy campers for multiple reasons. First, he basically told everyone they should care less about wrestling because it’s fake, which is an outrageous thing to say given WWE and TKO directly make all their money off fans caring so much. Second, he completely ignored Triple H, the actual head of WWE creative, and seemed to imply he’s not making decisions on the major storylines and instead The Rock is.

What TKO Should Do Moving Forward

There are some wrestling fans who want TKO to just move on from The Rock entirely, but I don’t think that’s a good idea at all. Having very public rifts with your biggest stars from previous generations is never a good look, and it also ignores the fact that The Rock, when he’s in the right storyline, can still be really, really good. He didn’t give us some lazy nostalgic performance in the lead-up to WrestleMania 40. He told a new story as The Final Boss, and it was one of the best stories WWE has told in the last two decades.

Fans also still want to see him. Hardcore fans might be really mad at him right now, but casual fans aren’t plugged into that and everyone gets really excited when he walks through the curtain. He’s a giant attraction and someone who can play a role in WWE doing great work moving forward. Just bailing on him is a huge overreaction and not the path forward, in my opinion.

But letting The Rock show up whenever he wants and getting half-involved in storylines is not the play either. Right now, it feels as if Johnson decides when he wants to show up, then he gets together with the writers and says what’s the coolest thing I can do on this particular episode and does that. But those cool things, while they feel great in the moment (at least when they’re well executed), are not necessarily what is best for the actual long-term health of the business if they don't pay off down the road.

Let me talk about this in film terms. The Rock is one of the biggest movie stars in the entire world. If he were to show up on the set of any movie and say I have a couple free days and would love to be in this, it would be really, really hard to say no. But shoehorning The Rock into a movie, without a well organized plan, isn’t necessarily going to make the movie better. If he’s just doing a fun cameo, that’s one thing, but if he’s going to be involved in the A-plot, there better be a clear plan as to how he fits and whether he’s available to shoot the scenes needed in order to make him fit.

From my perspective, TKO seems to be obsessed with making viral moments, shoehorning in celebrities and expanding WWE’s overall reach to additional casuals. Those goals make a lot of business sense, but they’re a bad long-term financial decision if they come at the expense of the actual quality of the product. The ones disproportionately paying WWE’s bills are the hardcore fans. They’re the ones buying action figures and going to multiple tour stops and paying thousands of dollars to attend WrestleMania. They’re the ones watching every single week, and they deserve a story that makes sense. As someone who has watched every minute of WWE main roster programming for years, I deserve a story that makes sense, and right now, it’s impossible to do that when The Rock is randomly dropped in whenever he feels like it or whenever the outrageously priced tickets aren’t selling.

So, here’s the pretty obvious game plan, at least from my perspective. Anytime The Rock wants to show up, he should be allowed to show up and be incorporated into the show, but it should be done as a sideplot. No one would care if he showed up once every three months to dunk on The Miz or feud with Austin Theory. If he wants to be sporadic about his appearances, I’m fine with that— they just need to not involve any of the key characters on the roster.

Conversely, if The Rock wants to tell a story with WWE’s biggest stars, then he needs to work with Triple H to outline the scope of the story and the actual dates he’s going to show up well ahead of time. He can’t be injected in at the last minute. There needs to be a clear plan of what they’re trying to say and where it’s going. Then, everyone involved can tell the story in such a way that it doesn’t leave fans feeling like an afterthought, or leave fans feeling like The Rock thinks he’s bigger than the company’s most important storylines.

Triple H is doing a fantastic job running the creative side of WWE. I don’t agree with every single choice he makes, but on the whole, he’s delivering the best storylines and the most entertaining product fans have gotten in decades. Forget The Rock. Forget the improved presentation. Forget TKO or the Netflix deal. Forget any individual superstar. Most of WWE’s growth is because fans are happy with the creative direction and enjoying the stories being told.

If there is some kind of behind the scenes issue, The Rock needs to step back and let him do his job. The instances in which creative hasn’t made sense over the past few years have almost always been because they either involved The Rock or they involved Vince McMahon. If there’s some kind of power struggle going on behind the scenes, Triple H should win. Period. End of story.

But I don't want to see that power struggle, and neither do most fans. Instead, what we want to see is Triple H have the freedom to tell the stories he wants to tell, and in a perfect world, we'd love to see The Rock commit to telling some of those stories when his schedule allows it. Fingers crossed TKO can find a way to make that happen.