Whether he’s the hero or the villain, The Rock always draws a crowd and always elicits strong opinions from wrestling fans. That’s been true throughout his career, but it’s somehow gotten even more pronounced this year, as The People’s Champion has had, quite possibly, the craziest six months or so in the history of the business. That wild run of highs and lows continued this weekend, as WWE supporters have been roasting him for days after a claim he made in a documentary went mega-viral.
Before we get into what he said and the over-the-top backlash, let’s quickly talk about his 2024, as it’s all tied in together and also just crazy to to reflect on. The Rock returned to WWE back in January to a hero’s welcome and a real life seat on the company’s board of directors. Fans were collectively stoked to see him back, but that all changed when he announced he would main event WrestleMania 40 alongside his cousin Roman Reigns.
For well over a year, regular WWE viewers had been watching the company’s top good guy character Cody Rhodes try to “finish the story” and finally defeat Roman Reigns and win the WWE Championship in honor of his late father, wrestling legend Dusty Rhodes. His quest was clearly the A plot of all programming and intended to main event WrestleMania 40, and then suddenly, he was pushed aside to make room for The Rock who hadn’t really been around for almost a decade. It felt like a slap in the face to him, and fans responded by booing The Rock. A lot. Loud “Rocky Sucks” chants drowned out performers the following week, and suddenly, Dwayne Johnson, one of the most beloved wrestlers ever, was a villain.
So, WWE smartly pivoted back to Roman and Cody at ‘Mania and used the real life backlash as a storyline. The Rock leaned into being a villain and blamed Cody and the fans for ruining what would have been a major mainstream crossover event. The brilliant multi-month run that followed is widely considered to be one of the greatest in wrestling history, and he ultimately main evented the first night of WrestleMania in a tag match with Roman Reigns against Cody Rhodes and Seth Rollins, while Reigns and Rhodes did night two. When he went back to Hollywood at the beginning of April for a hiatus of unknown length, it was with great vibes from WWE fans who he’d completely won back over.
Then WWE dropped the behind the scenes WrestleMania documentary last week, and in it, The Rock seemed to offer a bit of revisionist history. He claimed he called WWE leaders and said they should listen to a segment of fans and pivot to Roman Reigns and Cody Rhodes. Some version of the conversation probably did happen in real life, but the re-telling of it seemed to sort of gloss over the fact that The Rock booking himself into the WrestleMania main event is what caused the issue in the first place. Now, thousands of fans have responded by creating memes in which Johnson takes credit for other classic moments in wrestling history. Here’s an example…
“…and then I told CM Punk to cut the Pipebomb promo.” pic.twitter.com/3SabiPh1s6July 4, 2024
To be fair, the wrestling business is filled with half-truths and exaggerations. Spinning a narrative is basically the job of every wrestler, and most of the all-time greats routinely say things you have to look at with a slightly raised eyebrow. Complete honesty is not a virtue in WWE, but part of the problem here for The Rock, and I think why the meme has taken off, is because of the backstory behind the documentary. It originally had an April 10th release date attached to it, and then suddenly, it was indefinitely delayed. As the weeks went on, some fans started speculating that maybe The Rock was involved. Maybe he wanted to change the narrative. We even speculated about it in this piece here.
The documentary was ultimately released in early July, and not surprisingly, when it featured footage of The Rock talking about his own behind the scenes involvement, people jumped on it. It was an easy thing to focus on because it fit the narrative some fans had already made ahead of it. So, that a-ha turned into a lot of this…
“I called Tony Khan and told him to start AEW” pic.twitter.com/X2UQLgIVCjJuly 5, 2024
In a lot of ways, this is a microcosm of the wrestling business. For better or for worse, fans are extremely passionate. They will spend their time and their money investing in whatever you’re doing. But they’re also going to tell you how they feel. They’re going to be honest about their perspective because instantaneous feedback is what wrestling is all about. So, yeah, they’re going to roast The Rock and make fun of him a little bit for over-simplifying what happened, but whenever he returns, they’re also going to hang on his every word because he’s The Rock and if spinning a narrative to make yourself look better is over the line, there wouldn’t be anyone left to root for in the wrestling business.
Come back soon, Rock. We all miss you, even if you’re on the wrong side of the jokes this week.
