The Rock WWE Return Seen As ‘Easy Win’ Backstage After Movie Failures

WWE

The Rock’s return to WWE was seen by some as an “easy win” following a troubling time in television and movies for the star.

With June 2023 seeing the cancellation of the Young Rock television series by NBC, this came after the disappointing critical and box office performance of Black Adam in 2022 in which Dwayne Johnson starred as the titular character.

Even the tenth entry in the Fast & The Furious franchise struggled, with Fast X “barely crawled into the black” according to Variety, taking $714.6 million at the worldwide box office, below the $726.2 million of 2021’s Fast 9.

With The Rock’s return to WWE at Raw Day 1 in January 2024, his run came to an end on the Raw after WrestleMania 40, with a promise to return to face Cody Rhodes.

Addressing the backstage perception of The Rock’s return to WWE, Dave Meltzer stated on Wrestling Observer Radio that:

“There were definitely people in WWE who felt that his return to WWE this year was an attempt to turn around kind of like a losing streak, so to speak.

“Young Rock got cancelled, some of his movies weren’t as successful as hoped for, and WWE was an easy win.

“At the same time, put it this way, WWE made him a $30 million offer to join the Board of Directors.

“They came to him, that’s not him coming, and he’s been talking about doing wrestling for literally, as far as doing the Roman Reigns match, since 2019.

“So it’s not like this was something that just came out of the blue because of the idea that he wasn’t doing well or something like that.”

Johnson joined the TKO Board of Directors in January 2024 and has gone on to acquire a number of trademarks, including for his ring name since his appointment to the WWE parent company.

Following his WrestleMania 40 match in which he teamed with Roman Reigns to take on Cody Rhodes and Seth Rollins, The Rock received nearly 100,000 shares from TKO.

Dave Meltzer has also revealed the backstage ‘resentment’ and ‘negativity’ involving The Rock in WWE.

Transcript from Cultaholic.

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