Following Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson’s appearance on The Pat McAfee Show, in which he explained his absence from WrestleMania 41 and said he wanted John Cena and Cody Rhodes to “have the spotlight,” a former WWE personality is calling that explanation into question.
Former WWE announcer Jonathan Coachman, who worked closely with The Rock during his time in WWE, took to social media to deliver a passionate and pointed response—claiming that something behind the scenes isn’t adding up.
“All right, emergency take time, and I won’t take long, but I was waiting for Pat McAfee today. The Rock, who was not advertised at all, all of a sudden, late last night, he’s advertised to be on Pat McAfee. It screams several things.
A: TKO called The Rock to say, ‘You got to do damage control. We are getting absolutely shredded across the board.’ There’s never been a finish to any night, especially the main night on WrestleMania, that’s been universally panned like this one right here. Worst ending of all time.”
Coachman, while emphasizing his long-standing respect for The Rock, questioned the authenticity of the explanation given for skipping the main event spotlight.
“Then for The Rock—and this hurts me to say because I love him so much. For people who don’t know, he was the person I was on TV with first in my career in WWE—for him to go on Pat McAfee and say, ‘I didn’t want the spotlight on me. I wanted it on John Cena.’
What??? You had to know. He is so smart. He had to know that by not showing up, by not tweeting, by not posting, by not saying anything, now all of the focus is now on you.”
Coachman went on to speculate about possible behind-the-scenes issues between The Rock and WWE management, particularly Triple H.
“The questions are: why? What happened? Are you fighting with Triple H? Are you fighting with somebody else? Those are all the questions everybody is asking today. It’s not, ‘Hey, congratulations to John Cena on number 17.’ We’re not that stupid.
There is something going on behind the scenes. The Rock is on the board of directors. The Rock got $30 million and then another big payment to come back and be a major part of what the WWE is doing. He was out there January 6th on the debut of Netflix. He was out there when John Cena turned heel because he asked for his soul. He was the one.”
Coachman concluded by pointing out The Rock’s radio silence over the last two months and suggesting his Pat McAfee Show appearance was part of a coordinated PR response.
“For two and a half months, not a post, not a peep, not a video, when a year ago, he used social media to his advantage. We’re supposed to believe that? I don’t know what’s going on, but something is going on.
I’ve been around enough backstage to know when creatively, you don’t get along… they’re not getting along. The Rock somehow wanted to make a statement. Well, statement made loud and clear. Now they’re doing cleanup and that was not it.”
Emergency wrestling take: I LOVE the Rock. But please don’t feed us this again. It’s just getting worse. Agree or disagree. 👇🏾👇🏾👇🏾 pic.twitter.com/2N4T39BuNa
— The Coach (@Thecoachrules) April 22, 2025
The Rock, who played a major role in WWE programming earlier this year—including Cena’s heel turn at Elimination Chamber and his own storyline as the “Final Boss”—has remained conspicuously quiet across all platforms since March. His sudden absence from the WrestleMania 41 weekend left many fans and insiders puzzled.
Stay tuned to PWMania.com for further updates as more unfolds in this developing story.
