Since his return in January, The Rock has made significant contributions to WWE’s business, breaking numerous records, including his first match in over a decade at WrestleMania XL. Nonetheless, some in the company believe he did it for the wrong reasons.
For years, The Rock has been Hollywood’s most successful actor, earning a lot of money from his films. However, following the lackluster success of “Black Adam,” the cancellation of “Young Rock,” and his failed attempt to take over DC Studios, he has suffered a setback in his career.
While speaking on Wrestling Observer Radio, Dave Meltzer mentioned that some WWE employees believe Rock returned to the company solely to advance his Hollywood career.
“I mean, 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, you know, Young Rock got canceled. Some of his movies weren’t as successful as hoped for. WWE was an easy win. But at the same time, put this way, they made him a $30 million, your offer to join the board of directors, they came to that, you know, that’s coming to him. That’s not him coming. And he’s been talking about doing wrestling for literally….the match with Roman Reigns since 2019. So, it’s not like this was something that just came out of the blue because, you know, the idea of it, he wasn’t doing well, or anything like that. I mean, granted, he didn’t do it, but you know, 2020 he was never going to do it ain’t gonna come back during the pandemic. He wasn’t gonna come back in 2021 with front in front of 20,000 people at WrestleMania. And then, you know, he decided LA, not Dallas, and then LA came in he was busy. And, you know, everyone knows the story. He he, when he when he, when he basically made the move to not do Los Angeles. He said, ‘Maybe I’ll do Philadelphia next year,’ but nobody believed it. But he did because they figured it just turned down Los Angeles never gonna do it. Well, he did it. And I would suspect he’s going to do it next year, too. I mean, he’s already built it up.”
(h/t to WrestlingNews.co for the transcription)