The Rock ruined WrestleMania
Despite being part of WWE’s top story, The Rock missed wrestling’s signature event
The Week in Wrestling is published every week and provides beneath the surface coverage of the business of pro wrestling.
Contents for The Week in Wrestling:
The Rock’s absence at WrestleMania was glaring
An inside look at the past week in wrestling
Why WWE’s acquisition of AAA is so significant
Tweet of the Week
The Rock ruined WrestleMania
The finish of the John Cena-Cody Rhodes match left a lot to be desired.
Unlike last year, WrestleMania 41 ended with a thud.
It certainly wasn’t due to Rhodes, who carried the company to new heights as champion–and brought an electricity to this main event. Cena, to his credit, did not shy away from a 25-minute match, despite it being his first singles match in over two years. Even Travis Scott1 played his part, taking a Cross Rhodes that allowed Rhodes to get a piece of redemption following the Rock/Cena/Scott attack at Elimination Chamber.
Why was the finish so weak?
Blame it on The Rock.
At WWE’s single biggest show of the year, wrestling’s most electrifying man… no-showed.
An explanation was provided yesterday on Pat McAfee’s show. Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson appeared, and he attempted to make sense of it all.
It wasn’t pretty. Here is what we learned:
Johnson shared that he could have been part of the Rhodes-Cena match at WrestleMania, yet chose not to be so that the focus would instead be on Rhodes and Cena.
The reason that Johnson appeared as The Rock at Elimination Chamber, he explained, was because of a request from TKO CEO Ari Emanuel, who wanted a must-see attraction to counter slow ticket sales.
Travis Scott getting involved in the main event at WrestleMania surprised Johnson, and he acknowledged that it also made people believe that The Rock was going to appear.
And therein lies the problem. Once Scott appeared, it was painfully obvious that The Rock would be coming out next.
Until he didn’t.
In the end, WrestleMania suffered because of it.
There was more–Johnson said he initially asked Rhodes to turn heel, but it was Paul “Triple H” Levesque who came up with the idea to have Cena turn heel instead. Johnson noted he liked the finish of Rhodes-Cena, but he would have got there differently.
It’s a lot to unwrap. If you believe he is telling the truth, then it completely flies in the face of head writer Brian Gewirtz’s tweet from over a month ago that stated otherwise.
Also, the mere notion that Johnson didn’t know Scott was going to be at WrestleMania is extremely difficult to believe. McAfee did not follow up on that comment.
Once The Rock appeared during the build to Elimination Chamber, he inserted himself into the story–the most significant story in all of WWE. For the sake of the story, Elimination Chamber simply could not be The Rock’s send-off. Once Rock had his premeditated attack on Rhodes, then it became necessary to have him return.
But that never happened.
And it isn’t as though Johnson is unavailable. This isn’t a case of a talent working without a contract; it is one of the biggest stars in the world, one who happens to be on the company’s Board of Directors. He wasn’t filming a movie over the weekend, either, as he shared that he watched WrestleMania from home.
Johnson said he didn’t want to interfere in Cena/Rhodes, as the focus belonged on Cena and Rhodes. If that is the case, then why on earth was Travis Scott brought back?
The longer Johnson spoke in his interview with McAfee, the more questions arose. Are there creative differences between Johnson and Levesque, who oversees creative? And why was Rhodes–who was superb for more than a year in his first reign as world champ–booked to lose in such a weak manner? That finish didn’t help Cena, who is now set to work his next program with Randy Orton.
Had Cena turned on Rhodes without The Rock in a quest to become “The Last Real Champion”, it is a storyline that makes sense. Even more, in fact, than selling his soul to The Rock for a yet-to-be-explained reason.
WWE was on the cusp of an all-time WrestleMania moment with Cena, Rhodes, and The Rock. Instead, for reasons that still aren’t clear, Dwayne Johnson watched from home.
Perhaps it is the curse of Las Vegas, as WrestleMania IX–the last Mania to be held in Vegas–also had a controversial, unpopular finish in the main event. But at least all the major players were present at Caesars Palace. This time, that wasn’t the case.
The Rock needed to be at WrestleMania 41. His absence forever leaves a lasting blemish on the event, ruining what should have been a spectacular moment.
This past week…
In a fascinating move, Paul Heyman appears to be reprising his Dangerous Alliance decades later in WWE. He is already aligned with Seth Rollins and now Bron Breakker, who finds himself in a perfect situation to become a breakout star.
If you haven’t watched Heyman on Pat McAfee’s show from Monday, you’re missing out.
A night after returning, Becky Lynch turned heel on Raw. Will she also join Heyman’s new faction?
After a disappointing run in AEW, Rusev is back in WWE. He looks phenomenal, and it will be main event-or-bust for him in his return to the company.
Speaking with Ariel Helwani, Lex Luger explained that he wasn’t part of WWE’s Hall of Fame ceremony during WrestleMania on Saturday because he wasn’t feeling well. Even if that is the case, it is still peculiar that Luger wasn’t mentioned as one of the Hall of Fame inductees.
Karrion Kross cut a tremendous promo that has gone viral on social media. But that’s not how “Austin 3:16” vaulted Steve Austin to the next level, or brought all sorts of attention to CM Punk after his famed “pipe bomb”. For that to happen, Kross needs the microphone on live television.
The Young Bucks return to the ring tonight on Dynamite, where they will wrestle “Speedball” Mike Bailey and Kevin Knight. It was interesting to hear Jon Moxley state last week that he doesn’t want any more help from The Bucks, which hopefully means Kazuchika Okada-the leader of The Elite–is going to pursue Moxley’s world title. Also, that Hangman Page-Okada interaction is hopefully only the start of something much bigger.
For those who watched Will Ospreay vs. Konosuke Takeshita last week on Dynamite, you witnessed one of the finest displays of professional wrestling. In a five-day span, we also saw the women’s triple threat of Iyo Sky/Rhea Ripley/Bianca Belair at WrestleMania, the Seth Rollins/Roman Reigns/CM Punk match, and Mercedes Moné-Athena, an outrageous stretch for those who love professional wrestling.
WWE’s purchase of AAA is extremely significant–and here’s why
During the WrestleMania 41 pre-show on Saturday, the announcement was made that WWE acquired AAA.
The initial response is to look at AEW’s partnership with historic Mexican wrestling promotion CMLL and infer that WWE is following suit. While that has happened in the past (AEW partnered with New Japan Pro-Wrestling, and WWE then later partnered with Pro Wrestling NOAH), it runs much deeper.
Acquiring AAA gives WWE a significant foothold in Mexico.
While the AAA brand is nowhere near the height of its all-time popularity, it allows WWE to enter the country without starting from scratch. This is a move that WWE wanted to make for years, and there is plenty of reason to believe that a major goal now is to encourage wrestling fans around the globe–in this case, in Mexico–to subscribe to Netflix and watch WWE.
The move inspired a plethora of questions–including what AAA television will look like moving forward. But there is no doubt Netflix wants long-term subscriber growth, as well as increased numbers from global markets, and Mexico fits into that equation.
The acquisition also fits the TKO model, which is the parent company of WWE. UFC settled its years-long antitrust lawsuit for a whopping $375 million, but there is now a whole different landscape under President Trump and his administration. TKO appears poised to make additional acquisitions. Of course, whenever the discussion of global expansion is mentioned, India is a primary focus. That will be a longer-term project because there is not an existing infrastructure there, which is what was acquired in Mexico with AAA.
Using that same model, what if the next focus is acquiring New Japan Pro-Wrestling? TKO has the money to acquire practically anything. Depending on what you believe about New Japan’s alleged financial difficulties, it isn’t out of the realm of possibility to think some sort of mutually beneficial deal could be settled upon.
Professional wrestling currently operates in a very precarious situation. WWE remains the global powerhouse. If AEW, New Japan, and CMLL continue working together, they are a strong alliance. Not enough to topple WWE–that isn’t objective. Together, those three companies are strong enough to stay alive and even flourish against a very powerful entity.
But if New Japan is acquired by WWE, then the current power dynamic changes dramatically.
Tweet of the Week
Comedian extraordinaire Larry David wrote a guest essay for The New York Times about WWE Hall of Famer/current United States President Donald Trump. If you’re a fan of Larry David, it doesn’t disappoint.
Once he made it to the ring, of course.