The Rock speaks on getting full ownership of “The Rock” name.
That news broke early this morning, when the Great One was appointed to the TKO Board of Directors, a monumental announcement that was followed by the news that WWE Raw was headed to Netflix in 2025. Speaking with CNBC, Rocky opens up about how important the name is to him, as it helped launch his pro-wrestling career and his tremendous Hollywood career that followed.
There is a business side of that, as we know. There is the economics side of that, but it goes much deeper than that. This idea, the name of The Rock, for me, I owe that name everything. Without that name, there would be no wrestling career, no Hollywood career. Also, that name was a derivative of my dad, Rocky Johnson, who was the first black tag team champion in WWE, trail blazer, paved the way, man of color, for a kid like me to be embraced in a bigger way when I came along. This is one of the reasons why this deal is so unprecedented, the one I was able to do and cut with Ari here. Again, I want to acknowledge Ari and give him his flowers. At the end of the day, he had a million reasons to say no, but he found a reason to say yes. The reason why is he understood, as he told me face-to-face, this is your name and it comes from your family. That’s important to me. Family is very important to us and the name The Rock, this is why it became invaluable. The street valuation of the name The Rock, it has some heft behind it. More importantly than that, it’s something I’ve earned, built, and I owe so much to that wild lunatic called The Rock, that by the way, the greatest benefit of now completely owning the name The Rock, no gimmicks, no BS, across the board, full ownership, is the name The Rock, years ago, really allowed me to be me. That’s very special,
Not only is The Rock on the Board of Directors, but there is a good chance that he goes face-to-face with Roman Reigns, a match the WWE Universe has been clamoring for, at WrestleMania 40. Stay tuned.
