Heard any good rumors lately?
My favorite recent rumor is that we didn’t see Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson appear at WrestleMania, or at any point after Elimination Chamber, because there is a simmering behind-the-scenes feud between him and Paul “Triple H” Levesque that dates all the way back to their time as full-time wrestlers.
It seems silly, but…
Does it really seem silly?
Here’s what we know, as outsiders with no direct inside knowledge of anything that goes on with the day-to-day operations of WWE, or its creative process…
– On March 1st, The Rock appeared at WWE’s Elimination Chamber pay-per-view, where his character orchestrated John Cena’s seismic heel turn on Cody Rhodes.
– On April 20th, John Cena defeated Cody Rhodes in the main event of WrestleMania 41’s second night, becoming the new Undisputed WWE Champion.
That’s it. In the 50 days between those two shows… just over seven weeks of real time… we didn’t see The Rock, hear from The Rock, hear about The Rock, and so on. Mr. Cena and Mr. Rhodes didn’t bring Mr. Johnson’s name up in their numerous promos. “The Final Boss” didn’t talk about WrestleMania in any way, shape, or form on his social media.
Nothing.
Many people, myself included, found it incredibly odd that such an instrumental player on the Road To WrestleMania was completely wiped from the storyline completely without so much as a mention or a name drop.
There is ZERO storyline explanation that can be given to make any sense of what happened between Elimination Chamber and WrestleMania. Zero.
How would a Johnson vs Levesque feud play in to what happened, though?
Levesque, as head of WWE’s creative team and the talent relations team, would probably be pretty frustrated with Rock’s “meddling” in WrestleMania storylines in consecutive years. While Rock is higher up on the TKO Group food chain, how shocking would it be to find out that Hunter went to someone else on said food chain to complain? Someone like WWE President Nick Khan or TKO Group CEO and Executive Chairman Ari Emanuel immediately come to mind there.
Let’s say Hunter goes to Ari Emanuel and is like “Dwayne is KILLING me right now, and I’d really appreciate it if you stepped in and did something so that I can do my job properly.”
Then let’s say Ari Emanuel agrees that something should be done, so he talks to Rock and is like “I love you and your contributions to TKO, but we need you to stop with the ‘backseat driving’ on WWE’s storytelling.”
If you’re Dwayne Johnson and that happened to you, wouldn’t you be upset?
Look, I’m not saying that’s what happened. I’m just pointing out that it’s plausible, and might “explain” some things that we have, and haven’t, seen over the last couple months.
If a lack of The Rock at WrestleMania was the end of the story, it would be frustrating enough. However, that isn’t the end of the story, is it?
In the almost immediate aftermath of WrestleMania, Rock made an appearance on The Pat McAfee Show, and he had some very interesting things to say about everything that went down since what we saw at Elimination Chamber.
One of the first things I took note of in his interview was him saying that he was asked to appear at Elimination Chamber in the first place to boost ticket sales for the show and to get more hype for the build to WrestleMania.
Outside of “that’s how important I am and how bright my star shines,” why would you say that? As a TKO board member, why would you even THINK about saying something that people could even remotely consume as “WWE couldn’t properly sell tickets without me” and run with that? Everything that Dwayne Johnson says and does is so carefully put together in a meticulous fashion. There’s no way he just had those words tumble out of his mouth in any sort of accidental fashion. He said what he said for a reason.
WWE hasn’t been having trouble selling tickets for much of anything recently. Not pay-per-views, television episodes, or anything else. WWE also doesn’t need “help” to make the build for WrestleMania seem bigger. Not anymore. Sure, WWE loves to use as much bells and whistles as possible for WrestleMania, but my point is that they don’t NEED to do it. WrestleMania is what sells WrestleMania.
Rock would then say that he called both Cody Rhodes and John Cena after Elimination Chamber to tell them that they all pulled off one of the greatest angles in wrestling history, but that it was time for Cody and John to take the ball and run with it on their own.
“…I think it’s best for The Final Boss not to be involved in that finish.”
That was his exact quote about the time frame between Elimination Chamber and WrestleMania.
Again, in what world does that even begin to make sense?
One of the biggest angles in the history of professional wrestling… orchestrated on-screen by The Rock… and then Rock was a ghost, maybe never to be seen again.
Huh? What? How?
Everyone has been making this comparison, so let me do it, too… can you imagine Hulk Hogan turning heel and forming the nWo in 1996, and then it was nothing but Scott Hall and Kevin Nash after that? No promo from Hogan explaining why he did what he did. There’s no attempts at revenge from Randy Savage, Sting, Lex Luger, or anyone else in WCW. In fact, WCW doesn’t even mention Hogan by name once Bash At The Beach 1996 is over, and instead, the entire focus is all on Hall and Nash.
Before anyone says it… yes, I’m aware that isn’t an exact match for a comparison, but it’s the one that everyone has come to their mind.
Even though Rock decided he should stay away from WrestleMania, he did make a comment about the finish of the Cody Rhodes vs John Cena match that caught my attention. He did say that he loved the finish, but also that he would’ve “finessed things a little differently on how they got there,” saying “that’s just me creatively.”
I’ll say this again… nothing that Dwayne Johnson says or does is off-the-cuff. Him seemingly taking a shot at WWE’s creative decision making isn’t an “oops, that’s not what I meant” moment. No matter his intent, though, I fail to understand why he would put himself in that position. Why is he going public with any sort of complaints that involve WWE?
I’m not saying I want him to lie his ass off, praising any and everything WWE does as the biggest and best decisions in the history of decisiondom. I just find it puzzling that he would take any sort of grievances, or presumed grievances, public unless there’s something for him to gain from doing so.
Again, if that was the end of this story, it would be frustrating enough. However, it still isn’t the end of the story, is it?
Busted Open Radio host Dave LaGreca was not happy with how WrestleMania 41 ended, and he made his feelings known, as he always does. For reasons known to only the man himself, Rock decided to respond to LaGreca’s comments, and his response set off all sorts of alarms for me.
“Hi Dave, the business is a complete work. Always has been, always will be. Every aspect of it. Every match. Every interview. Please join me, Cody, Cena, Brian [Gewirtz] and the rest of us for our creative discussions so you can expand your perspective. Until then, stop ranting, it’s not healthy my friend. Enjoy the show. Ps, tell [Busted Open Radio co-host] Bubba [Ray Dudley] I have Grand Marnier and hush puppies for all of us.”
Is nothing sacred anymore?
If you’re reading these words right now, you’re very well aware of the scripted nature of pro wrestling and just how “real” and “fake” it is. How often do you hear anyone in the business… especially those currently in the business… saying something like that publicly, though?
Even with all that, it’s what he said after that in his response to Dave LaGreca that really got my attention.
Inviting LaGreca to sit in on WWE creative discussions, name dropping Cody Rhodes, John Cena, and Brian Gewirtz, was interesting. Do you know who wasn’t specifically name dropped and was lumped in with “the rest of us” in the comment?
Paul Levesque. You know… the guy in charge of WWE creative and heads up all of those “creative discussions” that Rock mentioned? That guy?
I don’t care if you’re a fan of Paul Levesque or not… or if you’re a fan of Dwayne Johnson or not… Hunter being left out of Dwayne’s Instagram post speaks volumes.
When you put all of those ingredients in a blender and flip the switch, it seems pretty clear… to me, at least… that SOMETHING is going on behind the scenes in WWE.
Is it fair to say that both Paul Levesque and Dwayne Johnson are larger-than-life personalities that carry equally larger-than-life egos? I think that’s more than fair. If that’s the case, it really shouldn’t come as a surprise to anyone that those personalities and egos would clash.
I’m not sure that I believed it before, but I definitely believe there’s some major tension going on behind the scenes. It seems more than possible to me that Rock used whatever “power” he has to, once again, get his fingers on whatever the plans were for WrestleMania and turn everything on its head.
Unlike last year, though, things got mixed up somewhere along the way. Instead of sitting back and seeing the fan reaction, causing the company to course correct the “mistake” that was made with Cody Rhodes and his WrestleMania decision, someone put their foot down.
Logic would indicate that the person whose foot was down is Paul Levesque. That’s the name that makes the most sense.
Ari Emanuel is at the tippy top of the food chain, but he and Dwayne Johnson have been great friends and business partners for well over a decade, going back to Emanuel being DJ’s agent in Hollywood. Nick Khan, on the other hand, has been friends with Dwayne Johnson since they were kids. Dwayne and Nick, as well as Nick’s sister, Nahnatchka (a television producer and writer who would go on to co-create the Young Rock sitcom), grew up together in Hawaii.
Those are the types of political relationships that can embolden someone like Dwayne Johnson, who isn’t a part of anything involving WWE’s day-to-day operations, to dip his toe in the water whenever he feels like it. Not saying he does it BECAUSE he has those connections, but it allows him to do things that almost anyone else in his position wouldn’t be able to do.
If Hunter were to go up the food chain to Ari Emanuel and/or Nick Khan, telling them that Rock’s meddling has reached the point where it is actively hurting the product and the process that gets said product out to the masses, they would have to listen to him. They might not like it, based on their personal biases and friendships with Rock, but they would have to listen.
Not only would they listen, I think they would realize that Hunter is right. Rock is, technically, an “outsider” these days. Him having too much input in WWE’s creative process, coming in fresh off the street, so to speak, throws everything off and affects everyone else in negative ways. Ari Emanuel and Nick Khan are incredibly smart businessmen. If they can put personal feelings aside, they’d know how correct Hunter is if that’s what he’s saying.
Honestly, I think Dwayne Johnson has spent the almost all of the last 30 years not hearing “no” from anyone for any reason. Now, after all that time, someone has stepped up to tell him that he can’t do something, and he isn’t handling it well. I wouldn’t say he’s throwing a tantrum, but I do think he’s working overtime to control whatever narrative he thinks he can control. The on-again, off-again rivalry between Rock and Triple H might be back on all over again.
We, as fans, are left with two consecutive WrestleMania main event builds that strayed away from any sort of sensical line of thinking. One of them was fixed before things got too out of control, but we weren’t so lucky this year. Because of that, we may have only seen the tip of the iceberg when it comes to the fallout and aftermath.
Am I crazy for thinking this? I want to know what you think is going on. As always, feel free to hit me up in the comments section below, or on Bluesky (@aaronhyden.bsky.social), and let me know what’s on your mind.
Now, let’s switch things over to my Weekly Power Rankings, before closing things out this week with the list of songs I was listening to as I put this column together.
Weekly Power Rankings
Raw & Smackdown After Mania: The feeling is back, baby! For years, Vince McMahon completely ruined the fun of the Raw and Smackdown episodes after WrestleMania, letting fans down time and time again. With Paul Levesque in charge, there seems to be a strong focus on making those episodes special again. Both Raw and Smackdown were full of fun moments, title changes, surprise returns, debuts, and entertaining matches. More of this, please.
The Street Profits vs DIY vs Motor City Machine Guns: What a match. A fun, hard-hitting TLC match full of insane spots. Let me join the chorus of everyone else saying the same thing… this match should’ve taken place at WrestleMania, without a doubt.
Bron Breakker: It’s pretty clear that WWE already had big things in store for Bron’s career, but now that he has aligned himself with Paul Heyman and Seth Rollins, the sky is the limit. Major, major move for him. I love it.
Will Ospreay & Brody King vs Konosuke Takeshita & Josh Alexander: Just looking at those four names together in a tag match is weird to me. It just looks like a randomly put together match that someone made in a video game. Obviously, the match was great, as I’ve included it here, but my point remains.
Iyo Sky vs Stephanie Vaquer: We knew there wasn’t going to be a clean finish to this one, but it was a lovely amuse-bouche to tide us over until Stephanie Vaquer’s probably-not-far-away main roster call-up.
“Speedball” Mike Bailey & Kevin Knight vs The Young Bucks: I’ve been pleasantly surprised with how AEW has handled the early stages of Kevin Knight’s time there. He has been rubbing elbows with many of the company’s top talent, and his in-ring performances have continuously proved that he belongs there.
Rusev: Fans wondered he didn’t return to WWE at WrestleMania, but the answer was made clear on Raw. They saved his big return for Rusev Day. We should’ve seen it coming.
Gunther: After dropping the World Heavyweight Title to Jey Uso, Gunther needed something to get his heat back. An attack on Michael Cole and Pat McAfee did a great job of getting him some of that heat. It was an interesting way to give him some time off that he requested, as he has now been “suspended” for the attack. Hopefully, he can keep that heat for whenever he returns.
Roderick Strong & Kyle O’Reilly vs FTR: I like Stokely Hathaway, but I’m not sold on him managing FTR just yet. I’m more than willing to give it a shot, though. At least FTR will get to focus more on what they do best, and that’s wrestle.
Kris Statlander vs Jamie Hayter: Two of the top women in AEW, both trying to build momentum, with a spot in the Finals of the Owen Hart Cup on the line. That’s usually a recipe for success, and I think that’s the case here.
Aleister Black: It has been nearly four years since he has been in WWE, but after a run in AEW, the man is back. He has his original entrance, complete with music and theatrics, which is a nice added bonus. Ironically enough, just like Rusev, he also made his return to the company on Rusev Day.
Stephanie Vaquer vs Roxanne Perez: Remember when everyone was completely sure that Roxanne was done with NXT and was main roster bound? Do you realize that she has lost approximately 327 matches in NXT since then? I have no idea what the hell they’re doing with her. She’s still putting on some very good performances in the ring, of course, but you’d think they would want to have her called up already.
John Cena & Randy Orton: I know some people have been groaning over the thought of another match between these two, but I’m not in that group. For one, it’s an entirely new dynamic, with Cena as the heel and Orton as the face. That alone is enough to keep things fresh. The fact that it has been over eight years since we’ve seen them face each other in singles competition adds to the freshness. From WWE’s perspective, though, they’re seeing how excited the overall fan base is. Cena and Orton have had two interactions over the last week. The YouTube video of their interaction from Raw is ready to top the 5.5 million views mark as of the moment I post this column, and their Smackdown segment is well over 3 million views already. Those numbers completely dwarf the other videos from Raw and Smackdown this week. Fans are ready for this.
Je’Von Evans & Myles Borne vs Dion Lennox & Osiris Griffin: It took me a while to come around, but I am beginning to see what NXT sees in the Darkstate members. Each individual member of the group brings something special to the table, and with continued reps, they could really do a lot of damage.
Mark Briscoe vs Ricochet: Wait… hold on… Mark Briscoe won a singles match against someone with any sort of stature in AEW? The last time that happened was when he defeated Kyle Fletcher in a Continental Classic match back in December. Impressive.
FrAxiom vs Angel & Berto: Adding the best tag team in the world over the last year or two to the really deep tag division on Smackdown almost seems unfair. Good official debut for Axiom and Nathan Frazer here.
Las Vegas: After a huge WrestleMania week, it is already being reported that WWE is looking to return to Vegas for another WrestleMania in the next few years. Next year’s event will take place in New Orleans, Louisiana. Beyond that, though, the slate is clean, at least as far as what has been made public.
Liv Morgan & Raquel Rodriguez: The WWE Women’s Tag Team Titles are just over six years old. Liv and Raquel are now four-time champions in that span, while no other duo has won the titles more than twice. Raquel even has a reign with Aliyah back in 2022, giving her a total of five reigns, which is more than anyone else. I don’t know what any of this means in the grand scheme of things. I’m just giving out numbers.
“Timeless” Toni Storm vs Queen Aminata: Time and time again, Queen Aminata has delivered when called upon. If you look at the entire women’s scene in AEW/RoH, she might be “next” when it comes to new names to get a big push. She has earned it.
Top Flight vs Lio Rush & Action Andretti: Lots of high-flying, athletic action here. If you see who was involved in the match, that’s to be expected.
Zelina Vega: While I’m disappointed to see Chelsea Green’s title reign come to an end, congratulations to the brand new WWE Women’s United States Champion. She has been an underrated performer for a long time now, with a lot of surprisingly good matches, so it’s good to see her get her first singles title as a member of the WWE roster.
Liv Morgan & Raquel Rodriguez vs Gigi Dolin & Tatum Paxley: With all of Liv and Raquel’s domination of the women’s tag scene in recent years, they’re also putting on some really fun matches against any and all competition. They have a ton of in-ring chemistry, both together and with damn near every other woman on the roster.
Noam Dar: Oh, hey, he’s back! Cool. Oh, hey, he’s the owner of the NXT Heritage Cup again. Cool. It doesn’t mean anything whatsoever, but cool.
This Week’s Playlist: “Up From The Bottom” by Linkin Park… “Peacefield” by Ghost… “Guiding Lights” by Ghost… “Cenotaph” by Ghost… “Missilia Amori” by Ghost… “Marks Of The Evil One” by Ghost… “You” by Coco Jones… “Anabelle” by Shaboozey… “Drink Don’t Need No Mix” by Shaboozey & BigXThaPlug… “Relationships” by HAIM… “Darkness Always Wins” by Halestorm… “Bulldozer” by Vinnie Paz & Young Buck… “Battle Scars (Pharaoh Overlords)” by Vinnie Paz, Apathy, Planetary, Esoteric, Crypt The Warchild, Reef The Lost Cauze & Celph Titled… “Damocles” by Sleep Token… “Pale Moonlight” by Dayseeker… “Forever The Night” by Bury Tomorrow… “Tell Me” by Big Tone, A-Wax, Dee Cisneros & Analise… “Mighty Mighty Warrior” by Krayzie Bone, Wish Bone, Souljah Boy, Thug Queen & Felecia… “Mighty Mo Thug” by Layzie Bone & Souljah Boy… “Riot” by Flesh N Bone… “All Good” by Krayzie Bone & Felecia… “Ghetto Cowboy” by Krayzie Bone, Layzie Bone, Thug Queen, Powder & Felecia… “Urban Souljah” by The Graveyard Shift… “Ain’t Said No Names” by Krayzie Bone, Tombstone & Cat Cody… “Mo Thuggin” by Poetic Hustla’z… “Ride With A Playa” by Krayzie Bone & Ken Dawg… “Lifetime Lover” by J Boog… “Love I” by The Green… “Alive” by The Green… “Sweet Darlin” by Fiji
