So, there I was, watching television, or at least looking for something to watch on television.
You know the schtick… I have DirecTV with a million different channels, but that doesn’t mean there’s always something to watch.
As I was clicking through the channels, I ended up seeing a commercial for the newly released live action Moana movie. You know the one… the movie that everyone was very confused about, considering that Moana 2 was literally a billion-dollar box office draw from less than two years ago.
Now, I haven’t seen the live action movie yet, but I have definitely watched both of the animated Moana films. I have Native Hawaiian blood in me, and I was born and raised in Hawaii. If I didn’t watch the movies, I probably would’ve been thrown in jail somewhere. The reason I haven’t seen the live action movie yet is a simple one…
Dwayne Johnson’s wig.
The Walt Disney Company brought in $94.4 billion in revenue over the 2025 fiscal year. This live action Moana film has a reported budget of $250 million.
With that said, why does ol’ Dwayne look like he’s wearing a $20 wig that someone ordered from Amazon?
Look at that fucking fuck. It doesn’t make any sense to me.
The rest of the movie looks just fine, although I’m not a big fan of Disney doing all these live action movies, even if the first Moana is my favorite animated movie of all-time. That wig, though… from the moment I saw it in the very first trailer, I knew I wasn’t going to spend a dime to watch that movie in a theater, even on a weekday morning matinee ticket.
But, um, back to the lecture at hand…
Like many of you, whether you’ve seen the live action Moana or not, I’ve seen and read a lot the reviews that the movie has been getting. Fan reviews, critic reviews, IMDb scores, Rotten Tomatoes numbers, and so forth. The movie has been taking a beating in the reviews. Critics have slammed it for basically being a shot-for-shot remake of the original Moana movie, with almost literally no new material added.
Obviously, reviews don’t mean much of anything when it comes to movies, because it’s almost always about the box office numbers. Moana 2 had mixed reviews, at best, and it still made $1.059 billion in the box office, on a $150 million budget, making it a smash hit.
So, what about the live action Moana? How has it fared at the box office?
Well, as I said, the movie carries a reported $250 million budget (which doesn’t count a reported $120 million spent on marketing), and while there’s obviously plenty of time (it was released in theaters only 17 days before this column goes live to the world), the numbers don’t look very promising.
A week after the movie came out, box office experts looked at the opening weekend’s domestic numbers of pulling in $43.1 million, and predicted that the film would ultimately go on to be a $100 million loser for Disney. To put that $43.1 million in perspective, Moana 2 did $57.8 million domestically in its first 24 hours, pulling in $139.8 million in its opening weekend and $225 million over its extended five-day opening weekend over the Thanksgiving holiday. Again, that was less than two years ago, so it’s not like you could make much of an argument for Moana 2 being from a vastly different time and era as the live action Moana film.
The reason I bring all this up is Wiggie Smalls himself, Dwayne Johnson, and a very noticeable trend in his movie career.
For years, Dwayne Johnson has been largely looked at as one of the biggest box office draws in all of Hollywood, if not the biggest draw outright. Lord knows WWE loves to present him as the biggest star on the planet whenever they talk about him. It’s not exactly a huge stretch of the imagination. In January of this year, an article came out that revealed Dwayne was the tenth-highest grossing actor of all-time when it comes to leading roles, leading ensemble roles, and voice acting roles in films. At the time of the article being published, he was involved in $11,466,158,582 worth of ticket sales throughout his career. I don’t think I’ve seen any sort of updated numbers over the last six months, but he was only a very small amount of money behind Chris Evans for the ninth spot, and the live action Moana has already pushed him past that amount, putting him behind Vin Diesel for the eighth spot.
However, when you really look at recent trends in his Hollywood career and break things down, it’s not quite as easy as “his movies make a ton of money” when it comes to the overall outlook.
Barring some sort of crazy unforeseen situation that sees a huge wave of box office success, it sure seems like you’re going to be able to chalk up the live action Moana as a flop. Prior to Moana, his most recent movie (outside of a brief voice cameo in Zootopia 2) was The Smashing Machine. Man, I remember when that movie was first coming down the pike. You were hearing a ton of buzz about the movie, to the point that some people were legitimately talking about Dwayne Johnson being in the running for a Best Actor award at the Oscars. Ultimately, not only did he not even get nominated for an Oscar (although he did get nominated for Best Actor at the Golden Globes that year), but the film was a flop at the box office. It wasn’t designed to set records in that regard, but pulling in $21.1 million at the box office, on a $50 million budget, and when you add the fact that the “Oscar bait” didn’t work, it has to be viewed as a huge failure.
The year before Smashing Machine, Mr. Johnson starred in a Christmas movie called Red One, where he played the head of North Pole security for Saint Nicholas, who must team up with a black-hat hacker/bounty hunter to find Santa, who has been kidnapped on Christmas Eve. With a plot like that, it came as a shock to everyone when the movie fell approximately $64 million short of breaking even at the box office, and again, that doesn’t even count marketing and promotional costs attached.
2022 saw the Black Adam debacle, with the DC Comics movie receiving an insane amount of hype and promotional work, only to receive terrible reviews almost across the board. The movie did decently well at the box office, bringing in $393.5 million on a $260 million budget, but there were a lot of rumors floating around that the film still lost money at the box office when you throw in those pesky marketing and promotional costs. Black Adam was also the movie that saw a lot of stories come out about Dwayne Johnson’s ego and actions on set. Some of the stories said that he was constantly multiple hours late to set for shoots, and that he was single-handedly trying to restructure the entire DC cinematic universe around the Black Adam character. There was supposedly a post-credits scene with Black Adam and Zachary Levi’s Shazam character, only for Dwayne (who was also one of the lead Producers for the movie) to pull the scene from the final cut, which goes back years prior to the Black Adam character being pitched for a Shazam movie, but Dwayne pitched for a Black Adam standalone movie instead. Instead of Shazam, Dwayne wanted to attach the Black Adam character to Superman, who made an appearance during a mid-credits scene in the Black Adam movie. It was supposed to lead to something between the two characters in the Man Of Steel 2 movie, but then the movie was canceled, making the Black Adam mid-credits scene completely pointless.
2021’s Red Notice was a smash streaming hit for Netflix, but again, critics destroyed the movie at every turn. The same year also saw Jungle Cruise, which was another box office flop.
If you want to find the last “good” stretch for Dwayne Johnson in Hollywood, you have to go back to the previous decade, when he was starring in movies for the Fast & Furious franchise, as well as starring in smash hits like Jumanji movies, Skyscraper, and Rampage.
As the years went on, many moviegoers grew weary of Dwayne Johnson’s limited acting range, the fact that he seemingly played himself in everything he did, and even wore the same clothes in movie after movie. It’s one thing when you watch one or two of his movies and see the mindless action, but when it happens again and again and again and again and again, you start wondering what else is out there to watch, especially when you need to take out a second mortgage just to afford movie tickets and concessions for a family of four at the theaters.
I used all those words to say this… the “shine” of Dwayne Johnson’s Hollywood career isn’t what it once was. Whether that’s his fault or not is, frankly, irrelevant here.
Now, that isn’t to say that his opportunities are drying up. He is currently in post-production on the latest Jumanji movie, is currently filming the next Fast & Furious movie, and has four other films currently in the pre-production phase with no announced release dates. He’s still one of the highest-paid actors in Hollywood, bringing in anywhere from $20-$50 million per movie, so he isn’t on the verge of living under a bridge and eating cold Spaghetti O’s out of a can anytime soon.
However, there’s something that my mind keeps going back to. It’s something I mentioned a few paragraphs ago, and it’s something that I’ve written about in the past…
Ego.
When you’ve been trying to balance two worlds on your plate for a long time, and one of those worlds may not be playing to your ego the way it once was, it seems pretty natural that you might be inclined to lean in and visit that other world again, doesn’t it?
Whether we want it or not, is it time for the return of “The Final Boss” on WWE programming?
If there is a world where Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson can truly be the biggest star, it would be the world of pro wrestling. He IS the biggest star in pro wrestling, known by more people in all corners of the globe, and that isn’t even counting the added star-power that he carries from Hollywood.
Wrestling fans all over the world will react to every word, facial expression, and movement that The Rock delivers. Commentary will fawn all over him, his star power, and the power he has backstage, whether it’s in kayfabe or not.
Would I expect him to return as a regular performer? Of course not. As I mentioned earlier, the man still has a lot of movies coming up, most of which haven’t begun filming yet. Once that happens, his availability in wrestling will obviously be affected, but for a one-off or an appearance here and there, it’s nothing that can’t be solved by an off-day or a private jet.
I’ve seen some people say that WWE should’ve found a way to include Rock in the build for SummerSlam, coming off of news that ticket sales aren’t exactly going well. In a stadium that can easily fit 70,000+ fans for concerts (so even more for a wrestling show, technically), both nights of SummerSlam are setup to have less than half that number in the building, and there are still thousands of tickets available for Saturday and Sunday. It might not sound like a big deal, but if you don’t even have 30,000 fans in attendance in a stadium that big, you’re asking for David Copperfield levels of illusion from the WWE production team to avoid showing some embarrassing shots during the broadcasts.
Would Rock have added some extra ticket sales if it was announced he was going to be involved in SummerSlam? Probably. It certainly wouldn’t be the first time the company has used him in that manner. I do think that ship has sailed, though. When I post this column, there will be exactly one episode of Raw and one episode of Smackdown left until SummerSlam. Could he appear on one or both of those shows? Yes, but it’s hardly enough time to have his involvement in the show make any sense whatsoever. I’m not sure if you’ve been paying attention or not, but fans are really clamoring for a Rock appearance to make sense after the last time we saw him and where that went.
To me, it would make more sense for Rock to show up unannounced. At the earliest, it should happen after the end of the Roman Reigns vs Seth Rollins match at SummerSlam, but I could see it happening away from SummerSlam entirely, too.
WWE has leaned more into laying the groundwork for matches way ahead of time, and this is a prime opportunity for that. Once SummerSlam comes to a close, we will be eight months away from WrestleMania 43 from Saudi Arabia. You know… the show that the Saudis paid an astronomical amount of money to host… the show that they’re going to want to make as big as humanly possible to even come close to justifying the price tag… that show?
If they want a big show, and if WWE wants to give them that big show, we kind of have to go with Roman vs Rock, right? There isn’t a bigger match in all of pro wrestling right now, and it’s a story that has been talked about for several years now. Rock will be mere days away from his 55th birthday by the time WrestleMania rolls around, and Roman will celebrate his 42nd birthday three weeks later. How many more years do we realistically have left to have this match before one or both men retire?
In a normal situation, mentioning a wrestling match that many months in advance could be a bit of a chore, but as we’ve seen with The Rock in the past, his involvement doesn’t exactly force many “normal” situations. He isn’t going to be around very often, so even if, say, he shows up at SummerSlam and makes it clear that he wants to face Roman Reigns at WrestleMania, Roman would still be free to feud with and face other people for the next however many pay-per-views he appears at, and you could keep the Rock stuff in the backs of peoples minds until he makes his random appearances between now and then.
I’m in a really weird spot with the idea of any of this taking place. On one hand, I’ve been waiting to see Roman vs Rock for years now, and I understand that the time for it is slipping away quickly. Then, there’s the other hand, where I’m a wrestling fan that has been very disappointed, not only by The Rock’s on-screen work, but also by Dwayne Johnson’s reported off-screen nonsense (as well as the nonsense of people close to him like Ari Emanuel), for a really long time. The odds of us having a great build to Roman vs Rock are just as good as the odds of Rock appearing, setting the match up, and then never showing up again because of another backstage dick-measuring contest between him and Paul Levesque.
Actually, with their 30-year history together, and with all the stories we’ve heard about their rivalry from everyone who would know best, the odds of the dick-measuring contest might actually be a lot higher.
The thing about Rock making a potential return to WWE television is, as always, the complete disconnect between reactions and opinions from live crowds around the world and the reactions and opinions of the “online fan.” There isn’t a venue in any city, any state, any country, any province, and on and on and on that wouldn’t explode with a thunderous reaction when “IF YA SMELLLLL…” blares over the speakers. At the same exact time, that moment would be the recipient of endless negativity on social media, message boards (at least what little message boards are left), and in the words of other wrestling columnists at sites all across Inde Navarrette’s internet.
Whether Rock shows up at SummerSlam, in the immediate aftermath of SummerSlam, or somewhere down the road closer to WrestleMania, it really seems like the odds of him making his return to WWE are getting better and better all the time.
Even without Dwayne Johnson’s “star” becoming less bright in Hollywood, can you imagine how difficult it would be for him to pass up on a Saudi Arabia payday for WrestleMania? Here’s a man who, through every revenue stream he has, makes hundreds of millions of dollars every year, but if there’s one thing the super rich love, it’s getting more money. After WrestleMania 40, it was reported that Dwayne was given a BONUS of just under $9.5 million (given to him in the form of nearly 100,000 shares in the company) by TKO for his participation at the show, which included one match and one appearance. One would assume that his bonus payout to be at WrestleMania 43 in Saudi Arabia would be handled in a similar fashion, although the price of a share in TKO is worth nearly 2.5 times what a share was worth in the wake of WrestleMania 40, so he’ll probably end up with a much larger bonus. It’s another safe assumption, however, to say that the Saudi government will “lean” on WWE to do anything it takes to get Rock to wrestle on their show, even if that means essentially handing him a blank check. In 1999, Rock’s WWF contract was renegotiated, and once things like merchandising, pay-per-view bonuses, and gate revenue were added, he brought in $15 million for the year, which was his highest-earning year as a wrestler.
How much is it going to cost to return for WrestleMania, Mr. Johnson? $10 million for a single match? $20 million?
Can you imagine a scenario where he walks away from Saudi Arabia $50 million richer than he was before the weekend began? When you combine the money to bring him back, plus all of the stock bonuses, I sure can imagine that.
Who in their right mind is going to turn down that kind of money for a single weekend? That’s not even counting the stroking of his ego by putting him in a once-in-a-lifetime match with Roman Reigns, which might as well be worth its weight in gold all by itself.
I’ve already started making the mental preparations to be ready for what I feel is the inevitable return of The Rock on WWE programming. How I’m going to feel, where the storyline will/should go once he returns… that kind of thing.
You know what the funniest part about all this is?
I’ve spent all these words talking about a Rock return for the mega match with Roman Reigns, but now watch him return to face Cody Rhodes, or a real out-of-left-field choice like Oba Femi or Bron Breakker. Lord knows it wouldn’t be the first time WWE refused to deliver on what should’ve been the obvious option, instead overcomplicating things to a ridiculous degree for no reason whatsoever.
Or, even better… Rock doesn’t come back at all, and that’s that for his career.
Do you think The Rock returns to WWE programming at any point soon? If so, are you expecting it to be the start of setting up a Rock match at WrestleMania 43? Do you WANT to see The Rock make a return to WWE programming? Just for shits and giggles, have you watched the live action Moana movie? What are your thoughts on it? As always, feel free to hit me up in the comments section below, on Twitter (@HustleTheSavage), or on Bluesky (@aaronhyden.bsky.social), and let me know what’s on your mind.
Now, let’s get to my Weekly Power Rankings before closing things out with the list of songs I was listening to as I put this column together.
Weekly Power Rankings
Kenny Omega vs Kevin Knight: Knight wasn’t really viewed as someone who had a chance in hell of winning this match and becoming the new AEW World Champion, but Kenny did his best to make it look like Jet was on his level. Omega kept demanding Knight fight back, fight more, and fight harder… and Knight kept obliging him. Even though he wasn’t successful in reaching the top of AEW here, I think Jet proved that he “belongs” in that conversation for the future.
Kyle Fletcher vs Bandido: Two of the best in the business. Pay-per-view. A title on the line. It’s a pretty simple concept, but it works… again and again and again and again. Bandido is still sadly stuck in that “gets a big singles push in RoH, but can’t do much as a singles guy in AEW” spot, though, unfortunately. The man hasn’t lost a match in Ring Of Honor in over four years (!!!), but the “glass ceiling” that Tony Khan has in place is stifling him in AEW. Damn shame.
Bandido & Brody King vs Kyle Fletcher & Kazuchika Okada: TK has no problem having Bandido win tag matches in AEW, though, and this was another example of it. Not only was Bandido on the winning team here, but he pinned Fletcher, four nights before their match at Redemption. *shrug*
Mark Davis vs Andrade El Idolo: A really fun clash of in-ring styles, with one man looking to grind his opponent to dust, and the other looking to pick the pace up and hit top speed at every chance he gets.
Finn Balor vs Damian Priest vs Royce Keys vs Trick Williams: You could make an argument for everyone involved that they should’ve been the person to win here and move on to a match against Sami Zayn at SummerSlam to crown a new #1 Contender for the Undisputed WWE Title. Ultimately, it was Finn that picked up the win, and I think that was the right decision. Not only that, but Finn should beat Sami and move on to get the title shot.
Kevin Knight vs Darby Allin: Jet is doing a lot better job as a heel than I thought he would do. It’s not a perfect transition, but he’s really doing well getting heat and making people dislike him. There was never going to be a question about his in-ring abilities, so I’m not even concerned about that. At this rate, though, I think he could be someone who owns the AEW World Title at some point over the next year.
Penta & Chad Gable vs “All Ego” Ethan Page & Rusev: CAN THEY COEXIST?!? It’s the tried-and-tried-and-tried-and-tried-and-tried-and-true wrestling trope… Wrestler A and Wrestler B have a big match against each other soon, but now, they’re going to have to work together because they’re tag partners first! We’ve seen it with siblings, with tag partners, with mortal enemies, and everything in between, and we saw it again here with SummerSlam opponents Penta and Chad Gable. It’s lazy writing, but it’s to be expected at this point.
Jaida Parker vs Nattie Neidhart: Nattie continues to do nice work while in NXT, paired with some of the younger women on the roster. Jaida, at this point, has to be considered as one of the “next up” for a big push in NXT. She’s on quite the in-ring roll recently.
Thekla vs Willow Nightingale: I’m a little disappointed that Thekla won’t be carrying the AEW Women’s World Title into the company’s biggest show of the year, because she has been doing great work as the champion. However, with Mercedes Moné set to be the challenger for the title at All In(nit), it makes a lot of sense to have a really over face as the champion. Thekla vs Mercedes would’ve been perfectly fine in the ring, but that Heel vs Heel dynamic makes for a difficult five weeks of build on television.
Maya World: Congratulations to the brand new AEW TBS Champion, who won the belt on her 24th birthday, continuing her meteoric rise. Seven months ago, she and her tag partner, Hyan, weren’t even signed to AEW contracts. The only reason they DID sign contracts with the company is because Nixon Newell and Miranda Alize were stupid and unprofessional, walking out on AEW because they didn’t want to face Anna Jay and Tay Melo on an episode of Collision. Maya and Hyan were VERY last-minute replacements, and their professionalism impressed people in the company so much that they were signed shortly thereafter. Now, Maya is a champion, while Newell and Alize are doing nothing.
This Week’s Playlist: “I Kinda Like That” by The Paradox… “Venom” by Combichrist… “Avalon” by Allt… “Aether” by A Foreign Affair… “NEXT2U” by A Foreign Affair… “SOS” by A Foreign Affair… “Sweet Sad Sugar” by Mayday Parade… “Made For Me” by Muni Long… “Superpowers” by Muni Long… “Slow Grind” by Muni Long… “Delulu” by Muni Long… “I Ain’t Goin Out Like That” by Cypress Hill… “Insane In The Brain” by Cypress Hill… “How I Could Just Kill A Man” by Cypress Hill… “Dr. Greenthumb” by Cypress Hill… “Killing Me Slowly” by Bad Wolves… “Wildfire” by Bad Wolves… “If Tomorrow Never Comes” by Bad Wolves… “Pray” by I Prevail… “Into Hell” by I Prevail… “Crimson & Clover” by Tommy James & The Shondells… “Joy To The World” by Three Dog Night… “Little Bitty Pretty One” by Frankie Lymon… “The Way You Make Me Feel” by Michael Jackson… “Runaround Sue” by Dion
