The Rock stirred up some chatter this week with an Instagram comment directed at Dave LaGreca, host of Busted Open Radio, shortly after making an appearance on The Pat McAfee Show. The response to his remarks has quickly circulated among WWE talent and backstage personnel.
Several WWE stars have taken notice of The Rock’s absence from television, WrestleMania, and the promotional build leading into the event. Not only was he not featured on the show, but he also didn’t promote the event on social media — something that stood out to many. One talent noted that while The Rock was silent leading into WrestleMania, he promptly joined a podcast afterward to talk about being asked to help drive ticket sales and to share some of his grievances with the event.
A source within WWE did confirm that The Rock was indeed contacted to help boost ticket sales for Elimination Chamber, which was considered a significant win internally. Prior to that, WWE creative teams had been instructed to plan under the assumption that The Rock would not be involved in WrestleMania, though some believed that might change following Elimination Chamber. Still, they were advised not to build any major storylines around him.
One veteran WWE talent commented that while the roster is always happy to have The Rock around, there’s been a long-standing sentiment that “the card is at the mercy of Dwayne,” echoing comments made by a top star last year. This dynamic reportedly creates a bit of a push-pull for The Rock, as he may be hesitant to interfere with creative plans like he did previously, possibly underestimating how central he is to the overall narrative.
Despite online speculation about possible backstage tension between The Rock and Triple H, multiple talents told us that, if anything is going on between them, it hasn’t made its way down to the locker room. While there have been rumors of a respectful but occasionally strained rivalry between the two, there’s no indication that it’s currently affecting internal operations.
In general, the feeling backstage wasn’t one of anger, but more confusion over The Rock’s approach this year. One wrestler suggested it might be an “overcorrection” based on how things were handled the previous year, though they stressed that the context this time around was completely different. Several talents noted how unusual it was that The Rock didn’t even acknowledge WrestleMania, let alone promote it. “It was just weird,” one source said. “We all found it kind of odd that he didn’t say a word about the show.”
As for The Rock’s cryptic Instagram comment replying to LaGreca’s viral rant, one WWE performer questioned what exactly he meant by it. “Is he saying it’s all a work? Like, every time he talks to us backstage, he’s in character too? Was the McAfee interview a work even though he said it wasn’t?” the talent wondered aloud.
(H/T: Fightful Select)
