Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson was appointed to the TKO Board of Directors in January 2024.
Following this, The Rock returned to WWE programming and played a key role leading up to WrestleMania XL.
The Rock bid farewell to WWE programming following WrestleMania 40 but briefly returned at WWE Bad Blood 2024.
The Final Boss then appeared on the premiere episode of WWE RAW on Netflix and made another cameo on the February 21st episode of WWE SmackDown.
All this time, The Rock worked alongside WWE Chief Content Officer Paul “Triple H” Levesque.
During the WWE SmackDown post-show press conference, The Rock discussed his relationship with Triple H. He said,
“Nick Khan and Triple H, as well. With those two guys in particular…wrestling is an interesting business to be in because, while it’s a big business, I also feel like you’ve got to love it. If you’re these C Suite Executives, you have to love the business. That’s what Triple H, loves this business. I’ve known him for a long time. We’ve done a lot of fun stuff together, a lot of crazy stuff. He’s doing a great job. I talk with him often. We’re very close. What I like about Triple H is that he’ll present me with something, I’ll like it, then we’ll chop it up, we’ll talk about it, and I’ll present him something else. Ultimately, what I love about Paul, by the way, it’s always been this way with Paul. Even back when we were wrestling every night together on the road. ‘Hey, let’s do something that’s never been done. Let’s do something that is unpredictable. Let’s do something that is bold.’ Regarding tonight with the Final Boss and coming to Cody Rhodes and saying, ‘I want to make you bigger than The Rock and I want to provide you and make all your dreams come true and your baby’s baby’s babies, and legacy. I want to make it all come true.’ Audacious, bold, disruptive. I could tell Paul and he’ll say, ‘Yeah, great, let’s go for it.’ I love that about him. That’s the bond that we have. Nick is the same way. Ari Emanuel, who is my very close business partner, who is the owner, feels the same way as well.”
During a recent appearance on the “Insight” podcast, Ludwig Kaiser discussed working with Sheamus, highlighting their long-running feud in WWE.
Kaiser said, “Sheamus is special. We’re talking about a future Hall of Famer. We’re talking about someone that I watched as a teenager. Sheamus is also a tough, nasty guy to work with. If you don’t stomp this guy into the ground, he is going to come back up. You can’t catch your breath with this guy. He really is everything he says he is. He is that crazy Irish man who loves to fight and goes out there and comes back all bloody. He loves that and loves to go to war. It triggers something in me that really wants to punch his head.”
He continued, “I really don’t get tired of wrestling this guy. It’s fun, but I’m also pissed off fighting him because it is a war. It is a war with him. One of the greatest matches of my career so far, and I’d love to do it again. Whenever I can smash this old man’s head in, I will do it again.”
During a recent appearance on the “SHAK Wrestling” podcast, Xavier Woods reacted to he and Kofi Kingston ousting Big E from The New Day.
Woods said, “We obviously don’t want death to E. We don’t want that. We just don’t want anything else to do with him because he turned his back on us. But as far as his injury when it occurred, we did everything that we could to support him emotionally because we can’t go in with healing hands and fix his neck. So we did everything, we were there for him, we call him, text him, we put together videos.. Him getting hurt and us being there for him, we felt that at work, we had to make sure that we kept something familiar for him so that if he was to come back, he wouldn’t be in this crazy, new, extra-violent landscape without seeing something that he recognized. So we stayed the same. We stayed the New Day. We stayed bright and colorful and unicorn horns and, yeah, ice cream and pancakes. We stayed that way for E, not realizing that E wasn’t gonna come back until there was a spotlight to be had.”
He continued, “So we should have evolved and changed into something else years ago. Every single other person on the roster has been able to explore their minds and explore the new space that we have. We have guys like Bron Breaker on the roster now, killers. We have guys like Bronson Reed, killers. And we’re supposed to stay the same as we were? No, we can’t, but we did for E. So people don’t want to recognize that fact. They just want to say, we miss E. Well, then cool. Go follow E on his socials. Go see him doing his amazing Spider-Man show. Go see him doing his Netflix shows. Follow him there. Don’t bring that to our doorstep anymore because it has nothing to do with us.”
During a recent edition of the “Busted Open Radio” podcast, Bully Ray discussed Randy Orton possibly returning to WWE at Elimination Chamber: Toronto to exact revenge on Kevin Owens.
Ray said, “If Randy Orton gets involved in a match between Kevin and Sami in Canada, what kind of reaction is that going to get? You think Canadian wrestling fans are going to be pissed off that Randy took Kevin out of the match?”
He continued, “Imagine Kevin is beating the s**t out of Sami with a chair on the floor right, and enough is enough and somebody has to do something about it … he’s about to give him the package piledriver on the announce table, Randy Orton’s music hits. Randy will get the pop for making that save, but you have to set it up the right way, that people won’t be mad that Randy’s coming in on a Canadian.”
Donovan Dijak is willing to accept a job anywhere; he simply wants to ensure it’s a company that genuinely wants his presence.
Since departing from WWE last summer, Dijak has been active in the independent circuit as well as in MLW, and he spoke with “WhatCulture Wrestling” about the potential of joining AEW or TNA Wrestling.
Dijak said, “Everything is a possibility. I’m not gonna lobby hard for anything or say that nothing is a possibility. Everything is open. I want to go to a place where they want to have me, that’s it. I learned the hard way through my time in WWE that if they don’t see you the way that you see yourself, you need to find a place that does. That’s okay, I’m not angry about that, I don’t hold that against anyone. If some indie company looks me and says, oh, that’s not the guy for us, then I don’t want to work for that indie company and that’s okay. Not everybody has to love me.”
He continued, “I view myself in a very particular light and there are other companies that I work with, MLW is a very good one that also views me in a similar light. Those are the companies that I want to collaborate with. So, if AEW opens that door — I’ve made it very clear to them, TNA, WWE, I am completely open to working with you if you are interested in working with me in the same capacity that I would like to be worked with. That’s how I view everything, that’s what I want out of my career at this point and I think that I can take all of these companies to the next level. That’s my goal.”
Dijak will compete at MLW Battle Riot VII.
(h/t – Fightful)
