People within WWE said to have been “very surprised” about The Rock’s praise for AEW
In a post via Twitter/X on September 27th 2026, AEW officially announced that Pac aka Neville passed away at the age of 40. Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson reacted to the news in a video published to Instagram.
While speaking on Wrestling Observer Radio, Dave Meltzer of F4WOnlinecom commented on WWE’s reaction to The Rock praising AEW in the video…
“Rock and Nick Khan are close. I do not believe that has changed. Were there people in WWE who were very surprised at his wording and what he said, especially with him being on the TKO board of directors? Yes, okay. They were very surprised. Nick may not have been. He may have told Nick ahead of time. Maybe he didn’t. He can do whatever he wants.
Not that he did the video, but the wording in the video, where he praised them and essentially gave the stamp of, ‘Yeah, you guys are good for business and work hard, and you’re helping make wrestling.’
That’s not the message I think the company wants out. No one’s going to be mad at him doing the video, but the wording, people brought it up to me.”