News regarding WWE’s reaction to what The Rock said publicly about WrestleMania 41

While appearing on The Pat McAfee Show, Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson explained why he didn’t appear at WWE WrestleMania 41 for Cody Rhodes vs. John Cena. The Rock also gave praise to the match but said he would have “finessed things a little differently on how they got there.”

According to Fightful Select, the consensus from people within WWE was that they were more “confused” than “frustrated” with Rock’s public comments. Fightful stated the following…

“A longtime talent said that the roster always loves seeing the Rock at shows, but noted that the ‘card is at the mercy of Dwayne’ comment from a top talent last year was something that they believe pulls the Rock in both ways. One person there we spoke to claimed the Rock didn’t want to be seen as interfering with WrestleMania plans like last year, but possibly didn’t understand how integral he would be to the story.”

In regards to what Rock said to McAfee, Fightful added that one talent viewed Rock’s comments as an “overcorrection” due to last year’s backlash over his involvement even though it was a different situation. Talent were said to have been engaging in backstage discussion about Rock’s absence from WrestleMania along with his lack of promotion for the show and him barely being referenced on television. One talent was quoted as stating, “we all found it kind of weird that he didn’t promote the show at all.”