There was said to have been “a lot of manipulation going on” during The Rock’s return for Wrestlemania 40

Earlier this week, TheWrap.com published an article titled “Dwayne Johnson’s Tardiness Led to a $250 Million Runaway Production” which included a WWE rep’s claim that The Rock was not late for his match at Wrestlemania 40. During Wrestling Observer Radio, Meltzer said the following in regards to Rock’s WWE return for Wrestlemania…

“There were definitely people in WWE who felt that his return to WWE this year was an attempt to turn around, kind of like a losing streak, so to speak, you know, Young Rock got canceled. Some of his movies weren’t as successful as hoped for. WWE was an easy win. But at the same time, put this way, they made him a $30 million, your offer to join the board of directors, they came to that, you know, that’s coming to him. That’s not him coming. And he’s been talking about doing wrestling for literally….the match with Roman Reigns since 2019. So, it’s not like this was something that just came out of the blue because, you know, the idea of it, he wasn’t doing well, or anything like that. I mean, granted, he didn’t do it, but you know, 2020 he was never going to do it ain’t gonna come back during the pandemic. He wasn’t gonna come back in 2021 with front in front of 20,000 people at WrestleMania. And then, you know, he decided LA, not Dallas, and then LA came in he was busy. And, you know, everyone knows the story. He he, when he when he, when he basically made the move to not do Los Angeles. He said, ‘Maybe I’ll do Philadelphia next year,’ but nobody believed it. But he did because they figured it just turned down Los Angeles never gonna do it. Well, he did it. And I would suspect he’s going to do it next year, too. I mean, he’s already built it up.”

Meltzer also said the following…

“There is a lot of stuff behind the scenes with Rock that I didn’t realize, you know, as far as the whole thing. It’s really pretty obvious to me that there were a lot of games being played earlier this year when it came to the WrestleMania thing. I mean, it’s like Cody Rhodes winning the Royal Rumble was definitely done to….. there’s definitely people who did not want Roman Reigns in The Rock match. And it was a lot of manipulation going on, that a lot of people aren’t aware of. I mean, it seemed too convenient to me. But it really was; there’s a lot of reasons for it to just kind of, not I wouldn’t even call it power plays, just very interesting games being played on both sides with just people who were, it was actually funny because, you know, Roman Reigns and Rock are cousins and everything. And, you know, there were a lot of people who wanted Cody Rhodes to get that spot before the fan thing happened and didn’t want The Rock to get that spot. But The Rock was going to get that spot and let’s see, volunteered not to have it. Because, you know, he’s gonna get what he wants, just like in some ways, it’s good. In some ways, it’s bad. I mean, there’s obviously a lot of people who were resentful, no one can say anything bad about him publicly. But that, you know, there are people who were very resentful of him going like, I came back in wrestling school after, you know, WWE had, you know, a tremendous year. And, you know, the idea that he’s kind of trying to take credit for this resurgence that happened a year before he came back.”

“There are even people who were very negative on him readily admit that when he came in, it made, it made the brand more popular that he drove TV ratings to a great degree. He helped drive this WrestleMania to be the biggest today. WrestleMania there’s been I mean, there were definitely people who took what’s the word I’m looking for? who were happy that Sunday outgrew Saturday when it came to viewers. But you know, at the same time, I mean, Sunday was the climax. The idea that the match with The Rock and his return did not outdraw Roman Reigns and Cody Rhodes, but you can also make the argument that everyone knew that the Rock was going to be in that match too involved in that match, too. The match ended up being, you know, Sunday, which was the bigger day than Saturday.” (quotes courtesy of WrestlingNews.co)