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The Rock explains how he pitched the idea of pivoting back to a WrestleMania match between Roman Reigns and Cody Rhodes.
The Rock returned to WWE in February and confronted Roman Reigns, setting the stage for a match at WrestleMania. However, fans rallied around Cody and turned on The Rock, so WWE pivoted back to the match between Rhodes and Reigns.
Speaking on The Will Cain Show, The Rock was asked about his return to WWE, with Cain noting that it has not happened the way it was planned.
“No, not at all. The original plan was for me to come back at the babyface, the big babyface, come back and face Roman Reigns for the Universal Championship and put on here in Philadelphia the biggest main event of all time,” The Rock said. “I believe the qualities of a good leader, not to say that I’m a good leader, but I believe the qualities of a good leader is one who has the ability to pivot but also make sure that you listen to the people. As I came back, I started to realize that while fans love the idea of The Rock and Roman Reigns at WrestleMania, there was also this other storyline building that they had been invested in for a couple years with a guy named Cody Rhodes, who, wrestling royalty. Dusty Rhodes is his dad, Dustin Rhodes is his brother. One of two things could have happened in that moment, and this happened in January.
“We could have either kept trucking through. I’m a director of the board, I got a little bit of influence [laughs] here in the WWE. We could have kept trucking through, or the thing that bugged me, I was in Hawaii, and I realized, man, there’s a segment of fans who are just disappointed. It hurt my heart to think that, well I don’t want to truck through and leave these fans disappointed, but not only that, you’ve also got a guy in Cody Rhodes who’s been working his ass off for years now, and this is his story.”
The Rock Recalls Calling Nick Khan
The Rock then praised Cody and detailed how he called Nick Khan in January to pitch the idea.
“By the way, Cody, as we speak very openly here, could not be a better human being,” The Rock said. “Amazing, understood. ‘I get it, I understand the position we’re in. Rock, you and Roman, biggest-ever, I’m here for it, I support you.’That’s a big deal for somebody to say, especially in our crazy world of egocentric professional wrestling.
“So back in January, I called Nick Khan, our friend, and I said, ‘I have an idea. How about this, why don’t we take care of the people, give them this story of Cody Rhodes and Roman Reigns.’ Nick said, ‘Great.’ I said, ‘However, a little bit of a twist.’ He did, ‘What’s that?’ I said, ‘What if I became the greatest bad guy of all time? And that was the attempt and the intention.”
The Rock On Turning Heel
When asked whether this heel character has been lurking in the background, The Rock quipped that it had. He described how he realized that becoming a heel would let him have more freedom.
“It has been lurking. You know, by the way, it has been lurking for some time,” he said.” If you think about it, it’s nice to be considered the Babe Ruth of professional wrestling. It’s nice to be considered the good guy, the big babyface, the hero who comes in and saves the day. But also, again, when you think about authenticity, I realized, it all happens in Hawaii.
“A lot of self-reflection happens in Hawaii. I woke up and I went, ‘God, what if I became a bad guy, and then I was able to be free-er, and be visceral and be open, and say, I won’t even curse because I’ve been getting in trouble a lot, I want to. I will, say the shit that everyone wants to say but they can’t say.”
The Rock On Listening To The Fans
The Rock was also asked to describe how he balanced listening to the fans with trusting his gut. He described how there are times where you press forward, but there are also situations where you have to listen.
“I think you got your finger on the pulse, you like to keep your finger on the pulse of what people want, the public wants,” The Rock said. “It’s impotent to absorb all that information. But it’s also important to, you gotta go with your gut. You gotta listen to that voice that’s behind your rib cage that’s talking to you. There are times where you gotta go with your gut, and let’s swing for the fences, and we believe this is the right choice. ‘I’m going with my gut, this is what I’m doing, and this is where I’m going.’ In a case like this, in pro wrestling, there was something intrinsically off and unaligned if I didn’t listen to this segment of fans.
“Because at the end of the day…there’s a time where you really have to listen. In this case, again, we could have trucked through. But why do that? So I feel like we had an opportunity here to look at the situation… I usually look at scenarios like this like it’s a two-to-four lane highway. How can we make it into a ten? We can make it into a ten-lane highway by listening and then absorbing that information and letting it inform us how we make that decision.”
The full interview can be seen here:
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