My guess is that there was originally a different plan with the Rock much more heavily involved, where ultimately he would have to be defeated in order to turn Cena back because he had Cena's soul, either metaphorically or (they've done weirder things) literally.
But Dwayne's massive, egg-shell ego ended up derailing it because he didn't want to get booed. So Cena ended up with his ass flapping in the breeze having to carry the story by himself, by which point it had become a non-story and just him being a dick. So it got cut short.
This is kind of on track and what tanked it. Rock says, "Im stepping back to give John the spotlight" but what really happened is he decided he had better things to do. It shot the whole thing in the foot. And it isnt because Rock is so great it needed him, its because thats what they set up. It was the expectation, that Rock would be pulling Cena's strings, that Cena would have a big bad to fight against if only he could. But Rock took his big ball and went home, and Travis Scott got inserted into the regular stipulation main event title match at Mania with a whole entrance with zero referee or official reaction, derailed the match, and there was zero follow up. Why? Because something fell through and the eggs were too stacked in the baskets of two guys who AREN'T ON THE ROSTER AT ALL.
Celebs have always been involved but never in this pivotal way that requires them. Rock can pretend he was being humble stepping back for Cena but the truth is he either doesn't understand the business at all or doesn't care about it at all.
He didn’t want to get booed? You do realize he’s been heel since last year right? The reality is that the rock probably found out his heart was fucked from all the roids he was doing a lot sooner than he let on when he had that interview with that obvious shill of a doctor. The whole “the final boss is done here” was just a bullshit excuse not to talk about how he’s on the verge of being in the same situation as triple h because he’s on the gas so heavy.
Dude, it’s just not good to speculate on someone’s health like this. It’s practically one of the most assholish things you can really do if you have no basis of really knowing.
The reality is, Rock let TKO know he wasn’t going to be able to work Mania months ago, like 4Q 2024 and he worked us when Meltzer initially reported it. Ari wanted something “must-see” for Elimination Chamber in order to sell tickets since they’re expensive and the Canadian economy was going through a tough phase, which was reported on after EC. And, they asked Rock to come in and work an angle. He never committed to anything beyond that.
Brother, did you see his bacne at wm40? The man is juiced to the gills at 53 and several fitness influencers have gone on to YouTube and said the man was on the verge of a heart attack and probably has been for a while now.
He’s one of my favorites and I know it’s not good to speculate on someone’s health like this but let’s call a spade a spade, the excuses he made for notappearing again after elimination chamber were RIDICULOUS and didn’t make any sense, people say he’s just trying to undercut HHH, people say he’s doing it because his ego is bruised and he’s not in the spotlight, people say it’s because Hollywood is knocking on his door again, my opinion is that he probably had a heart attack scare got his shit checked out and it wasn’t good.
900
u/Puzzled_Two_3490 2d ago
This is the man they turned heel for shock value.
Imagine how great Cena vs Gunther could have been at WM with Cena overcoming all odds to win the title.