Dwayne Johnson in the main event of Night 1 of WrestleMania XL is the sign that the ‘Showcase of the Immortals” has fully cemented itself in the zeitgeist of American culture much like the Super Bowl and The Oscars.
Johnson is one of the most recognizable human beings on the planet right now. A bona fide movie star, the face of a football league (UFL), a Disney legend, a man with multiple brands in Target, food stores and liquor stores — Johnson is the undeniable biggest star to ever grace the ring for WrestleMania.
Oh, and he’s been beloved by WWE fans for nearly 30 years.
It makes all the sense to promote The Rock as an attraction for WrestleMania XL – especially right now in the history of WWE. He’s definitely provided a large “look over here” distraction for the Vince McMahon scandal. He’s a bright shiny attractive name for potential advertisers, and also the type of celebrity that can attract a young audience. Kids have grown up with The Rock as the voice of Maui or in the Jumanji films, so having him as a face of WWE would easily serve as a gateway for the younger demographic to get into wrestling, whom WWE can convert into lifelong fans.
However, therein lies a very, very big problem … and one which has plagued WWE since the end of the Attitude Era. The WWE is once again making an aging star from yesterday as the draw of the show. Yes, WWE is more popular than ever. But, is there one match, or one wrestler that is getting more attention on social media, more airtime on television and looking stronger than any one wrestler than Dwayne Johnson, The Rock himself?
The answer is a resounding no.
This causes a very, very large problem for the WWE. If you are a casual fan checking back in because of The Rock, a wrestling fan who’s not a WWE fan but always watches Mania, or a brand-new fan, it certainly seems like there’s only one match WWE really cares about – The Rock and Roman Reigns vs. Cody Rhodes and Seth Rollins.
Yet, it doesn’t even feel like this is where the focus of WWE programming. It’s more about The Rock and Cody Rhodes than anyone else.
This has been a very compelling piece of wrestling drama to watch. There’s been unprecedentedly long interview segments (those 20-minute promos would make the entire Attitude Era blush), blood (a long-time no-no in WWE), the dropping of the F-Bomb, and enough quasi-shoot inside baseball commentary to make Dave Meltzer’s head fall off.
Yet…Cody vs. The Rock is not the point of WrestleMania, right? It’s about, ultimately, Cody Rhodes finishing his story against Roman Reigns and winning the Universal Championship – the ultimate title in WWE which his dad, the late Dusty Rhodes could not.
Another glaring problem, does anyone even care about Roman Reigns at this point? Of course, everyone will throw one finger up in the air and acknowledge him in Philadelphia. They’ve been doing this for three or four years at this point. However, has the WWE Universe even missed Roman not being on TV, or not take umbrage with the fact the dude has said or done anything memorable to promote this feud?
Does anyone even care if Seth Rollins is in the match? Dude has been a workhorse for WWE over the past few years and feels like an afterthought this entire build as well as his own World Title match with Drew McIntyre. Creative seems way more focused on Drew trolling CM Punk (who’ll do commentary on the Rollins/McIntyre match) than Rollins himself.
Let’s circle back to The Rock, because he has been the entire point of WWE programming these days.
This whole program where The Rock has denigrated the memory of Dusty Rhodes, insulted Cody’s mother, bloodied and beat up Cody makes you want exactly what as a fan? Is it for Cody to finish the story or is it for him to kick The Rock’s ass?
You want to see him beat The Rock up. That’s Wrestling 101. Sadly, the focus should be on the title, not the part-timer. Could this be because WWE is trying to soften the blow when Roman Reigns is announced as “AND STILL” at the end of Night 2? It certainly could. WWE seems hell bent on Roman Reigns breaking records with the world title. So, if The Rock ends up being the one to cost Cody the title — you’re going to want to see Cody vs. The Rock more than Cody/Roman 3, right?
Could there be alternate theories to what happens on WrestleMania Night XL 2? Sure. Is there a world where The Rock babyfaces himself and costs Roman the title? Absolutely. Would that make a lick of sense? Nope. Not unless Roman says or does something between now and the end of WrestleMania Night 2.
If we get a “Bloodline Rules Match” this could lead to people like Stone Cold and John Cena — two of The Rock’s all-time adversaries — getting involved ? Sure thing. That’s Avengers: End Game level awesome and Cody winning is the right call.
The problem is, no matter if Cody or Roman wins, WWE is left with a huge problem.
Who’s next?
Roman Reigns retaining the title only means one person will probably beat him for the Universal Title – The Rock. It’s either The Rock, or some other part-time celebrity with a fighting background like Tyson Fury, Jake Paul, Colby Covington, or Conor McGregor, if any of them ever decided they wanted to commit to WWE. Literally, no one else on the roster can beat Roman at this point because he would’ve beaten everyone — even a former UFC champion.
If Cody wins, the natural thought would be we see a rematch against Roman Reigns or he and The Rock finally clash. Now here’s an issue. Roman Reigns has rarely done back-to-back PLE’s, so I can’t see him being on WrestleMania Backlash or another B-level PPV. He’s going to Summerslam or bust. As for The Rock, let’s not forget he’s likely going to be away from WWE to shoot the live action Moana for most of the summer, and likely being back for Summerslam.
So, you’ve got to fill that slot with someone, anyone for Cody to work with between now and Summerslam. And who could that be? Drew McIntyre’s deal ends after Mania
and has not been re-signed as far as we know. CM Punk is still injured and there’s literally no guarantee he can stay healthy. There’s no Okada, Ospreay or anyone who’s AEW deal is coming up that could slot in a main event program against him (maybe Miro could). A Randy Orton feud would be passable, but the crowd doesn’t want to boo “The Viper” anymore. AJ Styles? Not used. LA Knight? Do fans want to boo him? Gunter? Yes, but there’s the whole IC title thing. Seth Rollins? See Gunther. Jey Uso? Too popular to turn him? Solo? Hasn’t won in a year. An NXT call-up? No way. Jimmy Uso? He might be the only logical choice.
This is the problem you get when the entire focus of your company is a 51-year-old part-time wrestler who has major commitments in Hollywood and the world of business. We’re also making two massive assumptions.
One, The Rock stays healthy. Remember when The Rock wrestled Erick Rowan in the quickest WrestleMania match in history and severely injured himself? Or the time he tore his abdominal muscle off the bone in his last WrestleMania match against John Cena. That was 2017 and 2013 respectively. If he doesn’t get injured, what’s his turnaround time for a return to the ring? After filming a movie, will he be in ring shape to wrestle at Summerslam?
Also, let’s not forget he’s 51. While we’ve seen plenty of guys wrestle late into their 50s, they also were doing it consistently. We knock Ric Flair, but the dude was doing it night in and night out till he was 58 (obviously we know that retirement didn’t stick). Minoru Suzuki is 53 and still taking dates around the world. The Rock has wrestled two matches in 11 years. How much can you expect from him in terms of being “The Final Boss” and the focus of matches?
The second assumption is that The Rock will want to keep dedicating this much time to wrestling. According to IMDb he has 13 projects that are listed as “upcoming.” Now some of them (Doc Savage, Big Trouble in Little China) are entering the Black Adam “is this actually going to happen territory.” Others like the Christmas film Red One, the aforementioned Moana films, the A24 film The Smashing Machine and potentially Fast X2: Part Two are on the horizon. This means filming, promoting, ADR, reshoots – all time away from WWE. This means filming, promoting, ADR, reshoots – all time away from WWE. Also, while The Rock’s Hollywood career has been dinged by the failure of Black Adam and cancelation of Young Rock – he can easily become in-demand again.
WWE needs to realize that even though Dwayne Johnson is a huge star, he cannot be the sole focus of the company going forward. He needs to be Marlon Brando in The Godfather, not Al Pacino. He can be important, he can be one focus, but he cannot be the end all, be all true final boss. He needs to be the dessert to the main course. WWE, if they are to hit the next level, need a new crop of bankable stars that will be on RAW on Netflix and Smackdown on USA, and all the PLEs and international tours. They’re the ones making the hay for WWE, while The Rock can come in and be the bright shining star to land them more endorsements and keep them in the mainstream spotlight – but as a board member, as the wise right hand to a major star and not the only one who matters.
