The Rock just finished up a three-run return to WrestleMania with a loss to John Cena at Met Life Stadium. An injury kept The Rock away from Monday Night RAW and a new interview with Dwayne Johnson reveals that it may have been last match in a WWE ring.
[adinserter block=”1″]Wrestling with Rosenberg interviewed The Rock and got what at this point has to be exclusive. The promotional interview conducted for Johnson’s movie quickly turned into a wrestling discussion. Rosenberg asked him point blank whether he was done wrestling and The Rock gave him quite the exclusive.
“Possibly, to be honest with you. The goal three years ago was I sat down with Vince McMahon and strategized about it, about three WrestleManias back to back. I committed myself to the company and I was very proud of that moment. It didn’t matter if I lost or I did the job, but it was an honor to do the honors. There is no better way to give back… then by doing the honors.”
It should also be noted that later in the interview The Rock says he wouldn’t rule out another match but the plan was to create the Miami event and then what he calls “the biggest show of all time” in the biggest market of all time.
The Rock also goes on to tell Rosenberg that he feels there was no better way to honor the wrestling profession than by giving back aka doing the job. The Rock also acknowledges criticism that he put over John Cena and tells Rosenberg that it isn’t for him to decide who gets that spot.
Rock and Rosenberg then talk a bit about the comparisons of Hulk Hogan putting over The Rock and The Rock putting over Cena. Rock tells him that Hogan was on the way out and they wanted to do things differently by putting Rock over as champ and then giving Cena the win. He also agrees with the host who tells him that Cena deserved the spot.
One thing is perfectly clear here. The plan all along was for a two-match WrestleMania series with Cena and The Rock. There were a lot of reports after WrestleMania 28 that indicated Rock vs. Brock Lesnar was next and pontificated about how the result was booked with Rock going over Cena. What this tells me is that there was very little substance to those reports and that the plan from day one was the plan we saw play out.
Rock does confirm that the plan for WrestleMania 30 was a match with Brock Lesnar. He says he loves Brock and the two have been friends for over a decade. He felt they could have a great athletic match. He says that they were supposed to shoot an angle on RAW which got scrapped due to his injury but the match is still possible.
Finally, Rock was asked about the report that he just walked out and left without telling anyone about his injury. “That’s so false”, says Johnson. What is funny to me is that it was Dave Meltzer who published that initial report yet it is Meltzer who has been mocking everyone since for running with it. Unless I missed it and I may have since I don’t read his boards, he has never come out and explained why he published the report and where it went wrong. Hey things happen and everyone misses one every once in a while, but he really did create a firestorm with that report and probably should at some point explain the background on it.
[adinserter block=”2″]The other takeaway here is recent reports that Rock vs. Brock was actually scheduled for SummerSlam are either wrong or Johnson is working the interviewer. It would appear from everything else revealed that The Rock was brutally honest with the interviewer so I’ll chalk that up to another bad report on that one.
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Let me see. Rock's first long "break" was after he lost to Goldberg, though he did make a minor appearances after that. His second loss before leaving for 7 years was after he and Foley jobbed to Evolution. 7 years later, he comes back, wins 4 PPV matches and then decides to take a break after losing to Cena AND getting an unexpected injury. My point is this isn't the first time Rock took time off after a big time job.
Honestly, him losing to Cena was not that big of a deal. Many saw it coming a mile away, whether they begrudginly agreed with the decision or not. Anyway, I got to see Rock wearing the world title one more time, so I am not as upset that he put Cena over. Hey, at least he beat him in their first encounter.
Rocky still cant see the line between putting cena over (which is fine), and insulting and alienating his fans. So the great ones last match was an entire arena of his fans very upset……Great way to cement a memory. Very much like Bret Hart who is my favorite…the legacy has taken a BIG blow. my 2cents