
WWE legend reveals why The Rock missed WrestleMania amid shock John Cena alliance - but some fans aren't buying it
Fans were left fuming when Dwayne Johnson, who plays The Rock, missed the show of shows after playing such a vital role in a storyline of high importance in WWE.
The Rock aligned with John Cena at the Elimination Chamber a matter of weeks before, promising the all-time great success as he turned heel for the first time in his career in one of the most shocking moves in WWE history.
But he didn't appear after that, with no real mention of the alliance in the build to Cena's match with Cody Rhodes at WrestleMania.
Fans were left even more puzzled when Cena won the title without help from The Rock - instead he was aided by rapped Travis Scott, as he won a record-breaking 17th world title with The Rock nowhere to be seen.
Now, WWE icon Kevin Nash has given his take on The Rock's absence - and it was apparently due to his Hollywood commitments.
'Rock couldn't show up because he was filming a Scorsese movie,' Nash said on his Kliq This podcast. 'The last time he appeared before filming Hercules, he tore a muscle off his pelvis and cost the production $10million.
'Rock can say whatever he wants - I didn't want to mess up Cena's moment - but he didn't have a choice. Scorsese wasn't going to allow it.
'I think they're shooting in Hawaii. If they're not actively filming, they're definitely in pre-production. Whoever's overseeing the film is not going to let Rock bounce around in a wrestling ring.'
Fans questioned the reasoning, though, with one posting on social media: 'He isn't filming anything at the moment,' while another added: 'Even if that was the case, he could have interrupted the match without even having to take a bump.'
A third wrote: 'He could have physically been there and slipped John Cena the belt or something. He didn't have to physically wrestle Cody.'
The Rock went on the Pat McAfee Show the day after WrestleMania, explaining his absence from the show when a large number of fans expected him to appear.
He explained he didn't want to be involved in Cena's moment in what seemed a complete contrast to what fans were expecting.
'When we were moving forward with John and this idea of him getting crowned at WrestleMania and becoming 17, and being a heel champion, I knew then the best thing for The Final Boss,' The Rock said. 'We've established this idea of Cody's soul. We can always come back to it.
'I did feel, I made the call, I don't want to be involved in that. Let The Final Boss step back into the shadows. Let all the spotlight go to John, let it go to Cody. Let's not make it about Cody's soul or John's soul. Let's let them do what they do.'

Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles

Leader Live
2 hours ago
- Leader Live
Olivia Rodrigo and Dave Grohl among stars in Royal Box at Wimbledon
Rodrigo – fresh from her Glastonbury set and a string of London shows – sat in the Royal Box with her boyfriend, actor Louis Partridge, to watch the day three matches. Foo Fighters frontman Grohl was in attendance with his wife, director Jordyn Blum, and WWE star and actor John Cena was also in the Royal Box. England football manager Thomas Tuchel was in attendance, as was one of his predecessors, Roy Hodgson. Mamma Mia! actor Dominic Cooper turned heads in a baby blue suit, and Hollywood power couple Leslie Mann and Judd Apatow were seen chatting and laughing as they arrived at SW19. Mann is best known for roles in Knocked Up and This Is 40, both directed by Apatow. Olympic gold medallist Tom Daley and former England footballer Graeme Le Saux were also in the stands, alongside long-time Wimbledon regular Sir Cliff Richard. With temperatures cooler than Tuesday's 34.2C peak, many guests arrived in suits and jackets, a return to the tournament's traditional formality after fans sweltered in record-breaking heat. The celebrity guests were watching Emma Raducanu's clash with defending champion Marketa Vondrousova, followed by world number two Carlos Alcaraz against British wildcard Oscar Tarvet. On No. 1 Court, Cameron Norrie was taking on Frances Tiafoe, while Katie Boulter was facing Solana Sierra and Aryna Sabalenka was playing Marie Bouzkova. A total of 78 guests were invited to the Royal Box for day three, with other names on the list including singer Nick Jonas and his wife Priyanka Chopra.


Wales Online
6 hours ago
- Wales Online
John Cena loves a traditional fish and chips
John Cena loves a traditional fish and chips The 48-year-old actor has been over to the UK a lot over the past two decades during his time as a WWE superstar (Image: Getty Images ) John Cena absolutely loves fish and chips and a Full English Breakfast. The 48-year-old actor has been over to the UK a lot over the past two decades during his time as a WWE superstar, and he's embraced the local cuisine to the point that he went for a very traditional meal before Tuesday's (01.07.25) Heads of State world premiere in London. Appearing on ITV daytime show This Morning, he said: "I enjoyed [fish and chips] so much that right before our premiere last night, we had about 90 minutes and myself and my two friends, all from America, we sat down, we ordered fish and chips, we had a pint, and that got us ready for the world premiere." John - who revealed he went for vinegar and a little bit of dunking in the tartar sauce" - got more of a taste for a chippy after the dish plays a role in his new movie with Idris Elba. The Hollywood star also opened up on his admiration for a "savoury breakfast", which he learned to love during his early WWE days. Article continues below He added: "All savoury! In America, we tend to lean on the sweet. It's all very filling, but very sweet. Boy, do I love a savoury breakfast! "I've been a fan of the English breakfast for a long time - you gotta remember, with WWE, I've being coming over here for 25 years." Although the lines between real life and art have been blurred with his food preferences, John insisted that won't be the case after he played the President of the United States in the new action comedy. He quipped: "I am playing the role of the president of the United States. I would much rather play the role of President of the United States than BE the President of the United States. I'm happy in my lane!" Article continues below When This Morning host Ben Shephard joked that real life president Donald Trump often appears to be playing a role too, the wrestling legend kept his response diplomatic. He teased: "I allow everybody to have their own perspective of that. I'm just really excited for our movie, and that's my way of weaving around that."


Time Out
8 hours ago
- Time Out
Hercules
One of theatre's greatest mysteries is how Disney literally made the most successful musical of all time and then proceeded to learn absolutely nothing from it. Virtuoso director Julie Taymor included all the dumb stuff required by the Mouse in her version of The Lion King – farting warthogs, basically – but nonetheless crafted an audacious and iconic production that departed radically from the aesthetic of the film and is still in theatres today. Subsequent Disney musicals like Aladdin and Frozen aren't bad, but they take zero risks – effectively just plonking the film onstage – and are not in theatres today. And here comes Hercules, the next in the megacorp's long line of perfectly adequate, not very imaginative adaptations of its bountiful '90s animated roster. Book of Mormon director Casey Nicholaw's production is good looking and high energy. Robert Horn and Kwame Kwei-Armah's book is appropriately big hearted with a handful of very funny gags. The show's not-so-secret weapon is the retention of the film's sassy quintet of singing Muses. Here turbocharged into a full-on gospel group, they're a whole lot of finger snapping, head shaking, quick-changing fun, and also add a note of character to Alan Menken's likeable but unremarkable Alan Menken-style score. Hercules is a unit of generic Disney stage entertainment However, the Muses are also symptomatic of the fact that the show's Ancient Greece comes across as a reskinned small-town America, without having any comment to make on small-town America. Everyone has American accents, and does American things: the notoriously vindictive goddess Hera is reimagined as a twinkly-eyed all-American mom. While there's a vague nod to Hellenistic art, there were endless opportunities to have done something visually audacious and aesthetically interesting, and they were all passed upon. Sure, The Lion King does insist on the accents, but Taymor's production is pointedly steeped in vivid pan-African aesthetics. Here, Dane Laffrey's sets and George Reeves's video design are often impressive, but they never don't look like a themed restaurant (to be fair, one scene is actually set in a themed restaurant). All that accepted, it's a sturdy action-adventure romp that absolutely does the trick and is eminently worth taking The Kids to during the hols. It begins when Hercules is born to chief gods Zeus and Hera (classical scholars, just sit this one out). The infant is set to enjoy a heavenly existence on Mount Olympus until Stephen Carlile's enjoyably batshit Hades strips away the baby's immortality. Cast out of Olympus and raised by a human single mother, Luke Brady's adult Hercules belatedly discovers his divine parentage and resolves to become a hero, dragging Trevor Dion Nicholas's gruff warrior trainer Phil out of retirement to assist him. Heroic exploits follow: the special effects aren't groundbreaking, but they're good fun, especially the setpiece battle between Hercules, Phil and a many-headed puppet hydra. Brady is a boyish and likeable lead. His permawhite smile is bigger than his pecs – but it's kind of the point that he's not a beefcake, but rather an affable young man bewildered by his own strength. Mae Ann Jorolan gives good 'sassy love interest' as Hercules's sassy love interest, who is called Meg for some reason. They have a particularly great scene together where Meg is lecturing the smitten young man about how it's misogynist to assume she needs his help, and he keeps beatifically zoning out to sing about how hot she is. It's all absolutely fine, and accepting it's not a screechingly ambitious piece of work then perhaps all it really lacks is a big showstopper moment. The songs are solid, but there's no 'Circle of Life'/'A Whole New World'/'Let It Go'-style megabanger. Carlile's Hades turning into a much bigger puppet version of himself in the final showdown almost does the trick visually, but the scene as a whole is a muddle: it's unclear where the climactic battle between the gods is happening, or why it happens when it does, and the combat is pretty wishy washy until the afore-mentioned giga-puppet turns up. Disney musicals have vast budgets and The Lion King is an ongoing reminder that even staying within the lines of the IP, bold creatives can achieve something special with that dosh. Hercules, though, is one unit of generic Disney stage entertainment. It has charm, because it's adapted from a charming film and talented people have made it, but it's definitely not going to go down in legend.