The Rock appeared on The Pat McAfee Show today and talked about WrestleMania 41 and John Cena becoming a 17-time World Champion by defeating Cody Rhodes for the Undisputed WWE Championship.
He revealed that TKO CEO Ari Emanuel wanted him to return for Elimination Chamber because ticket sales were slow. Rock later decided that he wasn’t needed after Cena’s heel turn, and that WrestleMania 41 should be about Cena winning his 17th World Title – which is why he didn’t appear at the show and let Cena and Cody have all the spotlight.
Here’s what Dwayne Johnson said:
“So I got a call about a month before Elimination Chamber, I get a call from Ari Emanuel, who we know owns TKO, owns WWE. He’s been my long time business partner and one of my best friends for over 20 years. He said we need help at Elimination Chamber. Ticket sales are a little slow, but beyond that he goes, what we are finding is with Elimination Chamber, it’s become the pay-per-view. That’s been interesting. Fans have had fun, but it’s also the conduit to WrestleMania. And how do we create an Elimination Chamber that people must tune in to see? How do we create that? And he goes, right now we don’t have that. And he said, will The Final Boss show up? I said, well, let me give it some thought and then we get back to you. So I gave it some thought. I got back to Ari. I got back to Triple H and Nick (Khan), we had a call.
I said, I have an idea. What’s most important to The Final Boss? The most important thing to The Final Boss isn’t titles. It’s not money, it’s not fame. Been there, done that, and grateful for that. The Final Boss wants your soul. What does that mean? That doesn’t mean, hey, The Final Boss wants you to act like this, be like this and call and treat you like crap and make you do all these things that are unbecoming or embarrassing. That’s not what The Final Boss wants. No, no, no, no. What that means is whatever you could think of in your head.
So Cody Rhodes, whatever dreams you have, whatever ambitions you have, even if they’re dark, even if they’re amazing and they’re full of light, even if they’re scary, whatever those are, tell The Final Boss, he’s going to make it all happen. You wave that magic wand, he’ll make it all happen.
So when it comes to giving me your soul, that is what you want, not what The Final Boss wants. And so what does The Final Boss get out of that? I get your soul for life. That’s what The Final Boss gets out of that. So now we go into Elimination Chamber with this idea of will Cody Rhodes sell his soul to The Final Boss? And my thought at that time about this was it was a litmus test to find out, in my opinion, how will fans respond if Cody sold his soul to The Final Boss? Let’s get a temperature check on this. Let’s establish it. Let’s anchor it in. And you come to find out that there are a lot of fans who were saying, ‘Sell your soul.’ This kid is going to be crazy. Whatever it is, it’s compelling it’s going to be great.
So I was an advocate of that – not turning Cody heel soon, but eventually down the line. I like the idea that because Cody’s a smart guy, he’s an intelligent guy, he’s a ring general and I think this idea of you give them a reason to turn way down the road, by the way. You give them a reason to turn not based on titles, not based on this, but it’s his soul and what that means that affects generations. It’s transcendent beyond pro wrestling, and fans were loving it.
As we got closer to Elimination Chamber, we were kicking ideas around myself and Triple H. And that’s the fun part, by the way, I’ve been kicking ideas around Triple H for 20 years, dude! Triple H said, you know, what about this? What about John turning (heel)? I said I love it. I love it.
The next question is, you gotta talk to John, see how he feels about it. And you know, in a moment where you have the shifting moment. And it happened to me when I was a pure babyface. I got booed out of the building around the world and they took the title off me my rookie year and they sent me home the summer of ’97. And I didn’t know what I was going to do. I just knew this is not going to work Now I don’t even know if I have a future in pro wrestling. I get a call from Vince (McMahon) that says I’m gonna bring you back as a heel and be part of The Nation of Domination. I said that’s great, I love it, but just give me two minutes on the microphone to speak from the heart. And he did that and things changed immediately that night.
It’s the same thing with John. John loved this idea of turning heel, but he’s like, but you know what, there’s something. There’s an anchor here that I’m going to root it in, which is a real thing that I’ve been experiencing over the years, past 25 years.
So we were moving forward with John and this idea of him crowning, getting crowned at WrestleMania, and becoming 17 (time World Champion) and then being a heel champion. I knew then the best thing for The Final Boss… 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 wanna be involved in that. Step back. Let me let The Final Boss step back, 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 eventually, or John’s soul.
Now let’s let them do what they do and I called John after Elimination Chamber, spoke to him, called Cody and I said I think the Final Boss’ work is done. We’ve established it. We just pulled off the greatest angle in the history of professional wrestling other than Hulk Hogan turning heel back in the 90s.
I said this is amazing. We have 6 weeks now. Let’s build you guys, go and crush it and I’ll be right there with you. And I’m always here if you need me. But I think it’s best for us not to be involved in that finish. You guys goes ahead, 6 weeks to plan for that.
So I love the finish of the match. I would have finessed things a little differently on how they got there, but that’s just me. Creatively, there are a lot of minds in the room. That’s my thought. But still, ultimately the bottom line was I love John getting 17. And I never had a concern about John pulling this off. My thoughts are always to Cody because of what we’ve established with him and his story and the kind of babyface that he is.
So if done right and I think if finessed right and if nuanced right down the road, that guy not only has an incredible babyface run again as champion, but also just an unheard of run as a heel down the road.”
Also Read: “Go F**k Yourself” – Karrion Kross To Triple H After WrestleMania 41
