WWE has a Rock-shaped problem on the road to WrestleMania 41

We waited a long time for Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson to show up on Friday night's three-hour 'WWE SmackDown' only to be left with one big question: Was it worth it?
Expectations had been running sky-high since Thursday evening, when WWE made the surprise announcement that 'The Final Boss' would be showing up in New Orleans. 'Everything could change in an instant,' Triple H teased, suggesting he was well aware that most of fan base had come to the reluctant conclusion that the former world champion was skipping WrestleMania 41 this year.
Despite the anticipation, WWE chose not to have The Rock open the show, instead opting for almost two hours of filler matches beforehand. At the risk of being unkind, it reminded me of that episode of 'The Office' where Michael Scott promises to auction off some Bruce Springsteen tickets, only to test the patience of everyone with numerous inferior prizes beforehand.
But things didn't improve much when The Rock finally showed up. Naturally, the home crowd were delighted with his announcement that WrestleMania 42 would be taking place in "The Big Easy" next year. But then he went on to deliver a meandering promo which misfired on several counts. It was slow, flabby, repetitive and did little to revive any excitement in his long-running storyline with Undisputed WWE Champion Cody Rhodes — despite The Rock calling Rhodes down into the ring.
Remember the magic we got when these two were standing across from each other in the run-up to last year's WrestleMania? If that was box office, this felt more like deleted scenes — or perhaps even blooper reel.
"I want your soul." 😳@TheRock will be expecting an answer from @CodyRhodes at #WWEChamber...#SmackDown pic.twitter.com/cN9f6cHzC7
— WWE (@WWE) February 22, 2025
The appearance also repeated the same mistake from January's Netflix premiere, in that the promo seemed to come from Dwayne Johnson (or 'TKO Board Member Dwayne Johnson,' to give him his full title) rather than The Rock. We even had the first ever on-screen mention of Ari Emanuel — TKO's all-powerful chief executive — and a plug for Johnson's latest animated money-maker, 'Moana 2,' to boot.
Maybe some fans will give it the benefit of the doubt, on the basis that they'd rather have The Rock involved than not. But Friday night's segment didn't suggest that we'll be seeing Rock vs. Rhodes or Rock vs. Roman anytime soon. On the contrary, "The Tribal Chief" didn't even get a mention.
The problems stem from a fundamental issue with WWE and The Rock. Having the world's highest-grossing movie star is obviously a massive boon commercially, but it also creates problems when you're willing to hand over so much creative control in return for his involvement, or when you can't create a suitably big role for him.
Let's not forget what happened last year, when this problem manifested in a segment that will live long in the memory of WWE fans: Cody Rhodes suggesting that he would delay his all-important title shot in order to let The Rock take the main stage. Like most people, I still wince when I hear that fateful line: 'I'm coming for you Roman, but not at WrestleMania.'
Yes, the WWE top dogs were able to call an audible and even try to spin the situation to their favor (at least if you believe what we heard in the company's in-house documentary, 'WrestleMania XL: Behind the Curtain'). But it still showed how the world's biggest wrestling company is happy to upend the entirety of its creative plans in order to accommodate a part-timer.
Neither does the WWE appear to have learned from the mistake. While things often move gradually in the run-up to WrestleMania, it's noticeable how non-committal things have been with the creative directions for Roman Reigns and Cody Rhodes this time around — almost as if the WWE execs were keeping things open until they knew the whereabouts of a certain Hollywood star.
It was a similar story last fall, when The Rock's appearance at Bad Blood turbocharged speculation that "The Final Boss" might be the one pulling the strings in The Bloodline story. When the big twist never came, most of us assumed we'd let our imaginations run away with us. But could it be that it was just a case of schedules not aligning?
It's a tricky balance to strike, this legends business. Bringing them back for scene-stealing cameos works great — just look at Stone Cold Steve Austin at WrestleMania 38, or even The Undertaker's appearance in last year's 'Mania finale. But keeping your biggest storylines on ice for them is a different proposition altogether.
Maybe I'll eat my words when the whole "I want your soul" thing blossoms into one of the greatest storylines in modern wrestling history. But based on what we saw last night, I'm not holding my breath.

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Bubba Ray Responds To R-Truth, Makes Bold Prediction About WWE LFG

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Bubba was also in rare form throughout this informative, if not heated, interview. Bubba Ray On Season 2 Of WWE LFG Bubba Ray Dudley: Alfred, before we get started- Alfred Konuwa: Let's go, let's go. BRD: Have you ever buried me on social media? AK: I don't believe I have. BRD: You don't believe you have? AK: No, because— BRD: Ah, ah, ah, ah, ah When Uncle Bubba talks you listen. Have you ever spoken disparagingly of me on the old Twitter machine? AK: My answer to you is: I do not think so. But because you're bringing this up, can you let me know what I may or may not have said? BRD: No, I'm asking you a flat…you would know if you talked bad about me. It's a yes or no question. AK: My answer is no because I've always put you over. BRD: Then we can proceed. As a matter of fact, since you put me over in the past, why don't you put me over some more? AK: I will (laughing), because one of my most viral tweets is when I said that I thought the Bully Ray character in TNA is a top five heel all time, without any qualifiers. And I can't tell you how many people I fought. Now, I'm not one of these people who stays on Twitter all the time and cares about what people tweet about me. But that was one where I got a lot of blowback about it and I stood on business about that. So no, I've said way more good things than bad, if I've said any bad things about you. BRD: Uh, uh, uh you almost slipped up there, Alfred, you almost... At, at, we almost caught you. AK: (Laughing) Okay, but I'm positive I've never buried you on social media. BRD: So, doesn't Forbes always do like their Top 100 or Top 500 or something like that? AK: They do do stuff like that. They have the 40 Under 40, Top Real-Time Billionaires etc. BRD: So is this like for the Top 10 Most Handsome Men in Professional Wrestling? AK: We could make it that. Why not? BRD: Because we all know by listening to 'Busted Open' every day and there's super sexy swinging sounds of Uncle Bubba's sandpapery smooth voice, that I am one of the most handsome men in professional wrestling. You would agree, right? Alfred? AK: I would agree that you are a Top 5 handsome man, without any question, without any qualifiers. BRD: (Laughing) You may ask your questions now, Alfred. AK: Absolutely. Well, I want to start by, of course thanking you. Again, big fan of yours. I don't care what anybody says. You are obviously an all-time great and you're coming back for season two of LFG. I would like to know, just based on Season 1, seeing everybody's coaching styles: Booker T, Undertaker's coming back, Michelle McCool is going to be there. Who do you feel is your biggest competition in terms of the coach? BRD: Actually, I have no competition because I don't look at it as a competition. And that's a genuine answer. We all have very unique in coaching styles. Obviously myself and Booker having wrestling schools over the past 15 to 20 years, Booker with Reality of Wrestling in Houston, Texas, myself and my brother D-Von with the Team 3D Academy down in Orlando, Florida, Booker has pumped out a lot of talent that has made it to the top. We have pumped out so much talent that has made it to the top of all wrestling companies. So, we have our very unique styles. As a matter of fact, as much as me and Booker break each other's chops about so many things, we agree on nine out of 10 things that will come up about the way we train. And we often find ourselves using the same terminology or the same methods to help pass down the knowledge. This is very new for the Undertaker. This is new because we're seeing more of the Undertaker than we probably ever have seen before. As a matter of fact, the word on the streets is that Undertaker is too nice on season one. Will we see a meaner, more stern Undertaker on Season 2? And Michelle brings a different set of eyes and ears for the women. I think Mickie James did a phenomenal job in season one. Mickie became like the mother to these future greats. I don't think Michelle McCool has that same vibe with them, but she is now a Hall of Famer, four Hall of Famers, four legendary talents up there, all judging these 16 future greats. It's not a competition to me. I want to see all 16 of these future greats take steps forward. But mostly, I want to see Zena Sterling do in Season 2 what should have happened in Season 1. And that is her being given that NXT contract and moving on to become the star that Zena will become. AK: I'm glad that you brought up Zena because there's a lot of familiar faces we're going to see an LFG from Season 1. Are there any names that come to mind that after seeing and working with this talent in Season 2, where your opinion has either gone up or down about them? BRD: Not my opinion because I'm pretty dead on balls accurate, once I meet you for the first time. I've been doing this for a while so I can kind of figure it out within the first five minutes. It's like a song. I know within the first five seconds whether I know a song or not. And I can tell you within the first five minutes whether or not I think a talent will pan out, and whether or not I think they have the right personality for our industry. There are however talents that have come out of their shell, that at first you say to yourself, "I'm not quite sure if we're ever going to see this person's real personality." And then somehow, some way it shines through. On the women's side, it's Sirena Linton, the girl who, Season 1, told us the story about how she watched her dad get deported and her brother get killed at an early age. And we saw the emotion out of her. She really didn't do too much in the first half of Season 1. She started to shine at the end of Season 1. And in Season 2, we're seeing more of that inner spicy side of her come to life, a lot more confidence in Sirena. And she's going to be interesting to watch. On the men's side, I got two words for you: Elijah, mother-trucking, Holyfield. I'll say those two words again. Elijah, mother-trucking, Holyfield. Elijah, another guy…when I first saw Elijah, I was like, "Oh my God." You want to talk about the it factor when it comes to just the visual? Wow. Dear God. But then he would open his mouth and there'd be nothing there, no confidence, no nothing. But as I spoke to Elijah a little bit more and I watched him and I observed him, very shy, very reserved. One day he said something and I was like, "Aha, there's something there. There's an inner anger, there's an inner volcano waiting to explode." And we saw it happen in the middle of Season 1. And in Season 2, I think you're going to see even more of Elijah Holyfield. You're going to see that bad mother trucker that we all know that he can be. And I think he's going to open a lot of eyes, and I think he's going to get out of the shadow of being the son of Evander Holyfield. AK: That's amazing. And I've already read some of these synopses for the first couple of episodes. And I saw that it says that you revisited some old issues with one Drake, mother trucking, Morreaux. So what are your thoughts about— BRD: Alfred, Alfred, don't ever use my terms. If you want to use my terms, you have to ask Uncle Bubba permission first. And it should sound like, "Uncle Bubba, can I please use your terms? Thank you. XOXO, Alfred." That's for the future. AK: My apologies, Uncle Bubba. BRD: Drake is… really like Drake Morreaux, I really, really do. But I think that's the problem. I think he's too likable. 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Bubba Ray Reacts To R-Truth's Response To Him AK: Speaking of the dynamic of the happy-go-lucky wrestler who—when the bell rings—they could get serious. You've had some pretty controversial thoughts about one, Ron Killings in saying that you did not necessarily agree with him going so serious so soon. BRD: You're wrong, Alfred. You're wrong. I never said that. AK: Okay. But can I just premise this by saying that him coming back and being more serious, you did have some objections to that. Am I right about that? BRD: No, you're wrong. AK: Can you let me know exactly what you said, and more importantly what you meant? BRD: So, did you listen to everything that I said on 'Busted Open,' or did you listen to clips on the cesspool that is Twitter? AK: Not only did I listen to everything you said on 'Busted Open,' I saw R-Truth's response, who seemed to also take exception to you saying that maybe he should be more of who he was before he got released. And I'd like to know your response to his response. BRD: When Ron Killings came on 'Busted Open,' did he seem as fired up or more fired up on 'Busted Open' as he was on Monday Night Raw? AK: He did seem very fired up. BRD: You're welcome. Because only I can bring that type of level of fire out of people, because I'm off frickin Sith Lord, when it comes to lighting fires underneath asses. It's what I do. And it's a dying art form in our industry. And very few get it. What I said was, I didn't want to hear…and this was just a personal opinion, did not want to hear him refer to himself as R-Truth anymore. I didn't want to hear the Truth theme. It seemed by cutting off the hair, to me was symbolic of him leaving the Truth persona behind. He wants to be serious Ron Killings, then I only want to hear about Ron Killings. Truth is somebody that we were entertained by for 20 years. I was entertained, I laughed with, I laughed at R-Truth, but did I ever really care about R-Truth? I want to care, I want to be emotionally invested. And I want that serious side of Ron Killings that I want to care about the serious side of Ron Killings. That's why I said, "I don't need to hear the Truth name anymore." This was an opinion. This was not like he has to do this, he must do this. And if Truth heard something that inspired him to pick up the phone and call 'Busted Open,' well, as I said in the beginning, you're welcome. I bring out the best and the worst in everybody. Bubba Ray Praises John Cena Heel Character AK: And Ron Killings, we're seeing what I think is the best of Ron Killings because I love this feud that he has with John Cena, who has been very polarizing as a heel. What do you think WWE has gotten right with the John Cena heel character? What do you think they've gotten wrong with it? BRD: I'm not falling into your trap. AK: What's the trap? I'm asking both sides. BRD: What have they done wrong with John Cena? 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AK: I really appreciate it because I was going to take out a credit line, but now I don't have to. Thank you so much. I wish we could go on and on. You're going to have to invite me on 'Busted Open' one of these days. I love this conversation. I'm going to put you over on Twitter again. BRD: Thank you, Alfred. Appreciate you. WWE LFG Season 2 premieres January 22, 2025 on A&E at 10 pm EST/9 pm Central. All quotes were received firsthand unless otherwise noted.

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WWE Superstars were all over Fanatics Fest 2025 NYC. The one who did the most work was Charlotte Flair, who tried her hands and feet at many different sports, none of them involving wrestling. The 14-time women's champion ran into a current WWE champion, the heel John Cena. No word on whether they traded secrets on how to be diabolical in the squared circle. Flair is chasing a championship currently. She won the Royal Rumble in 2025, becoming the 11th person to capture the event more than once. However, she failed to add a 15th title to her resume when she lost to Tiffany Stratton at WrestleMania. There's always hope in WWE, though. Charlotte Flair at Fanatics Fest NYC Charlotte Flair at Fanatics Fest NYC Charlotte Flair at Fanatics Fest NYC Charlotte Flair at Fanatics Fest NYC Charlotte Flair at Fanatics Fest NYC Charlotte Flair at Fanatics Fest NYC Charlotte Flair at Fanatics Fest NYC Charlotte Flair at Fanatics Fest NYC Charlotte Flair at Fanatics Fest NYC Charlotte Flair at Fanatics Fest NYC Charlotte Flair at Fanatics Fest NYC Charlotte Flair at Fanatics Fest NYC Charlotte Flair at Fanatics Fest NYC Charlotte Flair at Fanatics Fest NYC