WrestleMania 41’s night 2 main event has been hotly debated in the days following John Cena’s historic 17th WWE Championship win, and that was always going to continue to be a hot topic regardless of what anyone else said. Since then, however, The Rock has entered the chat, revealing not only the events that led up to his big moment at Elimination Chamber but also why he was noticeably absent from the WrestleMania match. Those comments have caused even more discussions regarding the event, so I’m breaking down the overall timeline of The Rock’s involvement in this WrestleMania storyline as well as Rock’s own comments about the story, and once all pieced together, it’s just not making much sense.
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Bad Blood – October 5th, 2024
Let’s start with Bad Blood 2024, which was the first of several appearances by The Rock over the course of the next few months. This one, however, was supposedly tied to a story that involved Roman Reigns and Cody Rhodes, as Cody and Roman were teaming up in the main event to take on the new Bloodline’s Solo Sikoa and Jacob Fatu. Jimmy Uso would make his return in the match to help Reigns, but the biggest surprise was The Rock, who shocked everyone both in his appearance after the match and by the fact that he didn’t actually say anything. The only thing he did was signal 1, 2, 3, and then the cut the throat signal before walking off.
It was rather confusing at the time, and with how everything has played out since, it still doesn’t make much sense in the grand scheme of things. This seemed like an appearance just to provide some shock value and perhaps hint at something else down the line, but then Rock would pretty much be fine and bury the hatchet with Rhodes on the Netflix premiere, so all that was squashed anyway, even if there were previous plans.
SmackDown February 21st, 2025
The next real chapter of this story was put into motion during the February 21st episode of WWE SmackDown. That’s when The Rock confronted Cody Rhodes in the ring and revealed that he would pretty much grant any wish or request Rhodes could ever ask for. The Rock just needed Rhodes to do one thing, and while Rhodes initially thought he wanted the Championship, Rock revealed that wasn’t the case at all.
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In response to Rhodes pointing to the Undisputed WWE Championship, Rock was quick to dismiss the notion, though he would reveal he wanted something far more rare. The Rock said, “I don’t want that. I want your soul.” That stunned Rhodes and the entire crowd, who didn’t know what to make of that request, and this was really where The Rock became a fixture of this particular story.
SmackDown – February 28th, 2025
This storyline continued into the next episode of SmackDown, which showed The Rock presenting lavish gifts to Rhodes like fancy meals, a stunning suite for his dressing room, and a custom Raptor truck that was rolled out onto the entrance ramp that featured Cody’s logo and graphics all over it.
The Rock appeared on the Titantron and was filming a video at the airport as he was on his way to Elimination Chamber. It was one last pitch to Rhodes, where he sounded more and more insane, even claiming that he had been talking with Dusty Rhodes about the decision Cody was going to make. This was now the story going into Elimination Chamber, and the two key players at this point were The Rock and Cody Rhodes.
Elimination Chamber – March 1st, 2025
That brings us to the moment that changed everything, which occurred at Elimination Chamber. After John Cena took down CM Punk to win his shot at WrestleMania 41, Cena stuck around to see the much-talked-about confrontation between The Rock and Cody Rhodes. Rhodes would shoot down Rock’s offer with authority, and that’s when Rock flashed the signal for Cena to make his move. Cena would then brutally attack Rhodes along with Travis Scott (who was there with The Rock), creating the biggest heel turn in professional wrestling since Hulk Hogan turned all those years ago in WCW.
Now, this is where things get interesting. In the new interview with Pat McAfee, Rock explained his side of how he got involved with Elimination Chamber and the pitch that ended up becoming Cody’s Soul storyline, a move that was done to boost Chamber a bit.
“I got a call about a month before Elimination Chamber. I get a call from Ari Emanuel, who we know owns TKO. TKO owns WWE. He’s been my longtime business partner and one of my best friends for over 20 years. He said we need help at Elimination Chamber,” Rock said. “Ticket sales are a little slow, but beyond that, he goes what we are finding is that with Elimination Chamber, it’s become the pay-per-view that’s been interesting, the 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.”
“Ari got back to Triple H and Nick, we had a call, and 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,” Rock said.
“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, and I know we talked 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,” Rock said. “Let’s get a temperature check on this. Let’s establish it, anchor it in, and you come to find out that there were a lot of fans who were saying ‘sell your soul.’ This s*** is gonna be crazy. Whatever it is, it’s going to be compelling. Let’s do it, sell your soul.”
WrestleMania 41 – April 20th, 2025
After Elimination Chamber WWE went into full build mode for Cody Rhodes vs John Cena for WrestleMania 41, which meant multiple appearances from Cena on Monday Night Raw and even one or two on SmackDown. Cena talked a lot over the course of the past few weeks, and so did Rhodes, though not always to each other, as each of them delivered solo promos early on.
A key element that continued to come up was The Rock, and specifically Cena selling out to The Rock. Cena broached the subject during his promos, and Rhodes brought it up multiple times, especially when he was in the ring with Cena. That led many to believe that Rock would show up to either further or complete the story at WrestleMania, but in a shocking turn of events that didn’t end up happening. Instead Travis Scott was the only other person to show up in the feud, and Rock was a no-show.
During the interview with McAfee on ESPN, Rock revealed that it was his idea to step back and not appear at WrestleMania. “When we were moving forward with John, and this idea of him getting crowned at WrestleMania and becoming 17 and then being a heel Champion, I knew then. The best thing for the Final Boss, we’v established this idea of Cody’s soul. We can always come back to it. I did feel — and 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,” Rock said.
This is the part that doesn’t seem to fit with how much went into making this idea happen in the first place. Whether it was a quick turnaround or not, the idea of Cody’s soul and the battle for it was planted in a big way, and The Rock was the central antagonist of that story. If Cena had turned on Rhodes in a vacuum, then pushing that story to the side for the battle at hand would make more sense, but The Rock was a central figure in Cena turning on Rhodes and directly involved, making it virtually impossible to exit stage left without the void it leaves being glaringly obvious. Moving to the back was never going to work at this stage, as it would have needed to happen independently of the Cena turn.
Rock did address the finish of the match and that they had six weeks to put it all together, but one of the most interesting parts is when he says he was as shocked as everyone else when Scott showed up, and understood what that appearance now meant in fans’ heads.
“I was just as surprised to see Travis Scott as well, and I knew the moment I saw Travis, well that immediately amplifies well here comes the Final Boss. I mean that was it, they were waiting. They were waiting for it,” Rock said.
“At the end of the day, North Star, John Cena heel Champion, 17, the G.O.A.T, says he’s going to ruin wrestling, now we tune in every week to see how it happens and how that goes down. Some parts of it I would’ve just…adjust a little bit more. I would’ve finessed it a little bit more,” Rock said.
The Future
So, where does that leave The Rock’s involvement now? Well, for the foreseeable future it would seem that Rock isn’t going to be directly involved in Cena and Rhodes’ story, though he did hint that this planted the seeds for a future Rhodes heel turn, and that the Cody’s soul story can and likely will be picked up again down the line.
“So I was an advocate of that. Not turning Cody heel soon, but eventually down the line I like the idea of that because Cody’s a smart guy, an intelligent guy. 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 him a reason to turn that’s not based on Titles, not based on this, but it’s based on his soul and what that means, that affects generations, it’s transcendent beyond pro wrestling, and fans were loving it,” Rock said.
Then he talked the future. “And by the way, we’ll go back to it,” Rock said. “We’ll go back to soul. Look, the texts that I got and from the guys that I got, were these top guys who were saying, one in particular who I love, is my guy, you know I call him the Superman of the company. He’s like listen, my soul’s for sale when it’s time. And I said I love it, let’s do it.”
It would appear that we aren’t quite done with the soul storyline just yet, but time will tell if it actually does get picked up again or is left in the dust as various other factors change over the course of the year.
What did you think of Rock’s comments on missing WrestleMania, and should they go back to that storyline at some point? Let us know in the comments, and you can talk all things wrestling with me on Bluesky @knightofoa!
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