Leading up to WWE WrestleMania 40, Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson factored back into WWE storylines, initially confronting Undisputed WWE Universal Champion Roman Reigns to set up a familial clash at the Showcase of the Immortals. Fans revolted at the idea, pushing for Royal Rumble winner Cody Rhodes to get his rightful title shot, and The Rock responded accordingly. The Rock turned heel for the first time in over two decades, aligning with Reigns to wage war on Rhodes and then-WWE World Heavyweight Champion Seth Rollins. Dubbing himself “The Final Boss,” this version of The Rock showed immediate dominance, as he pinned Rhodes on WWE WrestleMania 40 Night 1.
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Triple H Teases The Rock’s Big WWE Return
The Final Boss will return.
During the WWE Monday Night Raw after WWE WrestleMania 40, The Rock confronted new WWE Champion Cody Rhodes, giving him his flowers and noting that he has to “go away” for a little bit. The Rock then declared that he would be back, and when that day comes, he has his sights on Rhodes.
Speaking at the SBJ World Congress of Sports, WWE Chief Content Officer Paul “Triple H” Levesque reiterated that The Rock’s return will come, teasing that it will be “a hell of a ride.”
“He goes off, makes a few movies now, but as he said a week ago, he’ll be back and it will be a hell of a ride when he comes back,” Triple H said.
WWE WrestleMania 40 represented the first time in over a decade that The Rock had a legitimate storyline within WWE. Beyond that, it was his first time doing genuine character work since his full-time WWE days in the late 1990s and early 2000s.
“We were thrilled to have Rock being involved. When you can have the biggest star on the globe, arguably, want to be a part of what we do in a meaningful way and want to do it in a way where he’s not just, ‘Hey, I’ll come in, tell me what to do, I’ll do this’ [but instead dedicates] all of his resources, all of his brain power, all of his creative, his branding, everything,” Triple H added. “‘I want to invest in this and make it an amazing ride for our fans.’ It doesn’t get any better than that. If you would have told me in the beginning of the conversations we were going to get The Final Boss heel version of The Rock, I would have said you were crazy, but that’s his level of commitment.”
