The Rock wasn’t late for WrestleMania, but here’s why some people in WWE resent him

The Wrap’s scathing report on Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson’s lack of professionalism made big news earlier this week.

While characterizing The Rock as something of a primadonna, the report described his tendency to be late on set as something that drove his co-workers nuts in the Hollywood world. This claim also touched on his return to WWE this year, where The Rock was said to have arrived late for his match at WrestleMania 40.

However, according to Wrestling Observer Radio’s Dave Meltzer, WWE’s denial of that claim is accurate:

“He was not late for WrestleMania, but he was three hours late for the fan fest…some people will see the quote from Chris Legentil and say, ‘Oh, it’s damage control.’ But I’ve talked to and heard from several people…he was definitely not late for WrestleMania.”

That being said, Meltzer claims there are people in WWE who do resent The Rock for trying to take credit for WWE’s current hot streak:

“No one can say anything bad about him publicly, but there are people who are very resentful of him going like, ‘I came back and wrestling is cool,’ after WWE had a tremendous year. You know, the idea that he’s kind of trying to take credit for this resurgence that happened a year before he came back.”

It always did catch my attention when The Rock used the line on TV about wrestling being cool again now that he’s back, and I can definitely see why some folks in the company interpreted that line as a slight against them. If anything, it was the downfall of Vince McMahon and rise of Paul “Triple H” Levesque that was the catalyst for WWE’s rise in popularity.

In other words, WWE certainly didn’t need The Rock to come back and turn things around for them. Per Meltzer, this led to some people in the company being happy about The Rock’s highly anticipated return match on WrestleMania Saturday not outdrawing the main event of WrestleMania Sunday:

“There were definitely people who were happy that Sunday outdrew Saturday when it came to viewers…the idea that the match with The Rock and his return did not outdraw Roman Reigns and Cody Rhodes. But you can also make the argument that everyone knew The Rock was going to be involved in that match too.”

Given WWE’s surge in momentum going back to the second half of 2022, WrestleMania 40 was going to be an incredibly successful show even if The Rock had nothing to do with it. But Dwayne’s harshest critics can at least acknowledge that his presence is a boon for business, while simultaneously rolling their eyes about his claim that he made wrestling cool again:

“Even people who are very negative on him readily admit that when he came in it made the brand more popular. He drove TV ratings to a great degree. He helped drive this WrestleMania to be the biggest two day WrestleMania there’s been.”

So there you have it, Cagesiders. The Rock wasn’t late for WrestleMania. But if his primadonna-ish tendencies rubbed some folks in WWE the wrong way, it doesn’t seem to be that big of a deal when the end result is an even more profitable and popular product.