Scathing report on The Rock’s unprofessionalism draws a denial from WWE

Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson has a new movie coming to Amazon this November called Red One. The Christmas-themed action comedy was originally supposed to be released during the 2023 holiday season.

The stated reason for the delay was last year’s writer and actor strikes. But an expose on Johnson published today (April 30) in The Wrap says the new release date is the result of a combination of factors including “Johnson’s chronic lateness and lack of professionalism” and the inexperience of the movie’s producers — including Hiram Garcia, the President of Production for The Rock’s Seven Bucks Productions.

Umberto Gonzalez’s report on Red One covers a lot of ground, including documenting complaints about Johnson’s schedule and work ethic going back to the 2010s HBO series Ballers, the 2018 film Rampage, and 2020’s Red Notice for Netflix (where issues with Rock reached a point that he and co-star Ryan Reynolds had a “huge fight” that led to Johnson “storming off set”). It certainly casts new light on Johnson’s famous Fast & Furious feud with Vin Diesel, and is worth reading if you’re a fan of Hollywood gossip… or just want a reminder that pro wrestling isn’t the only business with backstage drama, anonymous leaks to the media, and a fan base ready to devour & debate every report.

As tempting as it is to focus on the Reynolds beef, or the comparisons between Garcia and “Turtle” from Entourage, or how Johnson allegedly urinates in bottles to save time on set…

“On set, away from his trailer, if he needs to pee, he doesn’t go to the public bathroom,” said one insider who knows the movie star well. “He pees in a Voss water bottle and his team or a PA has to dispose of it.”

Seriously, read the whole piece. It’s A LOT.

Focusing on the actual pro wrestling-related parts of The Wrap’s story, sources tell Gonzalez that Johnson was three hours late arriving for his match at WrestleMania 40 earlier this month. It’s also said he was late for his appearance at The World, something he addressed in character when he did arrive for the ‘Mania week fan event:

WWE issued informal and formal denials of those stories to The Wrap:

According to a WWE insider, Johnson’s late arrival was due to other WWE commitments, as well as traffic in Philadelphia on the way to the WWE World venue in Center City.

Chris Legentil, WWE’s executive vice president for Talent Relations and Head of Communications, told TheWrap, “Dwayne was not only on time for WrestleMania, he was hours early to help with rehearsal — and a pleasure to work with throughout the entire run.”

If these kinds of issues have ruffled feathers either in the WWE locker room or the TKO Board room, that’s been kept pretty well under wraps so far. The main complaints about Johnson the pro wrestling media has covered are related to his lengthy and non-PG promos.

Johnson is expected back to do more on-screen for WWE later this year (after filming a biopic of mixed martial arts pioneer Mark Kerr for independent studio A24 that has one The Wrap source musing that “[Writer/director] Benny [Safdie] has NO clue what he’s gotten himself into”).

We’ll see if his next pro wrestling run remains drama-free, or if some of the issues threatening to tarnish his Hollywood reputation follow him home to WWE.