When Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson returned to WWE earlier this year, it was widely reported that he'd inserted himself into WrestleMania under the guise of "saving" the Show of Shows.
Cody Rhodes had won the Royal Rumble and seemed destined to challenge Roman Reigns for the Undisputed WWE Universal Championship. However, WWE suddenly pivoted and the American Nightmare very reluctantly allowed The Rock to take his place in the WrestleMania main event.
Fan backlash was immediate and vocal, and The Rock went from being a beloved fan favourite to being despised by those who hoped to see Rhodes "finish the story" at WrestleMania. As a result, WWE was forced to shake things up (again).
Talking on Busted Open Radio, The Rock's WWE writer and Seven Bucks executive Brian Gerwitz claimed Johnson never intended to "save" the annual PLE.
"After Royal Rumble, there was this narrative that Rock has vowed he's going to 'save WrestleMania.' Those words never escaped his mouth," Gewirtz claims. "He loves the business. Fans are gonna react to what they see, what they infer. Sometimes they're right, sometimes they're not."
"But I don't think the idea of people booing him bothered him as much as the narrative of, like, 'Yeah, he got on the board [of TKO] and he just decided he's going to main event WrestleMania,' when it was obviously well thought out well before then."
To The Rock's credit, he very quickly embraced being a heel and introduced his "Final Boss" character, a throwback to his "Hollywood Rock" persona from the early 2000s.
"I think the 'Final Boss' character is, of all the incarnations of The Rock - from People's Champ, to Corporate Rock, obviously Rocky Maivia. I think 'Final Boss' is the most fun he's had in a WWE ring," Gewirtz added.
In another recent interview, the writer shared his thoughts on Rhodes winning the Royal Rumble. "The idea of Cody winning the Rumble, I thought, was problematic," he said. "In full transparency. I said even in San Diego in that meeting, I thought the cleanest thing to do if we’re booking Rock and Roman is to have [CM] Punk win the Rumble and challenge [Seth] Rollins."
"Because there’s a difference storyline-wise in my opinion of Cody wanting to finish the story and having earned the right to finish the story by winning the Royal Rumble...Punk gets hurt and the dominos start falling and things start shifting and then we get to a point now where the WrestleMania press conference is coming up."
"We need to promote something, a main event of some sort and we’re in this space and now we get to the infamous Birmingham, Alabama promo."
That was the promo which led to fans turning on The Rock and the rest, as they say, is history!