Much has been said about the possibility of backstage friction between WWE CCO Triple H and TKO board member Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson.
The Final Boss inserting himself into various storylines (and last year's WrestleMania main event) has come close to completely derailing The Game's creative plans on more than one occasion now, making him as big a nuisance as Vince McMahon following his supposed "retirement."
Fan backlash stopped The Rock from facing Roman Reigns at last year's WrestleMania and allowed Cody Rhodes to finish his story as Triple H intended.
However, after making sure he got his share of the spotlight during John Cena's heel turn, Johnson would later make some wild claims about ticket sales, which were quickly proven incorrect, and went so far as to criticise how Cena's match against Rhodes in Las Vegas was booked. After it received a largely negative response from fans, of course.
That felt like, if not a direct shot at Triple H, then at least an indication that there are issues between the two men. Well, if former WWE commentator Jonathan Coachman is to be believed, there's no love lost between Dwayne and Paul.
"From my time there and my time with the Rock, I know for a fact that he does not get along with Triple H. That does not go away," he claimed. "They've always been butting heads for years and years for a lot of different reasons."
"The reason I said on my show there's a big power struggle. Well, first of all, I've talked to two people close to the situation, and they've told me, but I can't tell you who they are, but I've got really good intel," Coachman added. "And we predicted that within 18 months, Triple H will not be running WWE anymore."
"I actually feel kind of bad for him because I've always really, really liked him. But look at what happened at WrestleMania. He gets inducted into the Hall of Fame for the third time. An hour and 37 minute speech at 1 in the morning. You're overscheduling the entire week."
"There's nothing free for fans to go to, and then at WrestleMania, you're going to disrespect Bret Hart and Stone Cold Steve Austin and walk them out with everybody else to give a wave to the crowd, and you get your own water music entrance right next to those guys," he concluded.
Coachman went on to share his belief that The Rock wants former WWE writer Brian Gewirtz (who still writes his promos and storylines) to take over creative, essentially replacing Triple H.
While the former WWE employee likely does have some well-placed sources backstage, much of this sounds like the typical gossip exchanged between those who likely don't know as much as they let on. Even so, there's often no smoke without fire when it comes to pro wrestling.
You can hear more from Coachman in the player below.