Another intriguing rumour about The Rock has started doing the rounds online, this time regarding his presence on the set of Black Adam. Plus, did he really try stealing the WrestleMania main event?
By JoshWilding – May 30, 2024 09:05 AM EST
Filed Under: Black Adam
It’s been a strange couple of years for Dwayne Johnson. There was a time when the Hollywood A-Lister could do no wrong, only for the narrative to shift ever since Black Adam was released.
The movie’s poor financial performance called his status as a box office draw into question and comic book fans began turning on the actor once they learned of his supposed DCEU takeover attempt.
Quite a few high-profile failures followed, including a reported $60 million loss on his attempt at rebooting Vince McMahon’s failed XFL (a football league which, once upon a time, was going to combine that sport and the sort of wacky storylines seen in professional wrestling).
Last month, a damning report from the trades claimed to shed light on the consequences of Johnson’s habit of arriving hours late to movie sets and an alleged habit of peeing in water bottles.
Now, legendary pro wrestling manager Jim Cornette has shared information from an anonymous Atlanta-based source who claims to have worked on several of The Rock’s movies. Most of the claims line up with what we’ve already heard but the most interesting comes when Cornette reads, “‘For The Rock’s DC movie, Black Adam, much of the film was shot with The Rock’s stunt double and they used CGI to replace his face.'”
That has become a common practice in Hollywood but the suggestion here is that The Rock’s habit of showing up late forced Black Adam to go to extreme and costly measures when the time came to film his scenes.
While we’d suggest taking this with a pinch of salt (Cornette was reading an email from someone who had been told this by a friend in the film industry), it comes at a bad time for the actor. The video below is well worth a listen as it also details The Rock’s frequent habit of sharing social media posts about visiting In-N-Out Burger for the first time…on at least three occasions.
Earlier this year, Johnson was added to the board of WWE’s new parent company TKO Holdings and inserted himself into the main event of WrestleMania. Fans turned on him for stealing Cody Rhodes’ place and he was left with no other choice than to turn heel/become a bad guy.
He had a successful run in WWE as the Final Boss in the months that followed but it wasn’t necessarily the triumphant return he’d expected.
As we first reported on TheRingReport.com, The Rock’s long-time personal writer Brian Gerwitz has denied claims that the Brahma Bull set out to put the spotlight on himself under the guise of “saving” the annual Showcase of the Immortals.
“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.”
Despite Gerwitz’s comments, it’s worth pointing out that since Johnson took on a behind-the-scenes role in WWE, his 22-year-old daughter has been named NXT General Manager and his second cousin, Nia Jax, was just crowned Queen of the Ring after winning a recent tournament. Whether that’s a coincidence or not is unclear.
