Possible Personal Reason Behind The Rock’s Sudden WWE Absence

Former WWE name turned wrestling analyst, Jonathan Coachman, gives some insight about The Final Boss’s sudden absence from WWE after WrestleMania 41

The Rock has had a storied career with WWE. His initial run during the promotion’s Attitude Era is one of the most memorable and beloved, and was so good that it led him to transition to Hollywood to pursue an acting career.

The People’s Champion continued to make appearances sporadically in WWE in the years after he left as a major attraction. He went on to be a part-timer in the 2010s all the way up to today, memorably feuding with John Cena and Cody Rhodes, among others. Today, he is one of the members of the WWE’s owners, TKO Holding’s Group’s board of directors.

Fans were disappointed, however, in 2025 when The Final Boss was involved in a major storyline leading up to John Cena’s heel turn and, after facilitating it, suddenly disappeared from WWE programming.

Coach Shares Possible Reasons for The Rock’s Absence

Speaking to Vince Russo on The Coach And Bro Podcast, Jonathan Coachman, who is a close friend of The Rock’s, revealed to Vince Russo what he felt was one of the key possibilities in the latter’s sudden disappearance.

He attributed it to possibly being about Rock’s recent Golden Globe award nomination for his new film, The Smashing Machine. He explained that award voters don’t take wrestling seriously and postulated that if The Rock wouldn’t distance himself from WWE at this time, it could hurt his chances of winning the Golden Globe and even a possible Oscar for the film.

The only thing I can think of is because when you have a conversation on radio or here, you wanna give all perspectives.

And I said maybe, maybe it’s the acting thing. There are still people that vote for the Golden Globes, and he’s up for a Golden Globe which means he’s probably gonna be up for an Oscar for the Smashing Machine and sometimes you get paranoid.

He went on to share a crucial piece of advice Rock got from his agent from 20 years ago that he could possibly still be sticking to.

And 20 years ago Vince, his agent said you gotta completely disengage from wrestling because those people will never take you seriously and i’m wondering if maybe that’s a little bit of it? That now that he has a chance to be recognised as a legitimate actor, that he doesn’t wanna let anything spoil that. (44:59 onwards)

Also read: Triple H To Turn Heel, The Rock Returning In Wild WWE Scenario

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