WWE Bosses Called In The Rock To Boost Disappointing Ticket Sales

It was bosses from WWE’s parent company who decided The Rock needed to return earlier in 2025.

After seemingly distancing himself from Cody Rhodes on Raw in January, The Rock returned to television just before Elimination Chamber, suggesting the American Nightmare sell his soul and join him.

Despite the pitch, at Elimination Chamber, Rhodes turned The Rock down, only to be attacked by Jon Cena after The Great One gave a signal.

While The Rock then disappeared from television, Cena went on to beat Rhodes at WrestleMania 41 via a helping hand from Hip Hop star Travis Scott.

During an appearance on The Pat McAfee Show, Rock broke down how his appearance at Elimination Chamber came about. Surprisingly, the star admitted that he was called personally by TKO Group Chairman Ari Emanuel, as there were concerns about slow ticket sales and interest in the event.

“I got a call about a month before Elimination Chamber. I get a call from Ari Emanuel, who owns TKO. He said, ‘We need help at Elimination Chamber. Ticket sales a little slow, but beyond that, what we are finding is, it’s become the pay-per-view that is interesting, fans have had fun, but it’s also the conduit to WrestleMania.

How do we create an Elimination Chamber that people must tune in to see. How do we create that? Right now, we don’t have that. Will the Final Boss show up?’ I said, ‘Let me give it some thought and I’ll get back to you.’ I gave it some thought, I got back to Ari, Triple H, Nick [Khan], and we had a call.”

The Rock Explains WrestleMania Absence

As the interview continued, The Rock said he missed WrestleMania because the story didn’t need him.

Once it was decided he would be at Elimination Chamber, the story was put in place for John Cena to turn heel as the show ended, following the tease regarding Cody Rhodes. However, despite his heavy involvement in the story to that point, he wouldn’t feature at all moving forward.

This meant he was never mentioned on-screen by anyone involved and ultimately missed WrestleMania altogether.

He later admitted that he would have made some creative “adjustments” regarding the match and expressed surprise that Travis Scott was involved in the final stages.

There’s no word on when The Rock will return to WWE television.

H/t to Fightful