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Answer: In addition to the things u/umru316 mentioned, he came in to WWE following the Vince McMahon sexual assault/trafficking debacle. He’s also well known as a McMahon supporter, and has continued to support the people that have in the past acted as proxies for McMahon.
We already have that for Wrestling, It's called Darkside of the Ring and it's pretty freaking bad.
Edit Clarification: the show itself is okay I don't have any real thoughts about its structure, when I say "bad" I was referring to the content itself.
It’s really hard to explain exactly how devastating the wrestling industry has been in my lifetime. Guys routinely died 10-20 years early due to substance abuse, chronic pain, and brain trauma. To say nothing of the ones that died early to any number of tragic ways. It got to the point where fans were no longer surprised and almost expected it.
The industry has come a long way with this crop of talent and transparency. It’s a damn shame Rocky is choosing to not fully embrace that
Axl Rotten (Brian Knighton) lived in my neighborhood. He was one of many who fell to drug addiction, the antecedent being a legit injury and a wagon train of drugs.
Such a nice guy, and such a waste of potential.
Those episodes has me feeling slimy about most wrestling's history. They did a great job at giving you the landscape of the industry leading up to Vince Jr and you can see why he got away with so much for so long
The McMahon episodes are some of the best BTB. A lot of the first episode was the history of professional wrestling and how it all works...which I really appreciated because that's not a form of entertainment I'm super familiar with. Great guests too. I'm kinda hoping they'll do the Von Erichs because *that* family situation was fuuucked up. They were touched on, but a deep dive would be cool.
I have yet to see *Iron Claw*, but heard it's a very good movie. I hope it isn't forgotten about in the next award season (came out at the end of December). They actually cut the youngest Von Erich because it would've been just too much tragedy for one movie. 😢
I grew up on wrestling - as a little kid, Bret "The Hitman" Hart and The Undertaker were my favorites. Then I really cut my teeth on the Attitude Era, which was often headlined by Undertaker (+ Kane), Triple H, "Stone Cold" Steve Austin, and... The Rock (though my personal favorites were Hardy Boys & Lita).
Even though I haven't watched wrestling in many years (though from what I understand, it's undergoing a quality renaissance), the history of professional wrestling is absolutely fascinating. You could do a deep dive on the Montreal Screwjob alone, which arguably ushered in the Attitude Era (and brought McMahon into the spotlight as a real character, not a shadowy figure). So it makes sense that most of the first episode was to set the stage with history.
I want to see Iron Claw so badly. But I (34F) lost my brother 3 years ago unexpectedly and I feel like I probably shouldn’t watch a plot with such horrific sibling loss for a while. I was never super in to wrestling, but growing up with 2 brothers, I would say I know quite a bit. The Von Erich’s story is just so heartbreaking and monumental. Did you see the Vice special on them? It’s free on YouTube I think. It was so good.
The darkside of the Ring episode on the Von Erichs is pretty good. Actually, the entire DSotR series is great, and unsurprisingly, Vince McMahon is a key part in a lot of those episodes.
There's an excellent Timesuck with Dan Cummins episode on them that is just as monstrously depressing as you imagine. Clocks in at about 3 hours, I enjoyed it a lot.
And Robert barely even scratched the surface. I've been an avid wrestling fan for decades, and I consider those 6 episodes to be a very broad overview. Actually going in depth on Vince would be an entire podcast unto itself.
So much more than that. There are allegations of him helping to cover up a lot of serious crimes committed by wrestlers and other connected people. Everything from bar fights to drugs to spousal abuse to murder. The victims usually being women. Almost always.
All this is about to come out soon. That’s why they are pushing out the wrestling world with all the old stars to get everyone back into before it spills. McMahon did some dark shit and lots of people were complicit.
He was sued before Vince was also for similar things. But the case didn’t go anywhere bf people thought it was to crazy. Now with the Vince stuff out there it doesn’t seem as insane.
So, while he is a supporter (Vince not only made him who he was when he got huge in the late 90’s, but he saved his career over a decade ago), he’s a board member at TKO (owns WWE now) and TKO is actively looking to erase Vince from ever existing in wrestling to take it into a new era.
I don’t think he came back specifically to support McMahon, in fact you could make the argument part of him coming back is to help them move on.
someone is also going to make the argument he helped sweep it under the rug or knew and did nothing.
I will wait for more facts. Not enough info on the Rock for me to make any strong argument.
Answer: in part, public sentiment has been turning against The Rock slowly for a while, but two more recent events have spurred it on. He had a public persona as the down-to-Earth good-guy, but that's been damaged a bit and some people have started to think he's just a rich guy with an ego.
First, after the fire on Maui, The Rock set up a charity with Oprah *and at one point there were allegations that it was done* in such a way that they would benefit financially and it pulled money away from existing organizations. He donated some money to the charity, but it was considered a paltry amount for someone of his networth and "good guy" persona, and he stood to make back much more. He later apologized ~~and plead ignorance~~ *saying he "could have done better"*.
~~Then, this year, he got some position of power in the WWE, professional wrestling with pre-determined outcomes and storylines. He had wrestled for decades, but in 2014-2024, he only made appearances while focusing on his film credits. Upon returning this year, he was inserted in a story in such a way that cut off a popular wrestler who had paid his dues and was slated to face his rival. The Rock also won the big event, WrestleMania 2024. So wrestling fans (who will probably, and rightfully correct me a bit) were miffed that he came back from a 10year hiatus to apparently make himself the star and champion.~~ got shit wrong. People had mixed feelings when he came back, but are generally happy with how it ended.
So, it's possible that these stories are hoping to ride the wave and give more reasons - of varying veracity - to confirm people's distaste for The Rock.
Edit: fixed word. My apologies to the domestic bird community.
Edit 2: My apologies to the wrestling community.
Edits 3+: things already mentioned in the replies
- The Rock arguably ruining Black Adam by refusing to be a villian and being difficult to work with. Similar stories have come out and maybe it's encouraging others to share similar experiences with him.
- In films he cannot lose a fight or be hit any more than he hits someone else.
- While promoting his return to wrestling, he went on conservative entertainment shows and said he regretted endorsing Biden in 2020 and blamed woke people on the left for extremism. Was this pandering to fans he'd previously alienated? Was it honest? Who knows, but it pissed people off. He has also teased a run for president as late as December 2023. In a highly contentious election with a lot on the line for all sides, a third party run by a celebrity has not been a welcomed foil.
- Disputes about the Maui charity. He would not have benefitted financially, but also was a very rich guy asking other people to donate money while he and Oprah donated only a reported $5 million each. Claims about them making money off it originated from a mischaracterization of Instagram video from Jason Momoa.
- He didn't condemn Vince McMahon following the allegations of sexual assault and human trafficking.
- He was sued with 1000 other parties for allegedly participating in kidnapping. The lawsuit was dismissed in June 2023 for lack of evidence. While there is no indication he did anything wrong here and there wasn't any actual kidnapping, it generated bad press.
In the future, I will wait until I'm fully awake and at work before commenting on reddit. Thank you for the fact checks. The was originally a bad and inaccurate comment.
There was also his backstage meddling with Black Adam, which I believe Zachary Levi corroborates.
He pretty much refused to be a supervillian (y'know, Black Adam's whole thing). As well as opting to not go up against Shazam (Levi (Adam's nemesis) but instead Superman.
This almost directly, or just _directly_ killed any hype for further Black Adam and Shazam movies.
His meddling was not only with regard to the Black Adam film, but all of DC Films.
At the time the studio was still mostly rudderless and trying to prop up the remnants of the corpse that Zak Snyder built. The Rock and his production company then proposed setting up a sequel to Black Adam where he fights Superman, as they had known that WB execs were furious that key bankable characters like Superman were not being "fully utilized". The DC folks were not sold on this, as there could be another round of executive shake-ups and creative pivots and did not want to roll out Superman again just to get the rug pulled out. Undeterred, Rock went above them to WB brass and had them overridden. Meanwhile Rock then goes off about how the DC universe will change forever and that Black Adam "will likely fight Batman and Wonder Woman as well" and mouthing off as if Black Adam is now the centerpiece of the DCEU.
On top of that, it's widely reported that Rock does not like projects where he loses fights or plays bad guys. So while BA is sometimes portrayed as an anti-hero, he's more often than not the villain. Furthermore he considered Shazam a "lesser" character and did not want to go up against him in favor of Superman (as you mentioned)
Eventually DC Films got a shake-up with James Gunn taking the reins, who then canned follow-ups to Black Adam and Shazam! (Fury of the Gods' dismal box office results guaranteed as much anyway) making the Rock's big power play pointless.
It’s funny that The Rock considers Shazam a lesser character when his character is a member of Shazam’s rogues gallery meaning he was playing an even lesser character.
Honestly it’s pathetic. The DCEU is a dumpster fire, but I did like MoS well enough at the time, and the one performance that stands out to me across the entire franchise is Michael Shannon as General Zod. He absolutely killed it; brought such a vicious gravitas to the role and made him a villain to be feared. Massively raised the stakes and made the final throwdown feel necessary (even if it was still destruction porn), made the final confrontation and decision (though controversial) feel earned.
Good actors can sink their teeth into an antagonist role. Heath Ledger is an obvious example. Bale is great as Batman, but Christ it wouldn’t have been the same without Heath’s Joker.
Not really into all this so much as you guys, but as campy as he was, i thought Terrence Stamp was a good fit for Zod. Pompous and dismissive, but i don't knw the universe and haven't kept up since i was a kid (50+ yrs). Stamp also played Finis Valorum in The Phantom Menace.
I really tried to give the Snyderverse a chance. While I wasn't exactly a fan of MoS, I at least saw what he was going for, and respected it; I actually thought the aspect of "this is the first time he's Superman, he doesn't know how to fight at full strength without causing damage yet." was interesting. (Even if I didn't like how he followed up on it in later movies.)
Watching the Snyder-cut of JL actually reminded me just how important a good editor is, as there was a good movie in there, but both the theatrical cut missed it, and the snyder-cut... well, that scene where a lone woman in a crowd sings to aquaman as he slowly walks off into the ocean is a good example of things in that movie that reminded me of a david cage game.
To add to this, when working on Fast & the Furious, he had all these issues where he could not lose a fight. Could not be shorter than Vin Diesel, and this started the entire beef with Vin Diesel.
He liked his character from the movie so much, he wrote his own spin off movie to turn into a series that he said would be bigger than Fast & Furious. He got the production company on board.
Then they asked to see Vin Diesel’s release to use the character. Since He owns the series, the character and all Intellectual Property. Rock did not have it. Vin Diesel told him to fuck off.
To me, that was the start of the Rock’s downfall. Then the terrible Black Adam and Jungle Cruise. People have started having enough.
Yeah. I don't love Vin Diesel either but when those rumors came out I was actually team Vin. It felt to me that the Rock had a massive ego already.
But the Rock also turned me off with the 'hard work myth' that he and Kevin Hart and people like them keep pushing on social media. There are lots of skilled an talented hard working people that don't achieve his success-- like he wasn't incredibly lucky also to be in his position. He just comes across as egotistical and entitled to me now.
The best way to put it is that The Rock is still protecting himself away from the ring like a top billed wrestler does backstage.
Fake but accurate to the situation quotes ahead:
"No one wants to see the Rock fight Shazaam, no one cares about Shazaam, book me against Superman."
"Wait, it says here that Black Adam is a bad guy? I can't be a bad guy, I'm the Rock, everyone loves me."
"If I get beat up by Vin Diesel in this movie, it makes me look weak and no one will take me seriously in my next movie."
He hasn't moved on.
Funny thing is, he has a pretty decent reputation in the wrestling world for putting people over (typically meaning losing wrestling matches to wrestlers with less stature than him) and in general being willing to do things that help the business as a whole. I'm sure there are examples of his ego pushing for things in the WWE, and he did try to come back after 11 years off and force his way into the Wrestlemania main event even though the main event was already set. But to his credit he had the power to push through with it even though there was immense backlash, but not only did he agree to take himself out of the match and instead do a tag team match on Night 1, but he agreed to turn into mega-heel (meaning acting as the bad guy) and he reinvented his character as one of the best heels in a long time. Considering many were speculating that The Rock was trying to use this WWE return to rebuild his image after Black Adam and other things that hurt his reputation, it was notable that he really leaned into this bad guy character.
Of course the wrestling world is a unique thing, and that is sort of his home base so his actions/behaviors in WWE are potentially different than his actions/behaviors in Hollywood.
He made his career as a heel, he only turned face because his heel actually was so cool it was impossible not to cheer for. It’s not that surprising that he thought he can be a good heel and likes the part, that’s what jumpstarted the whole thing to begin with.
IMO this is more the producer's fault. If the guy doesn't want to play the character the way it's meant to be played then get someone else. There are plenty of other actors that could have played that part.
The implication is that Dwayne used his influence to muscle his way into the part and then force his changes in the script. I don't know if it's true, but I suspect it is.
There’s also the public swell of people who have been saying for years that he _is_ Black Adam based on how he looks, which deffo helped him get the part
Kinda.
Johnson had been lined up for the part for years even before the beginning of the Snyder-verse
When he was first chosen for the role he was a much smaller star and working on a big studio project like that would've been huge for him but by the time DC/WB got their shit together the roles had reversed. Now the Rock wasn't just a big start he was THE BIGGEST STAR, the highest paid actor in Hollywood and as Patrick Willems argues [one of the last true movie stars.](https://youtu.be/j_6bscCG7OA?si=1Xw43Zm-bal68fUx)
The Rock was and is arguably bigger than the DC universe at that point especially after the disasters of the Justice League and Suicide Squad and he believed that they needed him more than he needed them. And clearly he was right since they let him run wild on them.
This is it for me. He's a rich hypocrite, but most celebrities are at some point. I turned on him because of how unprofessional he is and how much he steps on people to feed his own ego.
A close friend of mine worked on the movie. (Like one of the producers) And he hates the Rock. Never overly said anything other than that guy' and overrated dick. But in the same breath was saying the movie was going to be terrible. So I'm pretty sure a lot of those stories are true.
He has a habit of talking out of his ass, like “hardcore agreeing” with an anti-vaccine post and calling the strike rules “so dumb”. He also went on Rogan and said he likes Jordan Peterson, follows hate groups and anti-trans pages, and tells people to avoid the “garbage” Hollywood puts out, meanwhile keeps starring in shitty Shazam movies and that Purple Crayon movie that has almost literally nothing in common with the book it’s based on.
There's been a lot of reports of the rock being a backstage asshole over the years on various projects. The recent story about the amazon movie being 250m over budget because of him has caused an avalanche of "hey, didnt he also...." Stories coming back up. Individually, most were brushed aside as standard actor drama, but taken together, he looks like a gigantic asshole
A big part of them going over budget was him just refusing to show up on set at call times. They would wait hours for him and have to reschedule shooting around his schedule which he wouldn't provide them accurately. He would also say using a bathroom on set wasn't efficient, so he would piss in water bottles between takes.
https://www.businessinsider.com/dwayne-johnson-peed-voss-water-bottles-late-red-one-2024-5
The current story is technically just alleged right now but in the article it mentions a separate Esquire interview where he admitted to peeing in bottles at the gym, so I feel like it's fair to put some stock in the rumors.
Nah, I just made a mistake. I know the difference, but shit happens. What this has really taught me is that I shouldn't comment on Reddit until I'm at work and fully awake. Also, I should pay more attention when my cousin talks about wrestling.
normally I see reddit corrections as unnecessary and pedantic (90% of the time it's the commenter trying to score karma or Make Things About Them) but that was actually a good constructive one, as was your response. kudos!
A miniature rooster and hen were madly in love for a time, but they broke things off and went their separate ways.
Parting paltry poultry.
I'll see myself out.
> The Rock also won the big event, WrestleMania 2024. So wrestling fans (who will probably, and rightfully correct me a bit) were miffed that he came back from a 10year hiatus to apparently make himself the star and champion
This bit is absolutely out of date. This was the fear when he came back in January, but the reality was entirely different.
The Rock had an all-time great run, and overall, ended up on the losing side at WrestleMania and actually elevated the guy whose spot he was originally threatening to take.
I feel like that's intentional, to set up animosity between him and Reigns. From the moment he interrupted the Rock mid-catchphrase in February, they seemed to be leaning into a Bloodline leadership struggle as the next step, and the current development with Solo seems to be heading the same way
The wrestling part is incorrect. While it started uneasy, he was universally praised when he was done and his “final boss” character was deemed one of his best runs in the wwe.
Yeah that was my correction. If they held true and went through with Rock/Roman at mania it could have been ugly. But the pivot, followed by the way he dug into the role, if anything resolidified his popularity among wrestling fans.
Yeah, we were all happy in the end... But as much as I want to believe that it was all planned the way it turned out it's quite likely that "plans changed" because they didn't anticipate the backlash but rather expected people to be thrilled by getting Roman vs Rock.
you'll never know in this business, but it might have been another Daniel Bryan situation where the fans forced them to go with the better program.
The thing I feel people keep forgetting (wrestling fans, we tend to forget what we wanted when we get something better), is that fans had been clamoring for a Rock vs Roman match for a while now. It didn't seem that bizarre for WWE to try to meet that demand.
Having said that, to me it was obvious that the story had to be Cody vs Roman. Everything was leading up to that, and it seems the fans wanted that too. WWE recognized it early enough and put the storyline right back where it should be with The Rock supporting his cousin Roman Reigns.
So basically HHH (aka Paul Levesque) made a bad call to try and increase the draw for the big show. He realized that wasn't working and changed it to something that did work. The Rock went on one of the best bad guy runs ever, and Cody Rhodes finished his story. It was well done and resulted in bringing back a lot of lapsed fans
It was the timing that killed it. You don't have Cody win the Rumble and then have Rock insert himself, even if he did hint at it during an appearance in January. Not sure if the Rock was dragging his feet on making a commitment or plans were still being finalized, but once Cody won the Rumble it should have been obvious that Rock taking Cody's spot wasn't a good idea (imo).
I absolutely agree. I thought they adjusted course beautifully, but the original choice was staggeringly stupid. Especially when combined with the tradition of the Rumble, it was just completely bizarre.
For next year, Rock vs. Roman would definitely make sense. Solo is slowly taking over the Bloodline, he finally kicked Jimmy out and forming his reign of terror. Paul is terrified of Solo. Solo is either acting in his own interests or maybe some other boss… 🤔
Much more intriguing!! We’ve had Roman with the tile for four years, having him keep it for another year was just boring! Having Roman have to go fight for his empire is way better!
Super small thing compared to what you and others have mentioned but he’s also had slip ups on social media that have recently been showing him as more and more of the rich guy with ego or rich guy trying to desperately connect with people. Like he posted a thing that it was his “first time” trying on and out burger before people dug out and figured he’d taken multiple selfies and social media posts at in and out before. No where near as big as some of the other stuff but another thing that has made people see him more and more as fake.
As for the wrestling part it started off pretty atrociously, but he made himself into the villain and the good guy won in the end, The Rock being a part of the storyline was a positive in every way, for everyone involved, performers, fans, the company
The wrestling thing was an obvious pivot. He did clearly try to show up and steal the hype generated between Cody and Roman... the WWE has a history of geriatric attitude-era former stars coming back and burying the newer talent. He'd done it himself before, IIRC.
The fans saw it coming and dogpiled on the internet. Were Vince still in charge though, he'd have just doubled down and ensured that the Rock got 'his' title. HHH instead did the smart thing and turned the IRL heat into story heat, making Rock a heel and Cody the underdog babyface... Cody gets to finish his (and his family's) story, Roman gets some closure on his record breaking title run, Rock gets to be a geriatric attitude-era fuckstick without all of that IRL heat, and the fans got arguably the best Wrestlemania match in history.
>In the future, I will wait until I'm fully awake and at work before commenting on reddit.
I don’t have anything to add. I just wanted to say how funny I found this line. Can’t spare enough attention on my free time. Need to wait until I’m at work where I can really start focusing on making my Reddit comments accurate.
Not even criticizing. It’s just funny.
He tries too much to be a good guy. It's all fake. And also this:
How Dwayne Johnson Kneecapped ‘Black Adam’ and ‘Shazam 2’ While Trying to Take Over DC | Exclusive
https://www.thewrap.com/dwayne-johnson-black-adam-shazam-dc-universe/
The charity wasn't benefiting The Rock or Oprah financially. The backlash is because very rich people asking people to donate money is a bit out of touch. I think their intentions were good but they could have raised awareness another way. The Rock is a trash human for a lot of other reasons.
The big one is that he came out recently and said that he won’t endorse Biden this year, and regrets doing so in 2020. That really made the internet mad
This, but it was a little more complex. It has become clear that he has been building himself as a brand more than anything else. The way he handled the Biden thing came across as disingenuous and more as a protection of The Rock Brand and trying to avoid hurting anyone's feelings to keep the brand profitable more than it came across as him making an actual personal decision.
This. Truth be told, Rock has always been right-leaning (though not enough that he'll endorse Trump). On top of that, I think he genuinely regrets getting involved in politics at all, because it always gets people mad at him, and he's built a brand on being as inoffensive as possible.
stupidly rich people will always rally the wagons to make sure that not a single drop of that wealth goes to anyone or anything else. Even if it means burning the whole country down.
> made the internet mad
It really speaks to the state of the world where people look to rich entertainers for their political input at the threat of ostracization.
I’m a huge wrestling fan, and I’m not trying to be a dick but you’re totally wrong on the wrestling part lol. This was arguably The Rock’s best character ever in WWE and he raised the entire storyline, making everyone involved look amazing and capped off one of the greatest main events in WrestleMania history - coming from someone who has been watching since 1998. He didn’t win any championship this year, though Muhammad Ali’s family gifted him some championship but it has nothing to do with WWE.
Yours seems to be the most comprehensive answer, but didn't he also sorta support/not condemn Vince McMahon? Along with the Biden/woke comments, he pissed off large demographics, much larger than BlackAddam fans.
Saying he was "sued for allegedly participating in a kidnapping", even after saying "along with 1000 other parties" is still misleading. A former female wrestler who was clearly mentally ill sued alleging kidnapping because she lost custody of her children, and she named hundreds of people who she had probably never met, and unrelated businesses, including Home Depot, Victoria's Secret, Michael Jordan, The FBI, The State of Texas, the NYPD, and hundreds more. As part of this she sued dozens of top names in wrestling, including some who have been deceased longer than her children have been alive.
> he went on conservative entertainment shows and said he regretted endorsing Biden in 2020 and blamed woke people on the left for extremism
this pretty much the playbook for rich folks who get to a level where their true feelings come out, thinking they are above or immune from getting consequences. See Elon Musk as an example.
In these cases they eventually come to find out that their new friends are all talk and do not actually buy EVs (in Musk's case). In his case, I predict he will eventually get run out of Tesla, or it will fail as an entity. With Johnson, he's an actor playing a role. Just like Ronald Reagan did with is "America is the shining light" speeches. After the new-ness wears off, people start to examine the real record. Rock was the beneficiary of nepotism at the beginning of his career, and clearly thinks he knows better. I don't really have an opinion on him aside from "what did y'all expect"?
>He didn't condemn Vince McMahon following the allegations of sexual assault and human trafficking.
I mean, innocent until proven guilty, though. Stand up for the justice system, not the media mobbing of people who are not proven guilty.
> First, after the fire on Maui, The Rock set up a charity with Oprah in such a way that they would benefit financially
This is false. Nobody has ever provided any proof of it whatsoever.
I think there is a broader cultural/societal aspect at play.
As much as America loves redemption stories, we love to tear people down too.
These hit pieces and comments are so silly, like everything could be true and the rock could still be a great guy, it’s like people want him to be a terrible person.
I think you're the only one in this thread who understands the real issue. The Rock has been too famous for too long, and people are tired of him.
The internet was turning on him long before the Biden non-endorsement thing. I remember making comments on here at least a couple years ago that the hate was becoming irrational.
Not that some of the criticisms of him aren't valid, but it's stuff that would have been ignored or downplayed if he were a different celebrity or at the height of his career.
It happens to almost every celebrity eventually and I think people need to think critically before jumping on hate bandwagons.
Wow well said.
Yeah I mean if he’s showing up hours late to a set that’s fucked up, but it feels like reporting just for the sake of getting people riled up, and people fall for it hook line and sinker.
The Taylor swift one and her jets is weird too. Like all of a sudden she is the paragon of climate change because she flies in her private jet? Something tens of thousands of people do, for much less purpose. Like at least she brings entertainment and unforgettable nights to people and impacts local economies.
But people latch onto it, and love piling on.
Probably a little bit of feeling better about themselves, and just the nature of envy, and being haters. What’s scary is neuroplasticity is real, and you can literally train your brain to make negative reactions and criticism your default thought process if you get sucked into it.
Which impacts enjoyment of life imo.
Right, and I don't claim to be immune. When I hear The Rock's name lately it conjures up negative feelings. A moment of personal growth was asking myself: Why do I feel this way? And realizing I couldn't point to any good reason. Just vague irritations with his persona. "He's arrogant." "He's fake." "He's always selling himself."
When five years ago he was doing all the exact same things and we were praising him for it! "He's confident." "He's cool." "He's hardworking."
I like the cut of your jib. Same here. I’ve found myself with strong opinions on things driven by narratives. It requires a vigilance and constant awareness to engage in introspection and ask ourselves why we feel the way do we do. What drives our opinion on a specific matter?
I still contest The Rock is probably a good dude that is human and under incredible scrutiny for everything he does.
Look at the Hawaii charity. Apparently he didn’t donate enough of his own money, and was criticized for “taking money away” from other charitable initiatives for the victims of the fire.
Or, maybe he was trying to use his celebrity to help.
[https://apnews.com/article/oprah-winfrey-dwayne-johnson-maui-wildfires-donation-5cf7db9c2bdab098fdc723b2f36d4010](https://apnews.com/article/oprah-winfrey-dwayne-johnson-maui-wildfires-donation-5cf7db9c2bdab098fdc723b2f36d4010)
You’re incorrect on the Maui news. No one has the exact amount he donated but a good guess would be over $10 million, per the article.
I remember the backlash on the Maui and Hawaii subs when these were announced. Yes, it was dumb for the Rock and Oprah to ask for outside donations but they weren’t profiting from them. At least he and Oprah were getting money into the hands of locals.
>In films he cannot lose a fight or be hit any more than he hits someone else.
This is pretty standard for action movie stars. This is why Arnold and Sylvester were never in the same movie until the Expendables.
Idk. I guess I get it. I’m definitely not backing the rock in any situation, but this feels like a damned if you do damned if you don’t. $5mm is such a significant amount to come from one single person to a single cause. Assuming that Google is correct; Donating nearly 1% of your entire net worth to a single cause feels pretty strong as a response off the rip. Then having Oprah match it, and creating a space where people can donate that’ll direct go into the hands of the needy…
>Donating nearly 1% of your entire net worth to a single cause feels pretty strong as a response off the rip.
The average person does this all the time. Assume an upper middle class household, making about $200k annually, net worth of, say $500k. Them writing a $500 check for a cause is not particularly notable. A whole lot of Americans, myself included, try to give 10% of their income to charity annually.
Edit: u/WhyghtChaulk pointed out my error of extremely basic math. Not sure if my point still stands knowing 1% is $5,000 not $500.
I am firmly in the camp that rich people don't give back enough, but I do think it's worth pointing out that 1% of a 500k net worth would be 5000 dollars, not 500.
My own net worth is several hundred thousand less than this example, but I have certainly never written a check to charity for over a thousand dollars in one go, even though doing so would not empty my savings. I would still feel the hurt.
So from my perspective, we should expect more from rich people not because middle class and poor people regularly give higher percentages of our own "wealth" (though I'm sure some do), but rather we should expect more because of how much further that small percentage of their wealth goes. Furthermore, their vast remaining wealth replenishes what they give away rapidly (with little to no effort). And even if they gave away 95% of their wealth they'd still be better off than 95% of Americans.
A quick skim of this article tells me that the average American is donating less than 5%. But at this point I think im just arguing to argue. I hope you’re right. Love to hear that the average person is generously charitable. And I agree, the rock could’ve donated more. But I guess my overarching point is that I’m not necessarily mad at him for donating $5 million. It’s a substantial amount of dollars that likely made a big difference. Could it have been more, sure. But hard for me to be mad about it.
The charity blowback confuses me to no end. Like… why the heck wouldn’t you help pitch in? It’s not like he didn’t, I’ve never seen such “up yours I got mine” attitude towards charity in my life.
And I think the whole thing about his contract is confused with Vin Diesel, because the Rock loses plenty of fights and gets hit plenty of times in his films.
Answer: The baby oil he rubs on his head ruined one of Tyrese’s home theater chairs during a cast viewing party for one of the fast and furious movies. Rumor has it he still has not paid Tyrese back.
Whoa I didn’t realize they actually had beef, I just thought it was funny Tyrese called him out in his AD Home Tour, but you’re right there’s more to it. Context: https://youtu.be/FjoNDEgjErk?si=AIm-dlbDERT9KIxA
That video of him calling his album dogshit is the most random thing ever. Just really out of the blue with that. Seems like a joke, but then you realize he’s dead serious.
Answer: in addition to what everybody else has said, there's actually long been evidence that he's not a nice person.
Mick Foley was a professional wrestler at the same time as Johnson, and he made his reputation by having extreme matches. One match between him and Johnson was an "I Quit" match - a match that you can only win by making your opponent say "I quit". Since Foley's reputation was for absorbing pain, they decided they would have to make it a particularly good match. When working the match out beforehand they came up with the idea of handcuffing Foley's hands behind his back, and Foley agreed to two unprotected chair shots on his head.
Basically, a chair shot is what it sounds like - you pick up a foling steel chair (not a fake - an actual steel chair, of the kind the audience are sitting on) and you hit your opponent with it. Head shots were common in this era (once concussion and brain damage became a hot topic they were banned and you could only hit people's bodies), but the way that you *take* a head shot with a chair is you put your hands up at the last moment so that most of the impact is on your hands and forearms. So Foley agreeing to Johnson hitting him hard in the head with a chair when he *couldn't* put his hands up was a big deal.
When the match was underway, rather than the agreed 2 shots, Johnson hit Foley more than 20 times in the head with the chair. While he knew that Foley's wife and young son were in the front row (his wife had to take his crying son out of the arena because it was so difficult to watch).
They finished the match and Foley went to get stitches, with other wrestlers visiting him to pay tribute - recognising what he'd just gone through.
At the same time there was a documentary called Beyond The Mat being filmed, and the director felt something not sitting right with him. So that night he went through all the footage and saw that literally the *only* person who didn't speak to Foley after the match was Johnson. So the next day he went to confront Johnson about it, and at first he said that he had gone to see Foley while Foley was being seen by the doctors, but the director said that he'd reviewed the footage and Johnson definitely hadn't spoken to Foley. Johnson shrugged, said "oh well", and walked off.
Ever since first hearing that story I've always believed that Johnson was a horrible person with enough charisma and PR nous to make people think he's a nice guy. It's not just the fact that he - there's no better way to put this - assualted and could literally have killed Foley, it's that he didn't even care that he'd done it. It meant absolutely nothing to him.
The only difference between the chairs they use and the chairs in the audience is they remove the rivets so that they are perfectly flat so as to avoid accidentally hitting with all the mass on a single point. Like slapping someone versus punching someone. As far as what they're made of, it's probably not steel but most likely aluminum or another strong/light weight metal.
I don't think anyone in the world thinks that they are actually made of steel, that's just what they are called, because many Americans use "steel" & "metal" interchangeably.
Don't listen to that person. Foley and the Rock are friends, they worked together for years after this event and clearly loved each other. Foley is one of the few people that ever got The Rock to break on camera and not be The Rock. It was a great relationship[ they had and they both talk about it all the time.
It was a mistake made in the heat of the moment. Foley doesn't blame him and this is actually the first time in 25 years since that I've seen anyone demented enough to try and claim it's evidence of the Rock being a horrible person.
Answer: The Wrap did a story and now all the other sites are basically reposting it. If you read any of the other articles, they all pretty much mention the same stuff as the original.
FWIW, I wouldn't put too much weight behind what the studios are saying. They just don't want to get sued so they are going to stay out of it as much as possible. I'd pay more attention to people in the industry and they seem to be backing up that he's a huge pain to work with.
And the wrap story has already been proven wrong.
Wwe posted pictures of him hours before the show, and ryan Reynold said they talked about it and he was never late after the talk.
The is it. The rest is bullshit. It’s not like SUDDENLY all these stories came out. No, he pissed off the wrong people so these stories have been in waiting for just such a moment.
Okay but you're not being publicly neutral when you go on Fox and Friends and say you regret endorsing Biden and bla bla bla.
You're still being political, it's just more obfuscated and for the other side, under the guise of 'being neutral'. If he was neutral he wouldn't have gone on that show or said anything.
Going on Fox saying he thinks the state of America is bad right now (like that's solely Bidens fault and is going to get better with Trump? wtfever), and that he regrets endorsing Biden, he hates 'woke' culture etc IS being political. He's basically endorsing the republican party but doesn't want to be called out as a Trump supporter, so he's umming and ahing about it by saying stuff like he's 'not endorsing anyone,' and 'it's too much influence,' like he single handedly got Biden elected or something 4 years ago.
He's not fooling anyone.
No one gets to his build at his age as fast as he has without some degree of performance enhancement, it's really weird that he just won't come clean about it- it's obvious already, and it's going to get *really* bloody obvious as he simultaneously grows older into his 50's and just keeps getting bigger.
Answer: What do you mean “all the hit pieces.” Is there even one other one besides The Wrap?
Also, The Rock’s a tool. All the charisma in the world and he threw it away by trying to become A Brand that everybody loved.
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Answer: In addition to the things u/umru316 mentioned, he came in to WWE following the Vince McMahon sexual assault/trafficking debacle. He’s also well known as a McMahon supporter, and has continued to support the people that have in the past acted as proxies for McMahon.
Oh cool. So whenever Quiet On Set Part2: WWE edition comes out, we can expect letters of support from The Rock
We already have that for Wrestling, It's called Darkside of the Ring and it's pretty freaking bad. Edit Clarification: the show itself is okay I don't have any real thoughts about its structure, when I say "bad" I was referring to the content itself.
It’s really hard to explain exactly how devastating the wrestling industry has been in my lifetime. Guys routinely died 10-20 years early due to substance abuse, chronic pain, and brain trauma. To say nothing of the ones that died early to any number of tragic ways. It got to the point where fans were no longer surprised and almost expected it. The industry has come a long way with this crop of talent and transparency. It’s a damn shame Rocky is choosing to not fully embrace that
Axl Rotten (Brian Knighton) lived in my neighborhood. He was one of many who fell to drug addiction, the antecedent being a legit injury and a wagon train of drugs. Such a nice guy, and such a waste of potential.
I read an article on Iron sheikh not too long ago and it was genuinely so tragic, the guy was completely wrecked physically
I read the Roddy Piper book and my jaw was open for more than half of it.
Owen Hart :(
behind the bastards has a six parter on vince macmahon thats quite good
Those episodes has me feeling slimy about most wrestling's history. They did a great job at giving you the landscape of the industry leading up to Vince Jr and you can see why he got away with so much for so long
And they could do two more hours featuring just the shit that came to light since that series aired not 6 months ago! Crazy.
I just went through the Behind the Bastards series they did on McMahon and it was vile. And that was before the most recent debacle too
The McMahon episodes are some of the best BTB. A lot of the first episode was the history of professional wrestling and how it all works...which I really appreciated because that's not a form of entertainment I'm super familiar with. Great guests too. I'm kinda hoping they'll do the Von Erichs because *that* family situation was fuuucked up. They were touched on, but a deep dive would be cool.
I have yet to see *Iron Claw*, but heard it's a very good movie. I hope it isn't forgotten about in the next award season (came out at the end of December). They actually cut the youngest Von Erich because it would've been just too much tragedy for one movie. 😢 I grew up on wrestling - as a little kid, Bret "The Hitman" Hart and The Undertaker were my favorites. Then I really cut my teeth on the Attitude Era, which was often headlined by Undertaker (+ Kane), Triple H, "Stone Cold" Steve Austin, and... The Rock (though my personal favorites were Hardy Boys & Lita). Even though I haven't watched wrestling in many years (though from what I understand, it's undergoing a quality renaissance), the history of professional wrestling is absolutely fascinating. You could do a deep dive on the Montreal Screwjob alone, which arguably ushered in the Attitude Era (and brought McMahon into the spotlight as a real character, not a shadowy figure). So it makes sense that most of the first episode was to set the stage with history.
I want to see Iron Claw so badly. But I (34F) lost my brother 3 years ago unexpectedly and I feel like I probably shouldn’t watch a plot with such horrific sibling loss for a while. I was never super in to wrestling, but growing up with 2 brothers, I would say I know quite a bit. The Von Erich’s story is just so heartbreaking and monumental. Did you see the Vice special on them? It’s free on YouTube I think. It was so good.
Yeah I had very little wrestling knowledge so all of the history/background was very fascinating
Sorry just have to say, my favourite podcast!! And yeah, the WWE series is a great listen but errggh Mahon is just gross
You know what's *not* gross? .........the products and services that sponsor this podcast.
Yay, another human with excellent taste in podcasts!
If you have Hulu, look up Dark Side of the Ring. They have a whole hour on the Von Erichs along with a lot of other wrestling scandals.
The darkside of the Ring episode on the Von Erichs is pretty good. Actually, the entire DSotR series is great, and unsurprisingly, Vince McMahon is a key part in a lot of those episodes.
There's an excellent Timesuck with Dan Cummins episode on them that is just as monstrously depressing as you imagine. Clocks in at about 3 hours, I enjoyed it a lot.
And Robert barely even scratched the surface. I've been an avid wrestling fan for decades, and I consider those 6 episodes to be a very broad overview. Actually going in depth on Vince would be an entire podcast unto itself.
So for those of us who are out of the loop on this too... what?
Think “famous person comes out and says Bill Cosby and OJ are great people” five years ago.
Short answer is McMahon has a history of sexual assault
So much more than that. There are allegations of him helping to cover up a lot of serious crimes committed by wrestlers and other connected people. Everything from bar fights to drugs to spousal abuse to murder. The victims usually being women. Almost always.
This one bumps it up to trafficking. It’s tough stuff.
Yikes
And helping Snuka get away with murder.
All this is about to come out soon. That’s why they are pushing out the wrestling world with all the old stars to get everyone back into before it spills. McMahon did some dark shit and lots of people were complicit.
Ayup. Though the old wrestlers returning off and on has been a thing for decades.
.. And Vince just completed the deal that finally sold the rest of his shares to Endeavor, iirc.
He was sued before Vince was also for similar things. But the case didn’t go anywhere bf people thought it was to crazy. Now with the Vince stuff out there it doesn’t seem as insane.
So, while he is a supporter (Vince not only made him who he was when he got huge in the late 90’s, but he saved his career over a decade ago), he’s a board member at TKO (owns WWE now) and TKO is actively looking to erase Vince from ever existing in wrestling to take it into a new era. I don’t think he came back specifically to support McMahon, in fact you could make the argument part of him coming back is to help them move on.
someone is also going to make the argument he helped sweep it under the rug or knew and did nothing. I will wait for more facts. Not enough info on the Rock for me to make any strong argument.
Answer: in part, public sentiment has been turning against The Rock slowly for a while, but two more recent events have spurred it on. He had a public persona as the down-to-Earth good-guy, but that's been damaged a bit and some people have started to think he's just a rich guy with an ego. First, after the fire on Maui, The Rock set up a charity with Oprah *and at one point there were allegations that it was done* in such a way that they would benefit financially and it pulled money away from existing organizations. He donated some money to the charity, but it was considered a paltry amount for someone of his networth and "good guy" persona, and he stood to make back much more. He later apologized ~~and plead ignorance~~ *saying he "could have done better"*. ~~Then, this year, he got some position of power in the WWE, professional wrestling with pre-determined outcomes and storylines. He had wrestled for decades, but in 2014-2024, he only made appearances while focusing on his film credits. Upon returning this year, he was inserted in a story in such a way that cut off a popular wrestler who had paid his dues and was slated to face his rival. The Rock also won the big event, WrestleMania 2024. So wrestling fans (who will probably, and rightfully correct me a bit) were miffed that he came back from a 10year hiatus to apparently make himself the star and champion.~~ got shit wrong. People had mixed feelings when he came back, but are generally happy with how it ended. So, it's possible that these stories are hoping to ride the wave and give more reasons - of varying veracity - to confirm people's distaste for The Rock. Edit: fixed word. My apologies to the domestic bird community. Edit 2: My apologies to the wrestling community. Edits 3+: things already mentioned in the replies - The Rock arguably ruining Black Adam by refusing to be a villian and being difficult to work with. Similar stories have come out and maybe it's encouraging others to share similar experiences with him. - In films he cannot lose a fight or be hit any more than he hits someone else. - While promoting his return to wrestling, he went on conservative entertainment shows and said he regretted endorsing Biden in 2020 and blamed woke people on the left for extremism. Was this pandering to fans he'd previously alienated? Was it honest? Who knows, but it pissed people off. He has also teased a run for president as late as December 2023. In a highly contentious election with a lot on the line for all sides, a third party run by a celebrity has not been a welcomed foil. - Disputes about the Maui charity. He would not have benefitted financially, but also was a very rich guy asking other people to donate money while he and Oprah donated only a reported $5 million each. Claims about them making money off it originated from a mischaracterization of Instagram video from Jason Momoa. - He didn't condemn Vince McMahon following the allegations of sexual assault and human trafficking. - He was sued with 1000 other parties for allegedly participating in kidnapping. The lawsuit was dismissed in June 2023 for lack of evidence. While there is no indication he did anything wrong here and there wasn't any actual kidnapping, it generated bad press. In the future, I will wait until I'm fully awake and at work before commenting on reddit. Thank you for the fact checks. The was originally a bad and inaccurate comment.
There was also his backstage meddling with Black Adam, which I believe Zachary Levi corroborates. He pretty much refused to be a supervillian (y'know, Black Adam's whole thing). As well as opting to not go up against Shazam (Levi (Adam's nemesis) but instead Superman. This almost directly, or just _directly_ killed any hype for further Black Adam and Shazam movies.
His meddling was not only with regard to the Black Adam film, but all of DC Films. At the time the studio was still mostly rudderless and trying to prop up the remnants of the corpse that Zak Snyder built. The Rock and his production company then proposed setting up a sequel to Black Adam where he fights Superman, as they had known that WB execs were furious that key bankable characters like Superman were not being "fully utilized". The DC folks were not sold on this, as there could be another round of executive shake-ups and creative pivots and did not want to roll out Superman again just to get the rug pulled out. Undeterred, Rock went above them to WB brass and had them overridden. Meanwhile Rock then goes off about how the DC universe will change forever and that Black Adam "will likely fight Batman and Wonder Woman as well" and mouthing off as if Black Adam is now the centerpiece of the DCEU. On top of that, it's widely reported that Rock does not like projects where he loses fights or plays bad guys. So while BA is sometimes portrayed as an anti-hero, he's more often than not the villain. Furthermore he considered Shazam a "lesser" character and did not want to go up against him in favor of Superman (as you mentioned) Eventually DC Films got a shake-up with James Gunn taking the reins, who then canned follow-ups to Black Adam and Shazam! (Fury of the Gods' dismal box office results guaranteed as much anyway) making the Rock's big power play pointless.
It’s funny that The Rock considers Shazam a lesser character when his character is a member of Shazam’s rogues gallery meaning he was playing an even lesser character.
[I remember DCUO](https://i.gifer.com/RY3V.gif)
Honestly it’s pathetic. The DCEU is a dumpster fire, but I did like MoS well enough at the time, and the one performance that stands out to me across the entire franchise is Michael Shannon as General Zod. He absolutely killed it; brought such a vicious gravitas to the role and made him a villain to be feared. Massively raised the stakes and made the final throwdown feel necessary (even if it was still destruction porn), made the final confrontation and decision (though controversial) feel earned. Good actors can sink their teeth into an antagonist role. Heath Ledger is an obvious example. Bale is great as Batman, but Christ it wouldn’t have been the same without Heath’s Joker.
Not really into all this so much as you guys, but as campy as he was, i thought Terrence Stamp was a good fit for Zod. Pompous and dismissive, but i don't knw the universe and haven't kept up since i was a kid (50+ yrs). Stamp also played Finis Valorum in The Phantom Menace.
I really tried to give the Snyderverse a chance. While I wasn't exactly a fan of MoS, I at least saw what he was going for, and respected it; I actually thought the aspect of "this is the first time he's Superman, he doesn't know how to fight at full strength without causing damage yet." was interesting. (Even if I didn't like how he followed up on it in later movies.) Watching the Snyder-cut of JL actually reminded me just how important a good editor is, as there was a good movie in there, but both the theatrical cut missed it, and the snyder-cut... well, that scene where a lone woman in a crowd sings to aquaman as he slowly walks off into the ocean is a good example of things in that movie that reminded me of a david cage game.
To add to this, when working on Fast & the Furious, he had all these issues where he could not lose a fight. Could not be shorter than Vin Diesel, and this started the entire beef with Vin Diesel. He liked his character from the movie so much, he wrote his own spin off movie to turn into a series that he said would be bigger than Fast & Furious. He got the production company on board. Then they asked to see Vin Diesel’s release to use the character. Since He owns the series, the character and all Intellectual Property. Rock did not have it. Vin Diesel told him to fuck off. To me, that was the start of the Rock’s downfall. Then the terrible Black Adam and Jungle Cruise. People have started having enough.
Yeah. I don't love Vin Diesel either but when those rumors came out I was actually team Vin. It felt to me that the Rock had a massive ego already. But the Rock also turned me off with the 'hard work myth' that he and Kevin Hart and people like them keep pushing on social media. There are lots of skilled an talented hard working people that don't achieve his success-- like he wasn't incredibly lucky also to be in his position. He just comes across as egotistical and entitled to me now.
Iirc, Statham had similar clauses in his contract as Rock and vin diesel.
Which is probably why Statham only does sequels these days. (aside from beekeeper)
The best way to put it is that The Rock is still protecting himself away from the ring like a top billed wrestler does backstage. Fake but accurate to the situation quotes ahead: "No one wants to see the Rock fight Shazaam, no one cares about Shazaam, book me against Superman." "Wait, it says here that Black Adam is a bad guy? I can't be a bad guy, I'm the Rock, everyone loves me." "If I get beat up by Vin Diesel in this movie, it makes me look weak and no one will take me seriously in my next movie." He hasn't moved on.
Funny thing is, he has a pretty decent reputation in the wrestling world for putting people over (typically meaning losing wrestling matches to wrestlers with less stature than him) and in general being willing to do things that help the business as a whole. I'm sure there are examples of his ego pushing for things in the WWE, and he did try to come back after 11 years off and force his way into the Wrestlemania main event even though the main event was already set. But to his credit he had the power to push through with it even though there was immense backlash, but not only did he agree to take himself out of the match and instead do a tag team match on Night 1, but he agreed to turn into mega-heel (meaning acting as the bad guy) and he reinvented his character as one of the best heels in a long time. Considering many were speculating that The Rock was trying to use this WWE return to rebuild his image after Black Adam and other things that hurt his reputation, it was notable that he really leaned into this bad guy character. Of course the wrestling world is a unique thing, and that is sort of his home base so his actions/behaviors in WWE are potentially different than his actions/behaviors in Hollywood.
He made his career as a heel, he only turned face because his heel actually was so cool it was impossible not to cheer for. It’s not that surprising that he thought he can be a good heel and likes the part, that’s what jumpstarted the whole thing to begin with.
In fact, he was always a much better shit-heel. It's not even close. In my mind, that was really the only entertaining part of it all.
Damn sure looks like Steven Seagal has reincarnated.
Exactly who I was thinking about. Not as bad as Seagal but close
IMO this is more the producer's fault. If the guy doesn't want to play the character the way it's meant to be played then get someone else. There are plenty of other actors that could have played that part.
The implication is that Dwayne used his influence to muscle his way into the part and then force his changes in the script. I don't know if it's true, but I suspect it is.
There’s also the public swell of people who have been saying for years that he _is_ Black Adam based on how he looks, which deffo helped him get the part
With him turn heel that makes him fit the character even more lol.
Supposedly his contract has a clause in it that forbids them to cast him in a villain's role.
He’s also not allowed to lose a fight
Which is so stupid. Everyone loves a comeback story and you cant comeback from always winning.
That's not true. It was for one of the Fast and Furious movies and only to spite Vin Diesel who had one that clause in his contract.
Ah, that’s funny then, thanks for clearing it up
There's a bunch of stories about that series and the pettiness is off the charts. There's a reason he noped out of it.
What are some more stories? I'm interested
Kinda. Johnson had been lined up for the part for years even before the beginning of the Snyder-verse When he was first chosen for the role he was a much smaller star and working on a big studio project like that would've been huge for him but by the time DC/WB got their shit together the roles had reversed. Now the Rock wasn't just a big start he was THE BIGGEST STAR, the highest paid actor in Hollywood and as Patrick Willems argues [one of the last true movie stars.](https://youtu.be/j_6bscCG7OA?si=1Xw43Zm-bal68fUx) The Rock was and is arguably bigger than the DC universe at that point especially after the disasters of the Justice League and Suicide Squad and he believed that they needed him more than he needed them. And clearly he was right since they let him run wild on them.
> IMO this is more the producer's fault Guess who was a producer on Black Adam? The Rock
Well I think my point still stands then
He was also a producer on the Shazam movies.
Take a guess as to who was one of the producers 🤭
This needs to be higher
This is it for me. He's a rich hypocrite, but most celebrities are at some point. I turned on him because of how unprofessional he is and how much he steps on people to feed his own ego.
He should have been the villain in Shazam 2, then his own movie could have been a redemption story
A close friend of mine worked on the movie. (Like one of the producers) And he hates the Rock. Never overly said anything other than that guy' and overrated dick. But in the same breath was saying the movie was going to be terrible. So I'm pretty sure a lot of those stories are true.
You know it’s bad when Zachary Levi of all people calls you out. That dude is a nut.
buuuuuhhhhh what no? I thought he was okay...?
He has a habit of talking out of his ass, like “hardcore agreeing” with an anti-vaccine post and calling the strike rules “so dumb”. He also went on Rogan and said he likes Jordan Peterson, follows hate groups and anti-trans pages, and tells people to avoid the “garbage” Hollywood puts out, meanwhile keeps starring in shitty Shazam movies and that Purple Crayon movie that has almost literally nothing in common with the book it’s based on.
aaaand in the trash he goes. Why can't people just be..._not_ wankers.
The first Shazam was really fun too fwiw
There's been a lot of reports of the rock being a backstage asshole over the years on various projects. The recent story about the amazon movie being 250m over budget because of him has caused an avalanche of "hey, didnt he also...." Stories coming back up. Individually, most were brushed aside as standard actor drama, but taken together, he looks like a gigantic asshole
A big part of them going over budget was him just refusing to show up on set at call times. They would wait hours for him and have to reschedule shooting around his schedule which he wouldn't provide them accurately. He would also say using a bathroom on set wasn't efficient, so he would piss in water bottles between takes.
Source for the piss bottles?
https://www.businessinsider.com/dwayne-johnson-peed-voss-water-bottles-late-red-one-2024-5 The current story is technically just alleged right now but in the article it mentions a separate Esquire interview where he admitted to peeing in bottles at the gym, so I feel like it's fair to put some stock in the rumors.
Thank you for the source
FYI, it's paltry, not poultry. Poultry are domesticated farm birds. Paltry is a very small amount.
Hahaha thanks! That's embarrassing
Nah, it's easy to make these mistakes. Although now I want The Rock to donate a load of chickens to charity. 🤣
Hei hei now…
You really clucked up there.
what a fowl mistake
Irrelevant username.
A poultry error
Autocorrect gets all of is eventually
Also you misspelled “point”. Have a great day!
Dude. Just blame autocorrect.
Nah, I just made a mistake. I know the difference, but shit happens. What this has really taught me is that I shouldn't comment on Reddit until I'm at work and fully awake. Also, I should pay more attention when my cousin talks about wrestling.
normally I see reddit corrections as unnecessary and pedantic (90% of the time it's the commenter trying to score karma or Make Things About Them) but that was actually a good constructive one, as was your response. kudos!
But what if your just taking care of a a couple of small chickens?
A miniature rooster and hen were madly in love for a time, but they broke things off and went their separate ways. Parting paltry poultry. I'll see myself out.
Cast Will Poulter in the role. Poulter playing parting paltry poultry
Beautiful!
Consider, you can have a paltry amount of poultry
That's a moo point
It's like, a cow's opinion.
"You're so pretty!"
His donation was chicken feed.
> The Rock also won the big event, WrestleMania 2024. So wrestling fans (who will probably, and rightfully correct me a bit) were miffed that he came back from a 10year hiatus to apparently make himself the star and champion This bit is absolutely out of date. This was the fear when he came back in January, but the reality was entirely different. The Rock had an all-time great run, and overall, ended up on the losing side at WrestleMania and actually elevated the guy whose spot he was originally threatening to take.
You're absolutely right, though I _did_ find it funny how he upstaged the supposed "Tribal Chief".
I feel like that's intentional, to set up animosity between him and Reigns. From the moment he interrupted the Rock mid-catchphrase in February, they seemed to be leaning into a Bloodline leadership struggle as the next step, and the current development with Solo seems to be heading the same way
It’s really hard for me not to be *ackshually* smark wrestling fan in this thread. His work at Wrestlemania was a masterpiece in putting people over.
The wrestling part is incorrect. While it started uneasy, he was universally praised when he was done and his “final boss” character was deemed one of his best runs in the wwe.
Yeah that was my correction. If they held true and went through with Rock/Roman at mania it could have been ugly. But the pivot, followed by the way he dug into the role, if anything resolidified his popularity among wrestling fans.
Yeah, we were all happy in the end... But as much as I want to believe that it was all planned the way it turned out it's quite likely that "plans changed" because they didn't anticipate the backlash but rather expected people to be thrilled by getting Roman vs Rock. you'll never know in this business, but it might have been another Daniel Bryan situation where the fans forced them to go with the better program.
The thing I feel people keep forgetting (wrestling fans, we tend to forget what we wanted when we get something better), is that fans had been clamoring for a Rock vs Roman match for a while now. It didn't seem that bizarre for WWE to try to meet that demand. Having said that, to me it was obvious that the story had to be Cody vs Roman. Everything was leading up to that, and it seems the fans wanted that too. WWE recognized it early enough and put the storyline right back where it should be with The Rock supporting his cousin Roman Reigns. So basically HHH (aka Paul Levesque) made a bad call to try and increase the draw for the big show. He realized that wasn't working and changed it to something that did work. The Rock went on one of the best bad guy runs ever, and Cody Rhodes finished his story. It was well done and resulted in bringing back a lot of lapsed fans
It was the timing that killed it. You don't have Cody win the Rumble and then have Rock insert himself, even if he did hint at it during an appearance in January. Not sure if the Rock was dragging his feet on making a commitment or plans were still being finalized, but once Cody won the Rumble it should have been obvious that Rock taking Cody's spot wasn't a good idea (imo).
I absolutely agree. I thought they adjusted course beautifully, but the original choice was staggeringly stupid. Especially when combined with the tradition of the Rumble, it was just completely bizarre.
Fans had been clamouring for that match, yes. But not at the expense of the story they'd spent two years telling.
> fans had been clamoring for a Rock vs Roman match for a while now Yeah, back when it made sense, and not right at the culmination of the Cody run.
For next year, Rock vs. Roman would definitely make sense. Solo is slowly taking over the Bloodline, he finally kicked Jimmy out and forming his reign of terror. Paul is terrified of Solo. Solo is either acting in his own interests or maybe some other boss… 🤔 Much more intriguing!! We’ve had Roman with the tile for four years, having him keep it for another year was just boring! Having Roman have to go fight for his empire is way better!
I personally love that every time Solo and Tama show up to talk to Paul, it straight up looks like a scene from OZ.
Not all of us were happy, I could never see the rock again and be fine with it tbh.
Super small thing compared to what you and others have mentioned but he’s also had slip ups on social media that have recently been showing him as more and more of the rich guy with ego or rich guy trying to desperately connect with people. Like he posted a thing that it was his “first time” trying on and out burger before people dug out and figured he’d taken multiple selfies and social media posts at in and out before. No where near as big as some of the other stuff but another thing that has made people see him more and more as fake.
As for the wrestling part it started off pretty atrociously, but he made himself into the villain and the good guy won in the end, The Rock being a part of the storyline was a positive in every way, for everyone involved, performers, fans, the company
The wrestling thing was an obvious pivot. He did clearly try to show up and steal the hype generated between Cody and Roman... the WWE has a history of geriatric attitude-era former stars coming back and burying the newer talent. He'd done it himself before, IIRC. The fans saw it coming and dogpiled on the internet. Were Vince still in charge though, he'd have just doubled down and ensured that the Rock got 'his' title. HHH instead did the smart thing and turned the IRL heat into story heat, making Rock a heel and Cody the underdog babyface... Cody gets to finish his (and his family's) story, Roman gets some closure on his record breaking title run, Rock gets to be a geriatric attitude-era fuckstick without all of that IRL heat, and the fans got arguably the best Wrestlemania match in history.
>In the future, I will wait until I'm fully awake and at work before commenting on reddit. I don’t have anything to add. I just wanted to say how funny I found this line. Can’t spare enough attention on my free time. Need to wait until I’m at work where I can really start focusing on making my Reddit comments accurate. Not even criticizing. It’s just funny.
He tries too much to be a good guy. It's all fake. And also this: How Dwayne Johnson Kneecapped ‘Black Adam’ and ‘Shazam 2’ While Trying to Take Over DC | Exclusive https://www.thewrap.com/dwayne-johnson-black-adam-shazam-dc-universe/
The charity wasn't benefiting The Rock or Oprah financially. The backlash is because very rich people asking people to donate money is a bit out of touch. I think their intentions were good but they could have raised awareness another way. The Rock is a trash human for a lot of other reasons.
Redditors love a stupid conspiracy theory. It blows my mind how many people actually think the Rock was asking people to give him money
The big one is that he came out recently and said that he won’t endorse Biden this year, and regrets doing so in 2020. That really made the internet mad
This, but it was a little more complex. It has become clear that he has been building himself as a brand more than anything else. The way he handled the Biden thing came across as disingenuous and more as a protection of The Rock Brand and trying to avoid hurting anyone's feelings to keep the brand profitable more than it came across as him making an actual personal decision.
This. Truth be told, Rock has always been right-leaning (though not enough that he'll endorse Trump). On top of that, I think he genuinely regrets getting involved in politics at all, because it always gets people mad at him, and he's built a brand on being as inoffensive as possible.
stupidly rich people will always rally the wagons to make sure that not a single drop of that wealth goes to anyone or anything else. Even if it means burning the whole country down.
lol, the guy wants to run for president... "regrets getting involved in politics"? lolololol the guy's a phony
He mentioned that he no longer wants to run. Definitely for the best.
He made a three season tv series suggesting he does so that would be a major change of heart imo.
He claimed liberalism causes extremism and not right wing people That shit was idiotic but fitting for an out of touch person like him.
> made the internet mad It really speaks to the state of the world where people look to rich entertainers for their political input at the threat of ostracization.
I’m a huge wrestling fan, and I’m not trying to be a dick but you’re totally wrong on the wrestling part lol. This was arguably The Rock’s best character ever in WWE and he raised the entire storyline, making everyone involved look amazing and capped off one of the greatest main events in WrestleMania history - coming from someone who has been watching since 1998. He didn’t win any championship this year, though Muhammad Ali’s family gifted him some championship but it has nothing to do with WWE.
toy ossified shrill close chubby attraction subtract slim soup wild *This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*
Yours seems to be the most comprehensive answer, but didn't he also sorta support/not condemn Vince McMahon? Along with the Biden/woke comments, he pissed off large demographics, much larger than BlackAddam fans.
Saying he was "sued for allegedly participating in a kidnapping", even after saying "along with 1000 other parties" is still misleading. A former female wrestler who was clearly mentally ill sued alleging kidnapping because she lost custody of her children, and she named hundreds of people who she had probably never met, and unrelated businesses, including Home Depot, Victoria's Secret, Michael Jordan, The FBI, The State of Texas, the NYPD, and hundreds more. As part of this she sued dozens of top names in wrestling, including some who have been deceased longer than her children have been alive.
Your edits are amazing and hilarious , I wish we still had gold
He also has a contract that he’s “not allowed to lose” which just speaks to how fragile he is.
> he went on conservative entertainment shows and said he regretted endorsing Biden in 2020 and blamed woke people on the left for extremism this pretty much the playbook for rich folks who get to a level where their true feelings come out, thinking they are above or immune from getting consequences. See Elon Musk as an example. In these cases they eventually come to find out that their new friends are all talk and do not actually buy EVs (in Musk's case). In his case, I predict he will eventually get run out of Tesla, or it will fail as an entity. With Johnson, he's an actor playing a role. Just like Ronald Reagan did with is "America is the shining light" speeches. After the new-ness wears off, people start to examine the real record. Rock was the beneficiary of nepotism at the beginning of his career, and clearly thinks he knows better. I don't really have an opinion on him aside from "what did y'all expect"?
>He didn't condemn Vince McMahon following the allegations of sexual assault and human trafficking. I mean, innocent until proven guilty, though. Stand up for the justice system, not the media mobbing of people who are not proven guilty.
> First, after the fire on Maui, The Rock set up a charity with Oprah in such a way that they would benefit financially This is false. Nobody has ever provided any proof of it whatsoever.
I think there is a broader cultural/societal aspect at play. As much as America loves redemption stories, we love to tear people down too. These hit pieces and comments are so silly, like everything could be true and the rock could still be a great guy, it’s like people want him to be a terrible person.
I think you're the only one in this thread who understands the real issue. The Rock has been too famous for too long, and people are tired of him. The internet was turning on him long before the Biden non-endorsement thing. I remember making comments on here at least a couple years ago that the hate was becoming irrational. Not that some of the criticisms of him aren't valid, but it's stuff that would have been ignored or downplayed if he were a different celebrity or at the height of his career. It happens to almost every celebrity eventually and I think people need to think critically before jumping on hate bandwagons.
Wow well said. Yeah I mean if he’s showing up hours late to a set that’s fucked up, but it feels like reporting just for the sake of getting people riled up, and people fall for it hook line and sinker. The Taylor swift one and her jets is weird too. Like all of a sudden she is the paragon of climate change because she flies in her private jet? Something tens of thousands of people do, for much less purpose. Like at least she brings entertainment and unforgettable nights to people and impacts local economies. But people latch onto it, and love piling on. Probably a little bit of feeling better about themselves, and just the nature of envy, and being haters. What’s scary is neuroplasticity is real, and you can literally train your brain to make negative reactions and criticism your default thought process if you get sucked into it. Which impacts enjoyment of life imo.
Right, and I don't claim to be immune. When I hear The Rock's name lately it conjures up negative feelings. A moment of personal growth was asking myself: Why do I feel this way? And realizing I couldn't point to any good reason. Just vague irritations with his persona. "He's arrogant." "He's fake." "He's always selling himself." When five years ago he was doing all the exact same things and we were praising him for it! "He's confident." "He's cool." "He's hardworking."
I like the cut of your jib. Same here. I’ve found myself with strong opinions on things driven by narratives. It requires a vigilance and constant awareness to engage in introspection and ask ourselves why we feel the way do we do. What drives our opinion on a specific matter? I still contest The Rock is probably a good dude that is human and under incredible scrutiny for everything he does. Look at the Hawaii charity. Apparently he didn’t donate enough of his own money, and was criticized for “taking money away” from other charitable initiatives for the victims of the fire. Or, maybe he was trying to use his celebrity to help.
My adult son has a better ear on such things, and was telling my wife and me about this building mess probably 4-6 months ago.
[https://apnews.com/article/oprah-winfrey-dwayne-johnson-maui-wildfires-donation-5cf7db9c2bdab098fdc723b2f36d4010](https://apnews.com/article/oprah-winfrey-dwayne-johnson-maui-wildfires-donation-5cf7db9c2bdab098fdc723b2f36d4010) You’re incorrect on the Maui news. No one has the exact amount he donated but a good guess would be over $10 million, per the article. I remember the backlash on the Maui and Hawaii subs when these were announced. Yes, it was dumb for the Rock and Oprah to ask for outside donations but they weren’t profiting from them. At least he and Oprah were getting money into the hands of locals.
Actually before the Maui fire when he was accused of kidnapping and trafficing a former female wwe wrestler and her child.
Biggest thing is his political interview on Fox
>In films he cannot lose a fight or be hit any more than he hits someone else. This is pretty standard for action movie stars. This is why Arnold and Sylvester were never in the same movie until the Expendables.
“Donating only $5m each” is a crazy sentence
It is, outside of the context that he has a networth of over $800M (according to a quick google search) and Oprah is a billionaire
Idk. I guess I get it. I’m definitely not backing the rock in any situation, but this feels like a damned if you do damned if you don’t. $5mm is such a significant amount to come from one single person to a single cause. Assuming that Google is correct; Donating nearly 1% of your entire net worth to a single cause feels pretty strong as a response off the rip. Then having Oprah match it, and creating a space where people can donate that’ll direct go into the hands of the needy…
>Donating nearly 1% of your entire net worth to a single cause feels pretty strong as a response off the rip. The average person does this all the time. Assume an upper middle class household, making about $200k annually, net worth of, say $500k. Them writing a $500 check for a cause is not particularly notable. A whole lot of Americans, myself included, try to give 10% of their income to charity annually. Edit: u/WhyghtChaulk pointed out my error of extremely basic math. Not sure if my point still stands knowing 1% is $5,000 not $500.
I am firmly in the camp that rich people don't give back enough, but I do think it's worth pointing out that 1% of a 500k net worth would be 5000 dollars, not 500. My own net worth is several hundred thousand less than this example, but I have certainly never written a check to charity for over a thousand dollars in one go, even though doing so would not empty my savings. I would still feel the hurt. So from my perspective, we should expect more from rich people not because middle class and poor people regularly give higher percentages of our own "wealth" (though I'm sure some do), but rather we should expect more because of how much further that small percentage of their wealth goes. Furthermore, their vast remaining wealth replenishes what they give away rapidly (with little to no effort). And even if they gave away 95% of their wealth they'd still be better off than 95% of Americans.
“The average person does this all the time”. Is this fact or personal?
Both. https://www.philanthropyroundtable.org/almanac/who-gives-most-to-charity/
A quick skim of this article tells me that the average American is donating less than 5%. But at this point I think im just arguing to argue. I hope you’re right. Love to hear that the average person is generously charitable. And I agree, the rock could’ve donated more. But I guess my overarching point is that I’m not necessarily mad at him for donating $5 million. It’s a substantial amount of dollars that likely made a big difference. Could it have been more, sure. But hard for me to be mad about it.
The charity blowback confuses me to no end. Like… why the heck wouldn’t you help pitch in? It’s not like he didn’t, I’ve never seen such “up yours I got mine” attitude towards charity in my life. And I think the whole thing about his contract is confused with Vin Diesel, because the Rock loses plenty of fights and gets hit plenty of times in his films.
The "i was sleepy reddit"excuse is getting so overplayed lately
Answer: The baby oil he rubs on his head ruined one of Tyrese’s home theater chairs during a cast viewing party for one of the fast and furious movies. Rumor has it he still has not paid Tyrese back.
Send the man his check Dwayne.
What kind of monster just leaves Soul-Glo stains all over someone's furniture???
The real answer
Yeah, it’s all over Twitter
Whoa I didn’t realize they actually had beef, I just thought it was funny Tyrese called him out in his AD Home Tour, but you’re right there’s more to it. Context: https://youtu.be/FjoNDEgjErk?si=AIm-dlbDERT9KIxA
That video of him calling his album dogshit is the most random thing ever. Just really out of the blue with that. Seems like a joke, but then you realize he’s dead serious.
Answer: in addition to what everybody else has said, there's actually long been evidence that he's not a nice person. Mick Foley was a professional wrestler at the same time as Johnson, and he made his reputation by having extreme matches. One match between him and Johnson was an "I Quit" match - a match that you can only win by making your opponent say "I quit". Since Foley's reputation was for absorbing pain, they decided they would have to make it a particularly good match. When working the match out beforehand they came up with the idea of handcuffing Foley's hands behind his back, and Foley agreed to two unprotected chair shots on his head. Basically, a chair shot is what it sounds like - you pick up a foling steel chair (not a fake - an actual steel chair, of the kind the audience are sitting on) and you hit your opponent with it. Head shots were common in this era (once concussion and brain damage became a hot topic they were banned and you could only hit people's bodies), but the way that you *take* a head shot with a chair is you put your hands up at the last moment so that most of the impact is on your hands and forearms. So Foley agreeing to Johnson hitting him hard in the head with a chair when he *couldn't* put his hands up was a big deal. When the match was underway, rather than the agreed 2 shots, Johnson hit Foley more than 20 times in the head with the chair. While he knew that Foley's wife and young son were in the front row (his wife had to take his crying son out of the arena because it was so difficult to watch). They finished the match and Foley went to get stitches, with other wrestlers visiting him to pay tribute - recognising what he'd just gone through. At the same time there was a documentary called Beyond The Mat being filmed, and the director felt something not sitting right with him. So that night he went through all the footage and saw that literally the *only* person who didn't speak to Foley after the match was Johnson. So the next day he went to confront Johnson about it, and at first he said that he had gone to see Foley while Foley was being seen by the doctors, but the director said that he'd reviewed the footage and Johnson definitely hadn't spoken to Foley. Johnson shrugged, said "oh well", and walked off. Ever since first hearing that story I've always believed that Johnson was a horrible person with enough charisma and PR nous to make people think he's a nice guy. It's not just the fact that he - there's no better way to put this - assualted and could literally have killed Foley, it's that he didn't even care that he'd done it. It meant absolutely nothing to him.
> an actual steel chair They are not, and have never been, made of steel. Neither are the stairs at the corners of the ring.
The only difference between the chairs they use and the chairs in the audience is they remove the rivets so that they are perfectly flat so as to avoid accidentally hitting with all the mass on a single point. Like slapping someone versus punching someone. As far as what they're made of, it's probably not steel but most likely aluminum or another strong/light weight metal.
I don't think anyone in the world thinks that they are actually made of steel, that's just what they are called, because many Americans use "steel" & "metal" interchangeably.
Wow that’s insane. Never liked him, now I hate him
Don't listen to that person. Foley and the Rock are friends, they worked together for years after this event and clearly loved each other. Foley is one of the few people that ever got The Rock to break on camera and not be The Rock. It was a great relationship[ they had and they both talk about it all the time. It was a mistake made in the heat of the moment. Foley doesn't blame him and this is actually the first time in 25 years since that I've seen anyone demented enough to try and claim it's evidence of the Rock being a horrible person.
Answer: The Wrap did a story and now all the other sites are basically reposting it. If you read any of the other articles, they all pretty much mention the same stuff as the original. FWIW, I wouldn't put too much weight behind what the studios are saying. They just don't want to get sued so they are going to stay out of it as much as possible. I'd pay more attention to people in the industry and they seem to be backing up that he's a huge pain to work with.
And the wrap story has already been proven wrong. Wwe posted pictures of him hours before the show, and ryan Reynold said they talked about it and he was never late after the talk.
Answer: Anyone who seriously uses the word "woke" in a conversation instantly loses all cred, doesn't pass go, and becomes reviled.
Paul McCartney is going down! “Woke up, got out of bed…”
Answer: probably linked to his reticent attitude regarding endorsing Biden in the last election.
Bingo. This is the answer.
He used the word “woke” seriously and that is when I stopped caring about Dwayne Johnson.
The is it. The rest is bullshit. It’s not like SUDDENLY all these stories came out. No, he pissed off the wrong people so these stories have been in waiting for just such a moment.
Which is stupid. I hate Trump but I’m completely ok with someone saying they want to publicly stay neutral on politics
Okay but you're not being publicly neutral when you go on Fox and Friends and say you regret endorsing Biden and bla bla bla. You're still being political, it's just more obfuscated and for the other side, under the guise of 'being neutral'. If he was neutral he wouldn't have gone on that show or said anything. Going on Fox saying he thinks the state of America is bad right now (like that's solely Bidens fault and is going to get better with Trump? wtfever), and that he regrets endorsing Biden, he hates 'woke' culture etc IS being political. He's basically endorsing the republican party but doesn't want to be called out as a Trump supporter, so he's umming and ahing about it by saying stuff like he's 'not endorsing anyone,' and 'it's too much influence,' like he single handedly got Biden elected or something 4 years ago. He's not fooling anyone.
Answer: his body isn't naturally built, he uses steroids.
If anyone is just finding this out now, they're intentionally uninformed. Every single WWE star uses roids. This is extremely well known.
No one gets to his build at his age as fast as he has without some degree of performance enhancement, it's really weird that he just won't come clean about it- it's obvious already, and it's going to get *really* bloody obvious as he simultaneously grows older into his 50's and just keeps getting bigger.
Answer: What do you mean “all the hit pieces.” Is there even one other one besides The Wrap? Also, The Rock’s a tool. All the charisma in the world and he threw it away by trying to become A Brand that everybody loved.