In the world of professional wrestling, the premium live event of “WrestleMania” is WWE's flagship show on the scale of their very own Super Bowl where this past April marked the biggest yet in part with the return of Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson. WrestleMania 40 involved the huge storyline where The Rock aligned himself with his blood cousin in Roman Reigns to go against Cody Rhodes and Seth Rollins.
With the show having two nights, the first involved a tag team match where The Rock and Reigns beat Rhodes and Rollins. The result lead to the main event between Reigns and Rhodes for the Universal Title match in night two to be “Bloodline Rules.” However, Rhodes would beat Reigns in an epic 33 minute match where he was crowned the new champion and broke the title reign of over 1,300 days.
Within the set up of the match however was brewing a feud between Rhodes and The Rock, which is now an event that has been heavily rumored for WrestleMania 41. In an interview with Mike Coppinger of ESPN, Johnson would tease the huge contest saying that WWE is “on the 1-yard line” to green light the biggest match in the event's history.
“We're on the 1-yard line to create the biggest WrestleMania of all time and the biggest match of all time at WrestleMania 41 in Las Vegas. I'll just leave it at that, Final Boss style,” The Rock said.
The Rock talks getting into wrestling shape
In that tag title match where The Rock pinned Rhodes to finish the close to 45 minute match, that was Johnson's first full match in front of a crowd since 2013 where he lost the WWE title to John Cena at WrestleMania 29. While he is known for being in great shape, it is different than being in wrestling shape where his body is put to the test for an extended period of time as he explains.
“I felt like that was a representation and a reflection of what I was feeling because as you know, in pro wrestling, there is no take two, you get one night, one shot and one opportunity,” Johnson said.. ” … Leading up into WrestleMania, the training camp, the pressure, the expectation, the deliverable, everything, that quote kept coming back to my mind, which was, ‘I just want to go the distance' and going the distance meant I knew that we had almost an hour planned, which as you know, is a long f—ing time.
“I also had something to prove to myself,” Johnson continued. “It's always you vs. you. So that's something to prove to myself that I can do it and put in the work and put in the training camp and rely on my dance partners in the ring in Cody and Seth and Roman as we all relied on each other. But yeah, I just want to go the distance.”
Johnson reveals getting prepared during his “training camp”
In the build up for the big match at WrestleMania, he went through a visceral training camp to get back into that aforementioned wrestling shape. However, there was a balance of not going too hard as he is 52-years old and had been out of the ring for a while as he admitted to ESPN.
“The training camp, as intense as it was, as hard as it was, as physical as it was, we still couldn't go 100%, couldn't even go 75%,” Johnson said,. ” … At times I would go 50% and 50%, is better than nothing. However, when you go 100% in that world of pro wrestling, especially when you have 45 minutes of match that requires you to fight inside the ring and then outside the ring and then into the crowd, there's nothing that could replicate that.”
The Rock opens up about emotions leading to return match
There is no doubt that Johnson has been a huge figure in professional wrestling as he is a third-generation performer where his father was Rocky Johnson and his grandfather was “The High Chief” Peter Maivia. The Rock would cement his own legacy where he was a huge reason WWE was brought into the mainstream pop culture in the late 1990s and early 2000s, headlining shows alongside other huge stars like “Stone Cold” Steve Austin and Triple H.
“I was very nervous about it, and the anxiety level was at a nice clip going in,” Johnson said. “And usually if you have anxiety, you have nerves with something big like that, that you poured your heart and soul into, that you have to go out and you have to perform and you get one shot, one take, that's it…If you have a pulse, you're going to have those nerves and you're going to have your anxiety. Even in the world of fictionalized professional wrestling, you still have 75,000 people out there and you still got to perform for 30 minutes, 45 minutes, sometimes an hour. I got out there and it was the same thing. ”
WrestleMania 41 to be even bigger?
“I have never in my entire career felt more pressure and more heat to deliver than I did during this run,” Johnson continued via ESPN. ” … No. 1 the idea of coming back and what that means … and then being granted complete ownership of ‘The Rock' and that entire trademark and everything with it, there's that pressure.”
While the matches that ended up happening at WrestleMania earlier this year was successful financially and even story-telling wise, the original idea was for Johnson to face his blood cousin in Reigns for the title. There was some speculation about the same match happening at the event the year prior, but there was more fuel for The Rock this time around since he is now a part of the board of directors at TKO, but turned heel since the fans wanted to see Rhodes beat Reigns.
“Then the pressure of pivoting on a storyline that had been brewing for two years quietly and privately. … We always knew we had the mega match with Roman and I in our back pocket.” Johnson said. “It feels incredibly gratifying … to be able to deliver the way that we did as a team is the most gratifying thing about this entire journey.”
WWE fans will have to wait until they see if The Rock will return to the ring in time for WrestleMania 41 which will take place on April 19 and 20 of 2025 at Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas, Nevada.
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