“It hurt my heart,” The Rock breaks character to disclose how WWE pivoted from their original plans for him at WrestleMania XL

The Final Boss gets candid in a tell-all conversation.

“It hurt my heart,” The Rock breaks character to disclose how WWE pivoted from their original plans for him at WrestleMania XL

The Rock [via- WWE]

Before stepping into his first WWE match in 8 years, The Rock recently descended on the Will Cain Show. Apparently, he got rid of the kayfabe and let his heart do all the talking. The People’s Champ went on to elucidate whatever has gone down since his tumultuous return. First and foremost, he confirmed that the original plan for him was to challenge Roman Reigns for the Undisputed WWE Universal Championship at WrestleMania XL.

But in hindsight, the 51-year-old admitted that fans were disappointed with the way Cody Rhodes was stripped out of his title shot against The Tribal Chief. And then they had to pivot. While reasserting that he gets to sit on the board of directors at TKO, The Rock said he could’ve trucked through. However, upon realizing that there was a segment of fans who were disgruntled by Cody being snubbed, Flex Kavana was hurt.

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Not only did the real-life Dwayne Johnson want to right the wrong, he looked up to Cody and the work he’s been putting in for the past two years. That’s when the audible was called. As one would least expect, Johnson said that there could not be a better human being than his soon-to-be WrestleMania opponent. Of course, as stated above, The Brahma Bull wasn’t drenched in character.

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We could have kept trucking through. The thing that bugged me, I was in Hawaii, and I realized, man, there's a segment of fans here who are just disappointed. It hurt my heart to think that, well, I don't want to truck through and leave these fans disappointed.
The Rock on why WWE pivoted in their WrestleMania XL plans

This change in plans would’ve never come to fruition if the WWE Universe hadn’t dared to stage an online mutiny. The #WeWantCody movement laid the framework for what’s now being dubbed the biggest tag team match of all time. Tonight, The Final Boss and his cousin Roman Reigns will lock horns with The American Nightmare and Seth Rollins.

How did The Rock’s WrestleMania training go?

Getting back to ring shape is a grind. And there’s not a better person than The Rock to tell. Even though he competed at WrestleMania 32, it was merely a six-second squash. For his last full-fledged tango inside the squared circle, one needs to turn the calendar back to 2013, when he lost his WWE Championship to John Cena at WrestleMania 29.

The Rock
The Rock (via WWE)

Over a decade removed, the Black Adam star is ready to go at it again. But it has been a rigorous few weeks for The Great One. As revealed by himself on ESPN, he’s been training day in and day out. He has worked on regaining his in-ring cognizance and abiding by a stringent diet.

Rock had WWE ship a couple of rings to his place, not only in Los Angeles but in Hawaii too. He’s bumped with NXT’s Gallus under Michael Hayes and Robert Roode‘s supervision. But now, it’s almost showtime.

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