After seven long years in Hollywood, The Rock finally returned to WWE in 2011.
The Great One returned home so he could host WrestleMania 27, but that was merely to set-up why he was really back.
At the WWE Hall of Fame in 2008, when The Rock inducted both his late father, Rocky Johnson, and his grandfather, High Chief Pete Maivia, during his speech, the Brahma Bull revealed the three men he wished he had faced but never got the chance to were Rey Mysterio, Shawn Michaels and John Cena.
As The Rock, one of the biggest stars wrestling has ever seen, was transitioning to Hollywood superstar, Cena began making his ascent.
The now 16-time world champion debuted in 2002, but he didn’t make it to the main event picture until WrestleMania 21 in 2005, a good year after Rock’s last appearance and two years since Rock’s final run.
In a post-Stone Cold Steve Austin and The Rock world, Cena took up the mantle as WWE’s top star and was booked as their top babyface.
Given their charisma and top-tier status, it became a dream match for a lot of fans. But, unlike most dream matches, The Rock was still in his theoretical prime and was only 39 years old.
Both men knew working together meant major money and probably record box office success. The Rock had been waiting for a worthwhile time to come back to the WWE Universe and didn’t want fans to think he was using wrestling to help his movie career – hence the seven-year break.
However, behind the scenes, Cena wasn’t fond of The Rock’s outlook on wrestling at that time and some genuine bad blood started building between the two.
“In the world of wrestling, as you guys know, it’s fictionalised, it’s a TV show. But we had our rivalry, and now we can look back on it, it was so real. Like, we had real problems with each other. … We had real issues with each other,” The Rock revealed to Jimmy Kimmel.
It was Cena who appeared to get the ball rolling in terms of the rivalry in the way The Leader of the Cenation answered a question about whether he knew of The Rock returning.
“I had left and he had done a series of interviews, radio interviews and I just felt — someone reference me and said, ‘Hey, is The Rock coming back?’ and he said, ‘I’m not quite too sure.’
“I Just didn’t like how he said it and it stuck with me. Years later when I went back I talked to [chairman] Vince McMahon and we thought what if we actually took that and created this kind of thing. It’s perfect.”
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After Rock’s pitch to McMahon, he returned to WWE in February 2011. He hosted WrestleMania 27 two months later where the main event was John Cena challenging The Miz for the WWE title – seriously – and Rock would cost Cena the match.
The next night, Rock challenged Cena to a match at the following year’s WrestleMania – the first time WWE had ever set a match a full year away.
In the meantime, they would tag together in the loosest sense of the word at Survivor Series 2011 against The Miz and R-Truth, and then they were on the home straight to WrestleMania. That’s when things escalated.
The promo battles between the pair always promised to be great, but Cena got so personal with Rock, the Hollywood star began to get angry.
“This is my take on The Rock, and he’s genuinely nice guy,” Cena said in 2010 before their feud. “I’ve met him, and he’s a fantastic human being.
“What I kinda get peeved about is, and I guess this is my flaw because I hear it everyday with young talent, mid card talent, with people aspiring to make it in this business, I hear ‘I’ve wanted to do this my whole life.’ Rock falls into that category. At one point he loved wrestling, and wanted to do this his whole life.
“Then explain to me why he can’t come back for an anniversary show, why he can’t make an appearance at WrestleMania. Simply put, it’s because he wants to be an actor, and there’s nothing wrong with that. He’s a very good actor, he’s very successful, he’s done very well for himself, and associating with sports entertainment doesn’t do much for his acting career, so I get why he doesn’t come back. Just, don’t f*** me around and tell me that you love [wrestling] when you’re just doing it to do something else.”
Cena took plenty of jabs like that, but when he called out The Rock on live TV for having his promo on his wrist, Rock was livid. In fact, he was visibly angry and flustered on live TV.
Reports backstage said it was totally unscripted and when Rock got backstage, he was irate. The segments were designed to have Cena chalk up a win and WWE wanted a 50/50 reaction at WrestleMania, but Cena overstepped the mark and Rock let him know.
The pair went on to do great business. WrestleMania 28 is still the highest grossing WrestleMania of all-time at the box office with 1,217,000 buys and the pair headlined the following Show for the WWE title, where they grossed 1,039,000 buys.
At the time, WrestleMania 29 was the highest-grossing live event in the WWE’s history. Rock and Cena did what they originally set out to do, friendship be damned.
Ironically, Cena has made a move into Hollywood now. The 42-year-old hasn’t worked a full-time schedule in WWE since 2018 and he has scored big upcoming roles in films like Fast 9 – the Fast and Furious franchise The Rock has been apart of – and the Suicide Squad sequel.
Cena is now doing all the things he once criticised The Rock for doing and he now appreciates The Great One and a whole different level.
“It was stupid of me. It genuinely was,” Cena told Sports Illustrated.
The Rock says John Cena is now one of his best friends”That was my perspective at the time. When you’re involved in the daily grind of WWE, and that’s something I never will let go of — I promise you that. I just love it, and I don’t think I need to say that, ever again, or have somebody question my allegiance to a brand, not the sport of professional wrestling, so to say, but a brand.
“I love the WWE. For me to not be able to see Dwayne’s vision on what he wanted to do personally, and how his personal success could affect a growing global brand, that was just ignorant on my part.”
Rock also told Kimmel last year: “John is one my best friends. We talk all the time, and I’m rooting for him to win.”