WWE talent reactions to The Rock's Pat McAfee interview, IG comment

The Rock appeared on Pat McAfee’s show, and posted an Instagram comment to Dave LaGreca that caused a stir this week. Fightful Select reached out to a bunch of WWE talent and staff about their thoughts. 

A number of talent took note of the fact that The Rock was not at tv, on tv, or at WrestleMania, didn’t do any promotion leading up to the event, or even tweet about the show coming up. Another talent pointed out that he didn’t tweet about the show, but quickly appeared on a podcast after the event and discussed being called to advance ticket sales and some things he took issue with on the show.

Another WWE source did back up the idea of The Rock being called to help ticket sales for WWE Elimination Chamber, which was seen as a big boost internally. Prior to that, the creative sources we spoke to had been told to work on the assumption that The Rock wouldn’t be working or at the show. Many figured that would change after Chamber, but were told to not factor him heavily in to promos.

A longtime talent said that the roster always loves seeing the Rock at shows, but noted that the “card is at the mercy of Dwayne” comment from a top talent last year was something that they believe pulls the Rock in both ways. One person there we spoke to claimed the Rock didn’t want to be seen as interfering with WrestleMania plans like last year, but possibly didn’t understand how integral he would be to the story.

There were a number of talent who brought up that The Rock wasn’t referenced, but said that if there were issues with he and Triple H as the world has speculated, it hasn’t made it to the rest of the roster yet. There have always been rumors that the two had a rivalry that was based on respect but was contentious at times.

Ultimately, The Rock’s absence, and subsequent comments weren’t met with as much frustration from the roster and staff that we spoke to as it was confusion. One talent speculated it was an “overcorrection,” and cited last year’s reaction to Rock being inserted, but said that it was a wildly different situation. A lot of talent were discussing backstage about Rock’s absence from WrestleMania, him not mentioning it, his lack of promotion for the show, and him barely being referenced on the show. One talent said “we all found it kind of weird that he didn’t promote the show at all.”

Regarding the comment to Dave LaGreca of Busted Open’s rant, one talent said “What does that mean? Is he working every time he stops by and talks to us backstage, too? Was that McAfee interview a work even though he specified he wasn’t in character?”

Fightful will work to learn more.