New Details On The Rock's WWE Talent Contract
Fresh details emerge on Dwayne Johnson's WWE talent contract.
With the Rock fully back in the WWE fold as part of the TKO Board of Directors, there are now some new details on the Final Boss' WWE talent contract.
As per Brandon Thurston of Wrestlenomics, there's an insight into that talent contract penned by the Rock when he joined the TKO Board back in January.
Firstly, Dwayne Johnson is allowed to hire "third party service providers in connection with developing concepts, scripts, storylines" with the approval of WWE. On that front, WWE will reimburse Johnson's Seven Bucks production company for the costs of hiring these service producers. One person is named in the contract, but their name is redacted. Many presume this redacted name to be the Rock's longtime collaborator Brian Gerwitz, although that cannot be confirmed.
There is the Johnson Equity Award, where the Great One will receive a total sum of $30 million in TKO equity in installments through until 2025. As Thurston notes, it's unknown if this amount is guaranteed in the unlikely event that TKO/WWE decides to fire the Rock.
With Johnson nowadays owning his Rock name and several of his catchphrases and nicknames, none of these can be used for political ads, tobacco, marijuana, pornography, medical products, or pop-up ads without being cleared by Johnson first. On that topic, the People's Champion received $491,000 in royalties at the end of 2023 for the sale of items using those aforementioned names and phrases.
The last time the Rock was seen on WWE programming was the Raw after WrestleMania XL, where he confronted Cody Rhodes and explained how he has to go away for a while, but that he'll be coming for the American Nightmare when he returns. As for that "go away for a while", Dwayne Johnson is currently filming A24's The Smashing Machine, where he'll play legendary MMA fighter Mark Kerr.