8 Worst Improvised Moments That Made It To WWE TV

3. The Rock Wants Cody Rhodes To Sell His Soul

Million Dollar Mania
WWE

The Rock swans into WWE during WrestleMania season to do whatever the Rock wants to do. The problem is that the Rock does not know what the Rock wants to do. 

The Rock did make a decision at one point. In a very strange segment, on the February 21, 2025 SmackDown, the Rock - eventually - asked Cody to sell his soul to him. Cody is an astronomically popular babyface attraction. Why did the Rock, a member of the TKO board, want to ruin that? 

The storyline answer: so that he and Cody could be evil mates together with loads of Instagram followers. 

The potentially real answer: the Rock came up in the era of Vince Russo, and likes to do stuff just to do it because it was successful once upon a time. That, or he thinks Triple H’s booking is boring, and wants to shake things up. 

But because this was the Rock, nobody was going to write a script for him. Well, Brian Gewirtz would, and possibly did, but the Rock ignored it. Freewheeling in his usual way, the Rock wanted the pops and the heat all at once, veering between stand-up comic and über-heel from sentence to sentence. That is no exaggeration. The man, already an egomaniacal agent of chaos, was out of control. He couldn’t decide what he wanted to do, and simply riffed for about 20 minutes before landing on an inexplicable point. 

The Rock, at his focused best, is one of if not the best promos ever. Nowadays, as powerful as anybody in wrestling - and smarting from a bad few years in Hollywood - he seems to return to claw back a little bit of love. Even when he’s meant to be hated.  

Contributor
Contributor

Michael Sidgwick is an editor, writer and podcaster for WhatCulture Wrestling. With over seven years of experience in wrestling analysis, Michael was published in the influential institution that was Power Slam magazine, and specialises in providing insights into All Elite Wrestling - so much so that he wrote a book about the subject. You can order Becoming All Elite: The Rise Of AEW on Amazon. Possessing a deep knowledge also of WWE, WCW, ECW and New Japan Pro Wrestling, Michael’s work has been publicly praised by former AEW World Champions Kenny Omega and MJF, and current Undisputed WWE Champion Cody Rhodes. When he isn’t putting your finger on why things are the way they are in the endlessly fascinating world of professional wrestling, Michael wraps his own around a hand grinder to explore the world of specialty coffee. Follow Michael on X (formerly known as Twitter) @MSidgwick for more!