New Details On The Rock's WWE Talent Contract

Fresh details emerge on Dwayne Johnson's WWE talent contract.

by Andrew Pollard
WWE Raw The Rock Cody Rhodes
WWE

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.

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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.

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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.

 
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Once described as the Swiss Army Knife of WhatCulture, Andrew can usually be found writing, editing, or presenting on a wide range of topics. As a lifelong wrestling fan, horror obsessive, and comic book nerd, he's been covering those topics professionally as far back as 2010. In addition to his current WhatCulture role of Senior Content Producer, Andrew previously spent nearly a decade as Online Editor and Lead Writer for the world's longest-running genre publication, Starburst Magazine, and his work has also been featured on BBC, TechRadar, Tom's Guide, WhatToWatch, Sportkskeeda, and various other outlets, in addition to being a Rotten Tomatoes-approved film critic. Between his main dayjob, his role as the lead panel host of Wales Comic Con, and his gig as a pre-match host for Wrexham AFC games, Andrew has also carried out a hugely varied amount of interviews, from the likes of Robert Englund, Kane Hodder, Adrienne Barbeau, Rob Zombie, Katharine Isabelle, Leigh Whannell, Bruce Campbell, and Tony Todd, to Kevin Smith, Ron Perlman, Elijah Wood, Giancarlo Esposito, Simon Pegg, Charlie Cox, the Russo Brothers, and Brian Blessed, to Kevin Conroy, Paul Dini, Tara Strong, Will Friedle, Burt Ward, Andrea Romano, Frank Miller, and Rob Liefeld, to Bret Hart, Sting, Mick Foley, Ricky Starks, Jamie Hayer, Britt Baker, Eric Bischoff, and William Regal, to Mickey Thomas, Joey Jones, Phil Parkinson, Brian Flynn, Denis Smith, Gary Bennett, Karl Connolly, and Bryan Robson - and that's just the tip of an ever-expanding iceberg.