9 Ups & 11 Downs For WWE In 2025
3. The Rock
Creatively, there was perhaps nobody that had such an instant influence on the wider trajectory of the company in 2025 than The Rock.
That's the sort of sentiment that might bruise the almighty ego of Paul Levesque, but when Dwayne Johnson rolled into town for some select shows the first few months of the year, the ground shifted below 'The Great One's feet. Triple H, his entire inner circle and John Cena himself could do nothing to avoid falling into the cracks that were created. A lot sucked about the build to WrestleMania, and a lot of that was down to 'The Most Electrifying Man In Sports Entertainment'.
The Raw debut on Netflix sucked, and got off to the worst possible start when The Rock blew off a year of genuinely intriguing speculation about what he'd handed Cody Rhodes the night after WrestleMania 40. The two of them made amends over the distance between the ring and the front row (where Rhodes was patronisingly stationed), then Rock doubled down on killing top programmes by anointing Roman Reigns as the undisputed 'Tribal Chief' after his win over Solo Sikoa.
In the aftermath of the double disappointment, Rock rolled up on NXT and spat his dummy out about the justified complaints, spoke vaguely about a plan, then paid that off (kind of) with the "soul" stuff that simultaneously made and broke the first half of John Cena's last year. Tellingly, he had nothing to do with the aftermath whatsoever.
The celebrated and beloved 'Final Boss' run, this wasn't.