WWE Stars Upset With The Rock & Recent Changes (WWE News)
There's reportedly a bit of unrest backstage in WWE due to The Rock's recent involvement.
The Wrestling Observer Newsletter is reporting that WWE's locker room is abuzz with unrest due to The Rock's recent involvement in an apparent creative shift heading into WrestleMania 41. It's understood that a mega 'Mania main event between Cody Rhodes and John Cena had been in the works since late last year, but now everything is up in the air due to Rocky's hastily rearranged segments.
Dave Meltzer claims many within WWE were only informed of Rock's promo segment with Cody on last week's SmackDown a few hours before the show started. On this week's broadcast, The Rock appeared via the tron and reiterated his wishes to make Rhodes his champion - Cody will make his mind up on that at Elimination Chamber on Saturday night.
It's believed that a lot of this has been arranged last minute, which in turn has sent WWE's initial plans for WrestleMania weekend this April into Meltdown. Of course, it's still unclear exactly how much of this Triple H and his creative team actually did know ahead of time. It'd certainly be something if WWE left their most important weekend of 2025 up to chance, but The Rock is The Rock.
He commands a lot of attention, and he has serious sway in WWE matters due to his star power and position on the TKO board.
Internal Frustrations Over WWE's New Elimination Chamber 2025 Poster
Meltzer has also reported that there's been some discourse amongst talent about the change to WWE's Elimination Chamber: Toronto poster.
The original version showed a number of stars next to the Chamber logo and other details about the event. That's since been changed to one of Rock standing solo. There's no Cody Rhodes, no John Cena, no CM Punk and no anyone else. Again, this could be a deliberate ploy to present Rocky as somebody who holds significant power and can flex those muscles at any time to make himself the focal point.
In other words, it could be a creative move more than anything else, but Meltzer remains unsure.
He says the poster shift upset a few notable names inside the promotion. There's likely a firm belief that spreading the wealth and leaning on stars who have been working hard to grow the WWE brand all year round is preferable to seeing The Rock swan in take centre stage just like that.
Stay tuned for more on this as it develops. Are WWE workers really mad at Rock, or is this all part of an elaborate (and clever) game with the media? If it's the latter, then it's working. People are talking about The Rock's seemingly last-minute reshuffle heading into WrestleMania.