When WrestleMania takes place each year, Dwayne Johnson usually makes an appearance in some sort. The Rock has wrestled, such as when he beat Erick Rowan in an impromptu match, or he just makes an in-ring appearance, such as when he faced off with Triple H and Stephanie McMahon.
However, Dwayne Johnson never showed up at WrestleMania 33 . In an interview last night at the world premiere of the new Baywatch movie, The Rock admitted why he didn’t appear at WrestleMania this year.
“No I didn’t get a chance to, I was shooting at that time. We were just wrapping up Ballers in LA so I didn’t get a chance to make it.”
Ballers is an HBO comedy-drama that stars Dwayne Johnson as a retired NFL football player who is now a financial manager. The Rock actually worked on creating the series, along with Stephen Levinson. Season 3 of Ballers debuts on July 23.
There were rumors that Dwayne Johnson might return and lead into an angle where Ronda Rousey would face off with Stephanie McMahon in some sort of match. There were even early rumors that the WWE wanted to have a mixed tag team match with Triple H and Stephanie McMahon fight The Rock and Ronda Rousey to play off the face-off last year in Dallas.
However, the match with Dwayne Johnson was canceled early on when Triple H started a long-play storyline when he turned on Seth Rollins last year, and that was a scheduled match for WrestleMania 33 since that betrayal last year.
There were also rumors that Dwayne Johnson could have gotten involved with the story between Roman Reigns and The Undertaker. There had been the discussion of turning Roman Reigns heel and both beating The Undertaker and turning on his own cousin in The Rock would have been a perfect way to do so.
That never happened either. Unlike John Cena, who said that he would continue to wrestle every time he is not shooting a movie, Dwayne Johnson never stops shooting movies. Johnson has become one of the biggest stars in Hollywood and has blockbusters lined up for years to come.
On top of the Fast and the Furious franchise, which Dwayne Johnson continues to be a large part of, The Rock has now added the DC Comics Universe to his slate with his role as the antihero Black Adam in the Captain Marvel storylines. Dwayne has both a Black Adam solo movie and a joint movie with Captain Marvel coming up.
While The Fate of the Furious is still in theaters, the world premiere of Baywatch happened last night, and it hits theaters in a matter of weeks on May 25. Dwayne Johnson is also starring in the sequel to Jumanji called Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle on Dec. 20.
Dwayne Johnson has been one of the top money filmmakers in Hollywood for a few years now, starring in some of the most financially successful movies every year. The Rock also has his first movie lined up for 2018 in Rampage , which is based on the classic monster fighting video game.
Dwayne Johnson is also producing a movie based on the life of WWE superstar Paige called Fighting with My Family . On top of producing the movie, he is scheduled to appear in the film in a small role.
With so much on his plate, it is easy to see why The Rock did not make an appearance at WrestleMania 33 . However, it will be a huge surprise to not see him at WrestleMania 34 next year. The WWE will surely come to Dwayne Johnson with ideas and plans and if he is not in the middle of shooting something, expect the absence of The Rock to not reach more than one year at a WrestleMania event.
[Featured Image by WWE]