Seven Bucks SVP Brian Gewirtz discussed Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson’s storyline with Cody Rhodes at WWE WrestleMania 40 during an appearance on The Masked Man Show.
“I think it was very satisfying. This was probably some of the most fun Rock has ever had, not only as a performer in WWE, but period, in Final Boss mode. We always envision that ending of Wrestlemania and the Raw After Wrestlemania as somewhat of the equivalent as Darth Vader at the end of Star Wars getting spun out, but not killed. The babyface had their moment and big medal ceremony, and Darth Vader is checking his shit, making sure it’s okay and ‘this ain’t over yet’ and ‘you have no idea what’s coming next.’ There is a lot of Darth Vader-Luke Skywalker to Rock and Cody Rhodes. He’s not his father or anything, but there are a lot of parallels to that. That’s, I feel, going to continue. He flat out set it. ‘Your story with Roman is over, ours is just beginning,’ and then he handed him the thing and we’ll see where that goes.
There is definitely a difference between the usual ‘I’m going to go make a movie and maybe I’ll return’ to this lingering presence over Dwayne Johnson on the TKO Board of Directors and The Rock essentially now existing in the space that is WWE, who can drop a Final Boss promo on Instagram anytime he wants in relation to a storyline, or tweet something. I don’t think it’s going to be a regular occurrence, but I do think it’s going to happen and it’s great because he’s in it, and by extension, I’m in it too. We’re all so happy how this run turned out because it’s a hell of a lot more interesting and fun and unpredictable than had we just gone Rock vs. Roman, babyface vs. heel. I’m sure that would have been good, too. We had some fun ideas for that, but this new direction, nothing is out of bounds in terms of ‘why don’t we suggest this.’ ‘Yeah, let’s try it and do it.’”
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(quotes courtesy of Jeremy Lambert)
