AEW announcer and Senior Advisor Jim Ross discussed various topics on his podcast, Grilling Jr., including The Rock’s absence from WWE WrestleMania 41.
Ross said, “I had no thoughts that it was going to happen [Rock appearing]. I would have been happy if it did. I had no issues if it did, but there are a lot of cooks in the kitchen, Conrad. There are a lot of cooks in the kitchen on that scenario, quite frankly. It didn’t affect me, yay or nay. And I know Rock as well as anybody; I signed the guy. He was one of my star recruits back in the day. So I was kind of nonplussed by it. I didn’t expect him to be there. But then again, maybe I should have expected him to be there. It just seemed like it made a lot of sense, yay or nay, that he would be a part of WrestleMania. I think we were spoiled a little bit, quite frankly.”
On whether it could lead to a feud with The Rock and Triple H:
“Maybe the latter [it being “real life political gamesmanship”]. It didn’t bother me, yay or nay. It wasn’t that I don’t want to say it’s not that big a deal. Rock’s a big deal in any format, in any scenario. But I never had any expectations that Rock was going to be a part of the whole promotion. I had nothing to lead me to that concept that he was going to be there. Anytime the Rock is involved, it’s going to add to the presentation, without question. But I don’t think it was a deal breaker.”
You can check out the complete podcast in the video below.
(H/T to 411Mania.com for transcribing the above quotes)
