WWE legend The Rock has looked back on one of his biggest WrestleMania matches, and why he chose to stick it out despite suffering a major injury.
After defeating John Cena in the main event of WrestleMania 28, the 2 icons clashed on The Grandest Stage once more the following year, this time with Rock putting the WWE Championship on the line.
In the early stages of the match, The People’s Champion suffered a torn abdomen and tore the adductor and quad tendons off his pelvis. Despite this, the match continued for another 20 minutes and came to an end with Cena picking up the win. Additionally, the injury caused delays in Rock filming the live-action version of Hercules, which reportedly cost the studio millions as a result.
While appearing on NPR’s Fresh Air, the Hollywood star first noted that he told Cena there was an issue, to which the 17-time World Champion suggested that they go to the finish and cut the match short:
“In this WrestleMania match, if he would have asked me, ‘Hey, are you okay?’ And I say, ‘No, there is something wrong,’ and he says, ‘Okay, let’s go home,’ we would know where to pick up. It’s almost like you go right to the third act of the script, and we would go home. That would be the end of the match.”
Continuing, The Rock said that he did not want to end the match quickly as at that time, he thought that this would be his final time in the ring, so wanted to make sure that Cena was able to have his moment:
“I didn’t want to tell John that because I knew the match would end, and I didn’t want the match to end in that way. Not only was it important to me to go out on my shield, I knew this was my very last match of my entire career. My career was going to end on this night. No one knew, but I knew. The other reason, and maybe more important than my career ending, I was doing the honors. That means you’re passing the torch to someone who is going to carry it from here on out. That was to John, and that was the finish to our match; me doing the honors for him and him beating me in the middle of the ring to become champion. That’s why I didn’t want the match to end right away. I wanted him to have his moment. That’s important,” said Rock.
The Rock Did Compete At WrestleMania One Final Time
While it did appear in 2013 that WrestleMania 29 would be The Great One’s final encounter, there was one more match left for The Rock before continuing to focus on his Hollywood career. In the main event of WrestleMania 40 night 1, Rock and Roman Reigns teamed up to defeat Cody Rhodes and Seth Rollins, setting up the Bloodline Rules match between Reigns and Rhodes the following night.
Although it has been heavily rumoured that Rock and Reigns will one day go one on one, there has still been no indication as to when this match will take place at the time of writing.
H/t to Fightful for the use of transcriptions.
Featured image: WWE
