WWE icon The Rock has spoken out about his “broken” WrestleMania dream after he announced the 2026 edition would be held in New Orleans.
The Final Boss was the headline act on Friday Night Smackdown having made a last minute announcement of his appearance on Thursday. His “very late” inclusion was said to have ruffled the feathers of the show’s writers, with swift adjustments made before the event was beamed out to millions of UK fans on Netflix.
The Rock made quite the splash, laying down an ultimatum for Cody Rhodes – asking the American Nightmare to be his ‘Champion’ ahead of the Elimination Chamber before proclaiming that he wanted Rhodes’ ‘soul’. The Rock would then announce that he would be appearing at the Elimination Chamber in Toronto on March 1, and that WrestleMania 42 would be coming to New Orleans in 2026.
Speaking at the post WWE event press conference The Rock revealed a few inside stories into the Road to WrestleMania and how it can make or break superstars. His first WrestleMania came in Chicago in 1997 when he was the defending Intercontinental Champion. The rookie proved unpopular, however, and was booed by 15,000 people amid chants of “Rocky sucks”. It marked a low moment for the People’s Champ who suffered a crisis of confidence and was very nearly cut for the roster by Vince McMahon as a result.
The Rock said: “I was a babyface – you are not suppose to get booed. It was a big turning point for me. That was my WrestleMania moment and after that night I had a meeting with Vince. He said ‘things aren’t working out I’m going to have to take the title off of you’. A week later I got hurt, I tore a ligament in my knee and he said ‘you got to go home’. I went home for the rest of the summer and I didn’t know what I was going to do.”
Johnson then considered a more lucrative career in the MMA but a familiar face got back in touch. He explained: “I get a call from Vince McMahon at the end of the summer in October of 1997. He said ‘I’m going to bring you back and I’m going to turn you heel’.”
The Rock joined the Nation of Domination but his return came with one request – to get five minutes on the microphone to “express himself”. He was given two. He added: “At that time I was so driven to prove ‘I’m a lot of things but sucks isn’t one of them’. And after that night – probably about a month later I became probably the hottest bad guy in the company. And things really took off from there.”