Although The Rock had been heavily involved in the storyline leading up to WWE Elimination Chamber: Toronto — notably demanding Cody Rhodes’ “soul” and signaling John Cena to turn on Rhodes — he was absent from WrestleMania 41 and the surrounding events.
During a recent edition of his “Grilling JR” podcast, WWE Hall of Famer Jim Ross opined that The Rock’s absence from WrestleMania 41 (Night Two) wasn’t a “dealbreaker.”
You can check out some highlights from the podcast below:
On The Rock’s absence from WWE WrestleMania 41: “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.”
