Celebrity feuds are not hard to come by these days, yet the suppose spat between Vin Diesel and Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson still managed to catch us by surprise. After all, it seemed like the Fast 8 co-stars were thick as thieves, beginning with their first collaboration on Fast Five, so something big must have happened to pit the titans of modern action at each other's throats. Or, could this all be some sort of ruse to drum up some free publicity? According to a source close to the production, that's exactly what's happening.
A source close to the production told Life & Style that while this fight may have started as a real argument between Diesel and Johnson, ultimately the escalation has served one, clandestine purpose:
They are playing a huge prank, and it's all for publicity ... The Rock convinced Vin to amp up the drama between them so they could turn it into a WWE match to help promote the April 2017 release of Fast 8.
What's even more interesting about this theorized Fast 8 publicity stunt is the fact that is isn't just any wrestling match they're choosing to allegedly promote Fast 8 with, they're going for Wrestlemania! The sporting event is scheduled for April 2, 2017, with the April 14th release date of F. Gary Gray's entry into the Fast and Furious canon hitting too close to be ignored. It's not unusual for the WWE to get involved with promoting a big budget action flick, and with USA falling under the Universal umbrella of influence, this could be a slice of corporate synergy. That is, if this event wasn't cooked up to keep the lid on a very real spat that could still be burning between Vin Diesel and Dwayne Johnson.
When the Vin Diesel / Dwayne Johnson feud started in the final days of Fast 8, the reports surrounding the event itself specified that things had gotten so out of hand that the rest of the cast was feeling uncomfortable. As such, to purposely amp a fight up so much that it causes the rest of your cast to become unsettled is not only irresponsible, it's practically unheard of. In fact, the one person that seems to come out of this scenario the rosiest, is The Rock himself.
Unless the entire cast of Fast 8 are involved in this pretend feud that sources are alleging is leading towards a big, pay-per-view event, we're not so sure this story checks out. What we do know is that the argument that occurred between both parties is of such a magnitude that, obviously, Universal will want to kill it as quickly as it started. So while this may not have originated as an opportunity to settle this fight in the ring, it surely sounds like it could be heading that way in the end.
Fast 8 will pull into theaters on April 14th, 2017, with Wrestlemania 33 taking place on April 2nd.
