As one of the most famous people in the world, Dwayne The Rock Johnson gets talked about on social media a lot. Never has that been more true than over the past few weeks after he returned to WWE and turned heel, which, in wrestling speak, means playing a character the fans are supposed to hate. Ordinarily, he’s perfectly content to just ignore the noise, but after someone took press conference footage out of context to claim he let down the people of Hawaii, he jumped on and dropped the People’s Elbow.
The post in question came from a journalist named Nick Sortor. He took an excerpt from a recent WWE WrestleMania XL kickoff event in which The Rock was booed heavily and claimed it was because fans were mad he didn’t follow through on his pledge to help out the people of Maui affected by the fires. The post got a community notes correction on X, formerly known as Twitter, but that wasn’t enough for Dwayne Johnson, who lives in Hawaii and has a strong personal connection with the people. The People’s Fund Of Maui, which he’s a primary benefactor of, has donated more than $50M to victims of the fire, and he pointed that out, among other things, in his angry response…
I typically refrain from responding to toxic, false clickbait garbage like this because I hate dignifying bullshit with a response, but when you use Hawaii’s tragic events to draw attention to yourself I won’t stay quiet. This moment you’re referring to is from our @WWE press… https://t.co/z76m1Q7w1NFebruary 11, 2024
Contrary to what Sortor said in his post, the crowd was not chanting “Maui.” The crowd was chanting “Cody” for WWE wrestler Cody Rhodes. As part of an ongoing storyline, The Rock returned to WWE, now as a real life member of the company’s Board Of Directors, and tried to insert himself into the main event of WrestleMania XL. Fans of Cody Rhodes were furious and it looks like we’re going to get an on-screen power struggle involving The Rock and his cousin WWE Champion Roman Reigns on one side and Cody Rhodes, Seth Rollins and head writer Triple H on the other. It’s among the most excited and passionate we’ve seen wrestling fans about a storyline in a long time, and it had absolutely nothing to do with Hawaii.
Deciding when to respond and when to take the high road is undoubtedly one of the hardest parts of being a celebrity in the day of social media. Celebrities who respond too often are typically seen as sensitive and reactionary. Celebrities who don’t respond at all or stay off social are sometimes viewed as being aloof and/ or run the risk of letting unsubstantiated rumors about themselves spread.
Dwayne Johnson is, by almost all accounts, a good guy. We’ve been fortunate enough to interview him several times here at CinemaBlend, and he’s been the best every single time. Those working in the WWE also rant and rave about how friendly he is backstage and how much he seems to personally care about the wrestling business. Fans have been quite heated and vocal about him lately, but that’s a huge compliment in a business where getting a strong negative reaction is sometimes the goal.
You can catch Dwayne Johnson back on WWE television this coming Friday when he’ll be appearing alongside his cousin Roman Reigns on SmackDown. You can also catch him in person in Hawaii, a place he loves and will no doubt keep donating his own money to help.
