WrestleTalk News | April 2025 by WrestleTalk - Dailymotion

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00:00Bayley teases leaving WWE, Randy Orton disgusted at his own company's ticket prices, and

00:07Rock the final Dwayne Johnson himself reveals why he didn't feature on WrestleMania 41.

00:13You just didn't really feel like it.

00:16I'm Oli Davis, and this is the WrestleTalk News.

00:22During The Rock's WWE return feud with CM Punk back in 2013, he would wear Team Boots

00:272 Asses t-shirts with the numbers 24-7-365 on the back.

00:34That means putting those boots to the asses 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year.

00:43Over 10 years later, in 2025 though, he's more on track for 24-6-312.

00:48Because in the main event of WrestleMania 41 Night 2, where Cody Rhodes was defending his

00:53WWE Championship against the heel John Cena, the same John Cena, who sold his soul to

00:59The Rock six weeks prior at Elimination Chamber.

01:04The Rock didn't show up.

01:06It was a very disappointing end to what had been a very good Night 2, and Rock's lack

01:10of involvement was heavily criticised by almost everyone.

01:14Because the whole storyline and match felt like it had been designed around the final boss

01:19turning up to finally give Cena the payment for selling his soul to him.

01:24But it turns out that payment was the Grammy award-winning musical artist Travis Scott wearing

01:27a replica hardcore title.

01:29In the wake of many blaming him for Mania's anticlimactic end, he made a video link appearance

01:34on yesterday's Pat McAfee show to explain the real reason he wasn't at WrestleMania.

01:40And the story starts all the way back in February.

01:45The Rock revealed in the interview that about a month before the Elimination Chamber PLA,

01:49where Cena would turn heel, the final final boss, Ari Emanuel, who is the head of not

01:53just TKO where Rock has his board seat, but its parent company Endeavor, called him to

01:58personally ask Johnson to appear at the Chamber show, apparently due to ticket sales being low,

02:04and Emanuel wanting that PLA to be a must-see event by itself, rather than just a stop on

02:10the road to WrestleMania.

02:11Following that, Rock had a phone call with Emanuel, Nick Khan and Paul Levesque to throw

02:15around ideas for what he could do with another WWE run.

02:19Which was probably quite awkward, because Rock had decided to resolve his year-long feud

02:22with Cody Rhodes the month before that on the Netflix debut of Raw.

02:26They came up with the idea that the final boss character no longer wants championship titles

02:31or money.

02:32He wants… people's souls.

02:36And specifically, one person's soul, Cody Rhodes, turning him heel, which The Rock claimed

02:42lots of fans wanted to see happen.

02:44A week or two later, presumably trying to scramble to find a way to deal with this massive

02:48spanner that had just been thrown into his year-long mania build machine, Levesque suggested

02:53that Cena sells his soul to The Rock instead of Cody, which The Rock loved.

02:58Cena agreed to, and said he wanted to anchor his new heeled character in the Let's Go

03:03Cena, Cena sucks chants he'd had to endure throughout his career.

03:07Before I get into why Rock then didn't appear for the mania angle he himself set up, here's

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04:13The Rock being called in after the rumble fits with what we saw transpire on screen.

04:31Up until that point, I believe they were building a story of Rhodes vs Cena, but basing it on

04:36Cena's babyface pursuit of a record breaking 17th world title, which would be contrasted

04:42with Cody's increasing isolation as a long-reigning world champion.

04:46Levesque had been telling a really great long-term story of all of Rhodes' friends slowly turning

04:51on him.

04:52AJ Styles, Kevin Owens, Seth Rollins.

04:55The Royal Rumble go home episode of Raw had CM Punk clearly lay it out.

04:59This is the point in a title reign where you have no friends left.

05:02That turned Punk heel back in 2012.

05:04Don't let the same paranoia take hold of you.

05:08You make it seem like Cody is going to be the one to turn heel at WrestleMania, when actually,

05:13as the Wrestling Observer have reported, it's a swerve for John, who is the one who goes

05:17bad in the main event.

05:19But instead, several weeks after that first phone call from Emmanuel, The Rock suddenly

05:23announced he'd be appearing on the 21st February episode of SmackDown, where, in True

05:28Rock style, he seemed to turn heel and babyface several times in one segment.

05:32He made the big announcement that WrestleMania 42 would take place next year in New Orleans,

05:37which is where that episode of SmackDown was taking place.

05:40But then he delivered his new heel final boss offer to Cody, that he'd make him a megastar

05:45in return for Rhodes' soul.

05:49Emmanuel got his wish.

05:50Elimination Chamber had become must-see.

05:53Not because of the Chamber matches so much, but because of the intrigue of an appearance from

05:57The Rock and whether Cody would sell his soul to him.

06:01It turned out to be Cena in one of the greatest wrestling angles in history.

06:05Unfortunately though, in hindsight, Emmanuel wanting Chamber to be a big success on its

06:09own terms undermined the longer term story that would have made WrestleMania 41, the more

06:15important show, a complete all-time storyline.

06:19Because The Rock seems to think in his McAfee interview that his mission was to kick off Mania

06:24season with that incredible Chamber moment, and then hand the ball to the other guys to

06:29run with.

06:30I called Jon after Elimination Chamber, spoke to him, called Cody, and I said, I think the

06:35final boss work is done.

06:37We've established it.

06:38We have six weeks, now let's build.

06:41You guys go and crush it, I'll be right there with you, and I'm always here if you

06:45need me, but I think it's best for the final boss not to be involved in that finish.

06:50Six weeks to plan for that, I knew then the best thing for the final boss, we've established

06:54this idea with Cody's soul and can always come back to it, I did feel and I made the

06:59call that I don't want to be involved in that.

07:02Let the final boss step back into the shadows and let all the spotlight go to Jon, let it

07:06go to Cody.

07:07Let's not make it about Jon's soul or Cody's soul, let's let them do what they do.

07:14So humble, almost as humble as Triple H.

07:16After The Rock, the storyline then became about Cena's mission to ruin professional wrestling.

07:21Which is true, that's exactly what the next six weeks of the road to WrestleMania became,

07:26with no mention of The Rock or Travis Scott.

07:29But that still left a huge Rock-sized hole in the story, as we needed the actual reason

07:34why Cena sold his soul in the first place, other than just, wow, what a cool moment.

07:40Rock told McAfee that he could have been involved in the Mania finish, and that he's always

07:44open for conversations with TKO and WWE, but that he wanted the spotlight to be on Cena

07:50and noted, well, I'm pretty busy, I've got loads of other commitments too.

07:54He said he loved the finish of Sunday's match, but he would have finessed things a little

07:58differently in how they got there, but that's just me creatively.

08:02Perhaps he is talking about everyone's favourite Grammy Award winning musical artist, Travis Scott,

08:07who he said he loves, but he was surprised to see him involved.

08:11Obviously, because it made fans expect The Rock was about to come out after him.

08:15I knew the moment I saw Travis, well, that immediately amplifies, here comes the final

08:21boss.

08:22Some parts of it I would have just adjusted a little bit more, I would have finessed it

08:25a little bit more.

08:26What do you all think of The Rock's explanation?

08:28Let me know in the comments down below, where I'll be replying, it doesn't matter what

08:31you think.

08:32But even with a critically panned final match, WrestleMania 41 succeeded in the most important

08:38business, business, business metric… money!

08:41The year after WWE announced WrestleMania 40 as their most successful event of all time,

08:46the promotion has issued a press release titled, WrestleMania 41 in Las Vegas becomes most successful

08:52event in WWE history.

08:54Because it shatters all time gait, viewership, merchandise, sponsorship, social records, and

08:59that one woman by the barricade when Stone Cold crashed into her.

09:03I added that past one.

09:05The made up live attendance saw a combined 124,693 fans, 100,000 of which were probably

09:13real.

09:14Being distributed worldwide on Netflix meant viewership at home was up 114% from Mania 40, merch sales

09:20were up 45% in the building and 86% online.

09:24And most importantly, the event featured a record 28 total partners to set an all-time

09:29event record for sponsorship revenue.

09:32Shout out to the Konzo!

09:34The Wrestling Observer claims the live attendance revenue was $40 million combined for both nights,

09:39which means an average of $400 a ticket per show going by the estimated actual paid

09:45attendance figures.

09:46Which brings us to the unlikely moral voice of WWE from out of nowhere, Randy Orton.

09:53In a video on TikTok, a fan is shown talking to Randy about buying tickets to WrestleMania,

09:58where they say they spent about $30,000 on the weekend.

10:03To which Randy looks totally shocked and says, that's embarrassing to me, that's so

10:08much f***ing money for a seat.

10:10But wrestlers aren't just concerned about WWE's increasingly high ticket prices.

10:14They're also annoyed about not being booked.

10:17Bayley was set to tag with Lyra Valkyria at WrestleMania, challenging for Liv Morgan and

10:22Raquel Rodriguez's women's tag team titles.

10:24But on the day before the match, WWE announced Bayley had been attacked backstage, and Lyra

10:30would now be teaming with a mystery partner.

10:32That mystery partner turned out to be Becky Lynch, who had burned through two years of normal

10:36Leveque booking in two nights.

10:38Returning from injury, winning the tag belt, losing the tag belt, and turning heel all in

10:42the space of 24 hours.

10:44PWInsider have reported that Bayley was not really injured, and this was all a part of the

10:48plan dating back for weeks.

10:50Apparently there was sympathy for Bayley in the locker room, as she's very respected,

10:54and people thought she deserved a Mania spot.

10:57The former tag partner Mercedes-Monee over in AEW even tweeted her,

11:01Pointing at you emoji, telephone emoji, money face emoji, Bayley!

11:06It must have got Bayley thinking, as she's now said in an interview with Chris Van Vliet.

11:10Hunter has gone on a press conference being like, Bayley's this, Bayley's this.

11:14She's everything that you could possibly want out of a superstar, which I appreciate.

11:19But it's like, alright, well what do I need to do to get me there?

11:21I've a year and a half left on this current contract.

11:25So we'll see what happens then.

11:26And then what?

11:27Man, I dunno.

11:28I've done so much with WWE, and I've been here already for 12 years.

11:34Much like Karrion Kross' work shoot promo, there is a chance this could all be a work,

11:38as it could tie into her getting revenge on Becky on her return.

11:41Now click the video on screen to watch the brand new episode of Me vs Luke in WWE 2K25 My

11:47GM Mode in Monday Night War.

11:51I'll see you again later in the next one.

11:56I'll see you again next time.

11:57I'll see you again next time.

Real Reason The Rock MISSED WrestleMania 41! Bayley LEAVING WWE! | WrestleTalk

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WrestleTalk News | April 2025

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