The Rock took to Instagram on Sunday to discuss all things related to his return to WWE, including his match and involvement at WrestleMania 40.
In his video, which you can see below, The People’s Champion expressed his gratitude for the fan support he’s received, as well as how he’s feeling after the show.
You can check out some highlights from the video below:
On his gratitude for the fan support: “Okay so, a few things. Number one, let me just start with thank you. Let me say thank you so, so much for all the incredible support going into WrestleMania. The build-up to WrestleMania, I wanted to help create the biggest WrestleMania of all-time, the biggest build-up of all time, make wrestling cool again. Professional wrestling is cool again, from the Final Boss! I want to say thank you so much for all of your support. And we shattered every WrestleMania record this past weekend, we shattered every WWE record, and we did it because of you, the fans. And we did it for you, the fans. So thank you.”
On how he’s feeling after the show: “How my body feels after WrestleMania? Banged up like a son of a b*tch. But that’s to be expected, and that’s just the world we’re in. Whether it’s pro wrestling or MMA, UFC, pro boxing — you go into these events, you prepare as best you can, you have your training camps, and you get banged up like a son of a b*tch. And hopefully you come out of it not injured; doesn’t always happen that way.
“My body’s banged up. This whole week, I spent recovering, getting rid of all the inflammation, lactic acid. But no injuries. So that’s a key. Any time you can go through a match like that, whether it’s 45 minutes like our match or whatever it is. It’s WrestleMania, you leave it all out in the ring like every woman did, like every guy did in that locker room. And you get banged up, and hopefully you don’t get injured. So no injuries here to report. My body feels great, had a great week of work, working out, recovering.”
On his preparation for the match and performance: “I did a 12-week training camp to prepare for WrestleMania. I wanted to make sure that I felt like my size was good. I weighed in at about 284 pounds when it was bell time at WrestleMania last week. I felt like my movements were quick, they were sharp. They were fast where I needed to be, I was explosive where I needed to be.
“My main thing in getting in the ring with those guys — my cousin Roman Reigns, Cody Rhodes and Seth Rollins — I wanted to make sure my conditioning was on point. Because those guys can go, and they’ve been doing it for years consistently. And I’ve been away. So I implemented that 12-week training camp, I flew in a lot of wrestlers for the camp. I had a wrestling ring set up in Hawaii, I had a wrestling ring set up in Southern California, and one set up in Georgia. And I wanted to make sure that, again, my conditioning was on point, that my cardio was on point and I could go. And my motor was going and going and going. So I’m very happy about that.”
On Cody Rhodes, Roman Reigns and Seth Rollins: “I want to say congratulations to the men that I was in the ring with. These guys are the best on the planet. Congratulations to Cody Rhodes, the new Universal Champion. As I said, when the Final Boss returns, he’s coming back for you. And I’ll make you bleed again, boy. [chuckles]
“Congratulations, Cody Rhodes. Congratulations to my cousin, Roman Reigns on an incredible three and a half year run, maybe even four years. Just incredible and iconic and historic. Very, very proud of you, Uso. And also congratulations to who I feel is the real MVP of the entire WrestleMania weekend, Seth Rollins. Seth Freakin’ Rollins. What an honor it was to share the ring with you three; what an honor it was to break records. And now my sights are set on the next WrestleMania. But that’s down the road.”
John Cena recently appeared on the “Armchair Expert” podcast to discuss a variety of topics, including WWE’s move to a PG-TV rating and changing up his persona at that time.
You can check out some highlights from the podcast below:
On moving away from his edgier stuff: “WWE moved towards PG, they weren’t quite PG yet but they wanted to move in that direction … you see little kids wearing your stuff and your stuff is pushing the boundaries and then I was like, you know what? I want to stop doing this … It was my choice.”
On making the change gradually: “I had built a relationship with the audience enough where they kind of knew my value system too … so my thing became like, take a bunch of punishment, never give up … I wanted to put hustle, loyalty and respect, which really, hustle, loyalty and respect are right in my value lane. So as a young man I got to take my background, and it was a slow change.”
