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The Rock Addresses Criticism Of His WWE Raw On Netflix Promo During NXT Appearance

The real Final Boss showed up on NXT as The Rock told fans to not to be hypocrites when it comes to his treatment of Cody Rhodes.

Rick Ucchino

The Rock makes his NXT debut
The Rock makes his NXT debut / WWE.com

The Rock says fans need to, "Know their role, shut their mouths and enjoy the ride that The Rock is taking them on."

The Final Boss stuck around in Los Angeles Tuesday night to make his first ever appearance on NXT. He closed out New Year's Evil with an in-ring promo segment where he made it known that he heard every bit of criticism from the online wrestling community Monday Night.

The complaints stem from The Rock's opening promo during the Raw on Netflix premiere, where he completely shed any animosity toward WWE Champion Cody Rhodes and The Tribal Chief Roman Reigns. A stark contrast from when we saw him last at Bad Blood in October.

The reason for which is simple. The Rock was on Raw to celebrate WWE's big Netflix debut, not to start the build to his next WrestleMania program. Still he heard the complaints, and used part of his airtime on the CW network to call out the hypocrisies of the WWE Universe.

"This time last year, The Rock, The Final Boss. Everywhere I went, every gym, every restaurant, every church, every strip club, the same thing (laughs). I heard the same thing. Uh, why are you so mean to Cody? Don't be mean to Cody. Cody's gotta finish His story. Don't be mean."

Fast forward to Monday night and a very vocal portion of the fanbase was suddenly preaching the exact opposite when it came to The Rock's treatment of the WWE Champion.

"The Rock wanted to give props to Cody, give him his flowers. He's been kicking ass. He has been kicking ass, carrying the company on his shoulders. And then what did they say? You can't be nice to Cody. Don't be nice to Cody. Don't drink Tequila with Cody."

The Final Boss then told the fans not to worry and trust that he's always thinking 20 steps ahead.

To steal a phrase from one of his greatest rivals, the bottom line when it comes to The Rock is this, his schedule is not going to allow him to compete at WrestleMania 41. It was made abundantly clear this week that's the case, unless something drastically changes in the coming weeks.

Listen to The Rock's promo Monday night as though the words were flowing from the mouth of TKO board member Dwayne Johnson and not the man who was in the main event of WrestleMania XL.

Those two men are completely different people and it's not extraordinarily hard to differentiate which persona is which. Monday night The Rock was a proud member of the WWE family who wanted to thank two of the biggest talents in the company for helping them deliver such a monumental night. No more, no less.

When his schedule finally allows, I'm sure we'll see the real Final Boss return and sing a different tune.

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Rick Ucchino
RICK UCCHINO

Rick Ucchino has been covering professional wrestling since 2019, but his broadcast career has spanned over 15 years. He can be heard every weekday morning on 700WLW radio in Cincinnati, OH. You can also read his work over on SI's Cincinnati Reds Talk. Follow Rick on X and Instagram: @RickUcchino

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