Heel mode: The Rock releases R-rated extended cut of his ‘WWE Raw’ beatdown of Cody Rhodes
Written by ABC Audio All Rights Reserved on March 30, 2024
If one is used to seeing Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson as the affable big dude from the Jumanji movies or Disney’s Moana and Jungle Cruise, they might not recognize him in full “heel” mode.
But that was the case Monday night, when he delivered a literally bloody beatdown of WWE star Cody Rhodes to set up a WrestleMania 40 matchup between Rhodes and Seth Rollins versus The Rock and Roman Reigns.
The wrestling ring was Johnson’s original stage, and he’s fully committed to his villainous turn, even showing an unaired portion of the beatdown — complete with cursing — on his personal Insta, which is usually reserved for workout motivation and cute “girl dad” videos.
In the uncut footage, Johnson repeatedly curses out Rhodes and whips him with a wrestling belt, onto which he’d ceremonially smeared Rhodes’ blood to show to the camera — and “Mama Rhodes,” Cody’s mother, Michelle Rubio — during the show.
“I hate constraints and bulls*** rules – and just because some @wwe producer says … we are no longer live on the air and the show is over … that doesn’t mean I just stop whatever I’m doing …” Johnson captioned the off-air beatdown.
“It f****** p***** me off. I can’t shut my high emotions off just because a script says we’re done.”
While pro-wrestling may be scripted, for what it’s worth, those wallops looked legitimately painful.
WrestleMania 40 takes place April 6 and 7 at Lincoln Financial Field in Philadelphia.
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