During his appearance on the Pat McAfee show via video, Dwayne Johnson said that he made the decision to step away from the John Cena/Cody Rhodes angle and storyline.
Johnson noted that once Cena turned heel, it was now left up to Cena and Rhodes to what he said was to “build and crush” the rest of the story following Elimination Chamber, going into WrestleMania 41 and that he felt the work of the Final Boss was complete after pulling off the greatest heel turn since Hulk Hogan at WCW Bash at the Beach 1996.
“I knew then the best thing for the Final Boss – we’ve established this idea with Cody’s soul and can always come back to it – I did feel and made the call that I don’t want to be involved in that. Let the Final Boss step back into the shadows and let all the spotlight go to John. Let it go to Cody. Let’s not make it about John’s soul or Cody’s soul. Let’s let them do what they do.…why get involved in that finish when the spotlight should just be on, in my opinion, John, 17, heel champion, what does 2025 look like if this man is saying he’s going to ruin professional wrestling? That to me is the anchoring storyline.” Johnson did add that they could go back the soul storyline at some point in time.
Johnson did also reveal that right around a month before the Elimination Chamber PLE, TKO CEO Ari Emanuel personally reached out to him and asked if would be part of the event, due to slow ticket sales and that TKO wanted to it a must-watch/must attend event.
“I got a call about a month before Elimination Chamber. I get a call from Ari Emanuel, who owns TKO. He said, ‘We need help at Elimination Chamber. Ticket sales a little slow, but beyond that, what we are finding is, it’s become the pay-per-view that is interesting, fans have had fun, but it’s also the conduit to WrestleMania. How do we create an Elimination Chamber that people must tune in to see. How do we create that? Right now, we don’t have that. Will the Final Boss show up?’ I said, ‘Let me give it some thought and I’ll get back to you.’ I gave it some thought, I got back to Ari, Triple H, Nick [Khan], and we had a call. I said, ‘I have an idea. The most important thing to the Final Boss isn’t money, titles, fame, been there done that, and grateful for that. The Final Boss wants your soul. What does that mean? That doesn’t mean the Final Boss wants you to act like this or be like this at his becking call or treat you like crap or make you do all these things that are unbecoming or embarrassing. That’s not how the Final Boss flies. What that means is whatever dreams Cody Rhodes has, whatever ambitions, even if they’re dark, amazing, full of light, scary, whatever they are, you tell the Final Boss, and he makes it all happen. When it comes to giving the Final Boss your soul, that is what you want, not what the Final Boss wants. What does the Final Boss get out of that? Your soul for life.’ Now, we go into Elimination Chamber with this idea of will Cody Rhodes sell his soul to the Final Boss? My thought at the time was, it was a litmus test to find out how fans will respond if Cody sold his soul to the Final Boss. Let’s get a temperature check on this. Establish it, anchor it in, and you come to find out that there were a lot of fans saying, ‘Sell your soul.’ I was an advocate of that. Not turning heel soon, but eventually, down the line, I like the idea of that because Cody is a smart and intelligent guy, a ring general, and this idea that you give him a reason to turn, way down the road, you give him a reason to turn not based on titles, but it’s his soul and what that means, that affects generations. It’s transcendent beyond pro wrestling. Fans were loving it.“
Johnson also noted he loved the finish of the Rhodes/Cena match, but would have “adjusted and finessed” a few things. Johnson, however did not provide any details on what he exactly he would have done differently.
You can watch the full interview with Johnson, beginning at the 25:47 mark of the Pat McAfee show. The full show is embedded below: