The ‘Real Reason’ The Rock Missed WrestleMania 41 Revealed

WrestleMania 41 saw the recently-turned-heel, John Cena, win the WWE World Championship for a record 17th time, beating Cody Rhodes in the main event of Night Two. Rhodes and Cena had been feuding since the Elimination Chamber Premium Live Event when the latter won the main event to win a shot at the champion.

Another part of this feud, however, was The Rock, who was calling for The American Nightmare’s ‘soul’, and was a huge factor in Cena turning heel for the first time in his career. But during the WrestleMania main event, he was nowhere to be seen. Instead, it was Travis Scott who interfered and cost Rhodes his title.

Questions were raised as to why The Rock wasn’t there, after being such an important part of the build-up. He did come out with claims that he didn’t want to take the focus away from John Cena’s big moment, which sounds like an honourable thing to do, but doesn’t fit into the narrative that he and WWE were creating.

Kevin Nash on Why The Rock Missed WrestleMania 41

The WWE legend believes he knows why The Rock wasn’t there

One person who has a different idea of why The Rock was missing from the showpiece event is former WWE Superstar, Kevin Nash. The former WWE world champion is synonymous with his time with the nWo stable, working alongside Hulk Hogan, X-Pac, and Scott Hall in both WCW and WWE, which included clashes with the likes of Stone Cold Steve Austin and The Rock.

Nash believes that the reason for him not appearing at WrestleMania was because of a conflict of interest.

WrestleMania 41 Night 2 full results
Match	Stipulation	Time
Iyo Sky (c) defeated Bianca Belair & Rhea Ripley via pinfall	Triple threat match for Women’s World Championship	14:25
Drew McIntyre defeated Damian Priest via pinfall	Sin City Street Fight	13:55
Dominik Mysterio defeated Bron Breakker (c), Finn Balor & Penta via pinfall	Fatal four-way match for Intercontinental Championship	10:30
Randy Orton defeated Joe Hendry via pinfall	Singles match	3:10
Logan Paul defeated AJ Styles via pinfall	Singles match	17:50
Lyra Valkyria & Becky Lynch defeated Liv Morgan & Raquel Rodriguez (c) via pinfall	Tag team match for Women’s Tag Team Championship	8:40
John Cena defeated Cody Rhodes (c) via pinfall	Singles match for Undisputed WWE Championship	21:40

“Rock couldn’t show up because he was filming a Scorsese movie. The last time he appeared before filming ‘Hercules,’ he tore a muscle off his pelvis and cost the production $10 million. Rock can say whatever he wants — ‘I didn’t want to mess up Cena’s moment’ — but he didn’t have a choice. Scorsese wasn’t going to allow it.

“I think they’re shooting in Hawaii. If they’re not actively filming, they’re definitely in pre-production. Whoever’s overseeing the film is not going to let Rock bounce around in a wrestling ring,” he said on his ‘Kliq This’ podcast.

There is some history with The Rock and his career as an actor and a professional wrestler. While filming Hercules in 2014, The Rock main evented WrestleMania 29, this time against John Cena, and suffered an injury which pushed back production of the movie. But with the WWE knowing that The Rock would be a part of this production, it seems a strange decision for them to push his participation in the build-up to the John Cena and Cody Rhodes match in the first place.