Backstage Report On The State Of Things Between The Rock And Cody Rhodes In WWE

There has been much chatter in the wrestling world about who will face Roman Reigns for the Undisputed WWE Universal Championship at WrestleMania 40 in Philadelphia, but a new report suggests Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson might not be an obstacle to Cody Rhodes finishing his story.

According to Fightful Select, images from the "WWE Raw: Day 1" event showed Johnson and Rhodes hugging outside gorilla position. The embrace was caught on camera by Johnson's team and a WWE photographer. The nature of the exchange, which took place prior to The Rock's promo on the show, was reportedly supportive of Rhodes and what he's been doing. Sources close to Johnson said he's "long been a proponent" of Rhodes, even when he was in AEW, while other sources said that they "got the feeling" that The Rock wasn't there to "stand in the way of anything." Fightful did note that the interaction between Johnson and Rhodes happened before Johnson dropped the "head of the table" line in his promo, which their sources didn't know was happening.

Fightful also reported that, ahead of Johnson getting a seat on the board of directors in TKO Group Holdings, word was going arund that WWE was trying to sign him to some kind of deal, but nobody expected what happened on Tuesday. The company said in a filing that it will pay The Rock $30 million in stock awards to promote WWE as part of his new deal over the course of this year and 2025.