As the wrestling world mourned the untimely death of AEW star PAC last week, WWE legend and TKO Board of Directors member Dwayne "The Rock Johnsoncame out with his own tribute on Instagramjust days later. In a several minute video, Rock not onlyoffered his support to not just PAC's family, but to AEW and AEW owner Tony Khan as well, going as far to put over AEW as growing company while referring to Khan as his "good friend." Many found The Rock's remarks touching, though it appears it may have ruffled some feathers within WWE. On Friday's "Wrestling Observer Radio," Dave Meltzer stopped short of saying those in WWE were upset with Rock over his AEW praise, but did reveal there were several caught off guard by it."Were there people in WWE who were very surprised at his wording and what he said, especially with him being on the TKO Board of Directors? Yes, okay?" Meltzer said. "They were very surprised. And Nick may not have been, he may have told Nick ahead of time. Maybe he didn't. He can do whatever he wants, you know what I mean?"But yeah, people were [surprised], not that he did the video or anything like that, but the wording of the video, where he praised them and essentially gave them the stamp of 'Yeah, you guys are good for business and work hard, and you're helping make wrestling.' [It's] not the message that I think the company wants out. The idea of him doing the video, no one's going to be mad at that. But yeah, the wording? People brought it up to me, yeah."So far, AEW has yet to acknowledge Rock's statement themselves, though the promotion has been busy not only preparing for "Grand Slam: Paris" and WrestleDream over the next few weeks, but mourning PAC as well with their tribute to the late star on last week's "AEW Dynamite."If you use any of the quotes in this article, please credit "Wrestling Observer Radio" and provide a h/t to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription
There are very few things that surprise me about WWE these days, and unfortunately, that includes some of their actions last week. I was not at all shocked that WWE decided to go ahead with counterprogramming AEW's tribute of PAC on Wednesday night with their pre-taped Worlds Collide event, and I'm not shocked to see that some WWE personnel were caught off guard by The Rock praising AEW in his own tribute, with the strong hint that many were unhappy about it. This is unfortunately another example of what WWE is; an entity so caught in their own orbit that they barely ever look outside it, and when they do will a) do the bare minimum and b) continue to act callous anyway. Some may argue, and have argued to be fair, that's not what happened last week, that because Worlds Collide aired on YouTube it could be viewed at any time (and thus wasn't actually counterprogramming the PAC tribute) and that Rock is part of WWE, and shouldn't be praising the competition, regardless of the reason.I have no time for these arguments. If Worlds Collide could be viewed at any time due to being on YouTube, then WWE could've posted it on any other day; they chose to keep it on Wednesday even under the circumstances. And while Rock may be a WWE guy, as he pointed out, some things are bigger than which three letters you represent. Hell, even AEW seemed to understand that, as evident by last "Dynamite" featuring footage of several prominent WWE names, and photos of several more. Frankly, it's not even that big a thing; it should be the standard for these things. But it's still more than WWE seems to be willing to do for a guy that is just as important to their recent history as he was AEW's. The fact that WWE not only counterprogrammed it but expressed confusion towards The Rock's basic decency shows that they are a promotion with the wrong priorities.
