The Rock and John Cena, two of WWE’s biggest-ever stars, went one-on-one at both WrestleMania 28 and WrestleMania 29.
The feud actually started at WrestleMania 27 in 2011, with The Rock getting involved with the WWE Championship main event between John Cena and The Miz.
The night after on Monday Night Raw, it was announced that Cena and The Rock would be going one-on-one at WrestleMania 28 the following year.
The match, which The Rock ended up winning, was built up by WWE as a ‘One in a Lifetime’ affair, but that didn’t end up happening.
Following on from the likes of Shawn Michaels and The Undertaker, Rock and Cena shared the ring once again at WrestleMania 29, this time for The Rock’s WWE Championship, which Cena ended up winning.
Speaking to the Under the Ring Pro Wrestling Podcast, ex-WWE writer Brian Gewirtz has now opened up about working with Rock and Cena over that three-year period to get the feud going.
Gewirtz, who is widely regarded as one of the best writers in WWE history, explained that Cena and Rock legitimately didn’t see eye-to-eye at the beginning of their feud, which complicated matters.
However, Gewirtz explains that the pair have ironed out their issues and are no longer at war with each other, even being described as “really good friends”.
“That was a journey, to work on that angle for three years with both of them. Obviously Rock vs. Cena, on paper that’s box office, and in reality that’s box office. But the fact of the matter is they weren’t on the same page on the beginning, and it was real-life animosity between them that obviously has since dissipated, and they’re really good friends now.”
Gewirtz even recalled speaking to Cena and The Rock during their heated exchanges and telling them that if they actually got to know each other, they’d get along pretty well.
It was heated. I was literally in the middle of them in rooms, trying to be like ‘You guys, if you just got to know each other you’d be such great friends.’”
It was explained that the issues between John and Dwayne Johnson started off the back of something that Cena said during a press event in the UK in 2009.
Cena gave a number of interviews during that time period where he called out The Rock for his part-time WWE status and criticised him for his work ethic.
What makes this ironic is that just seven years later, Cena would too branch into Hollywood, becoming a part-time WWE Superstar in the process.
Thanks to WrestleTalk for the transcriptions.