After an historic night for WWE, it seems like the path to WrestleMania for one legendary superstar might have diverted paths. Dwayne Johnson, or The Rock, if you prefer, opened the massive WWE Raw debut on Netflix at a packed Intuit Dome in Los Angeles, dressed as ‘The Final Boss’, the villainous character that he had been portraying when he returned last year and was forced to pivot his angle. However, fans who were expecting a showdown with cousin Roman Reigns, or even a huge head-to-head with WWE Champion Cody Rhodes might well be disappointed.

Opening the show, Johnson entered the ring and dropped all pretense when addressing the crowd, and basically ignored all storylines from the past, as he addressed the fans and Rhodes, who was in the crowd. The Rock and Rhodes had a violent feud around WrestleMania last year, which led to Rhodes being left whipped and bloodied. Indeed, The Rock pinned Rhodes in Night One of WrestleMania last year, and confronted him the night after WrestleMania which led fans to believe the two would have a match in the future. However, it looks like that won’t be happening any time soon. Additionally, it has been reported via pro wrestling news outlet Fightful that Johnson is in fact scheduled for reshoots on the live-action remake of his hit Disney animated film Moana while WrestleMania is ongoing.

Johnson is an extremely busy man, and his schedule has regularly prevented him from doing more wrestling than he perhaps would have liked, but it’s understandable that he needs to put his career outside the ring first. After all, he is an actor, producer and lots more aside from that, but as a director on the TKO board, he will still have a big say going forward.

What is Dwayne Johnson Making Next?

Aside from filming Moana, which is due to open in theaters in 2026. His next film is set to be The Smashing Machine, which is a neat blurring of the lines of what he has done in the past and what he is now. He will be portraying UFC fighter Mark Kerr, and one man who would know better than anyone how big a role this is, is UFC President Dana White, who told Collider that Johnson had a shot at awards glory for the role:

The Rock will kill this. He will nail this role. I know how serious he’s taking this, I know who’s working with him, and I know how hard he’s working on this film. I think that this could be the opportunity for The Rock to actually be nominated for an Oscar. This has been a passion project for him for a while, and he has 100% of the support from the UFC. Obviously, he’s a friend of mine, and this is his chance for an Oscar

Stay tuned to Collider for more updates.