The Rock Talks Getting Injured In WrestleMania Match Against John Cena, Chemistry With Steve Austin
As part of the Los Angeles Lakers Genius Talks, The Rock stopped by to speak on some of his experiences and how they could translate to the game of basketball. He was asked about his favorite WWE moment and spoke on two topics: his chemistry with "Stone Cold" Steve Austin and getting injured during his WrestleMania 29 match against John Cena, but finishing the match. You can check out Rock's full comments in the video above.
Rock recalled his WrestleMania 29 match against John Cena and noted it was set to run for 45 minutes, but about 15 minutes in heard something pop when he was slammed to the mat.
"At the 15 minute mark, 'bang!' I feel something pop and I'm like 'What the f—?' I'm laying there and both of us are out," Rock said. "I said 'Oh f—, something is going on.' 85,000 people and I sort of roll over and stick my hand down in my trunks because I wanted to make sure no bone was sticking out."
On the plus side, no bone was sticking out, but when Rock got up to walk, he couldn't do it with using some momentum to swing his leg.
Rock then pulled back to explain how at this moment he had to decide if he wanted to keep going or not, because it's not just this match that he's thinking about, but the whole roster in the back that is also relying on a great main event.
"In the world of wrestling, when you have a big show like this, a big main event that the entire show is based around," Rock said. "The wrestlers will come up to the two people in the main event, at some point, all throughout the night in the locker room and be like, 'Hey, thank you for the house.' What that means is thank you drawing – helping draw 85,000 people – and putting a lot of f—— money in my paycheck. We got a lot of 'Thank you for the houses' that night."
Getting back to the match, Rock noted how there was about 30 minutes left and when the referee asked him if he was okay, he could have stopped the match or kept going. He decided to continue, but thoughts did creep in that he may have seriously injured himself and yet he's still wrestling. Rock then detailed taking Cena's finisher to finally end the match.
"Final move of the match, it's his big finishing move and I remember, I'm getting up and I'm turning and he's going to hit me with his big finisher," Rock recalled. "It's like a massive suplex where I go over his head and he slams me down. ... I feel 'boom!' and I don't know what just happened. Luckily the match is over, one-two-three. Get to the back, can't move, now I'm getting a little nervous. Doctors come in, John comes in, 'You okay?' We like to celebrate with some booze, he brings moonshine, like legit moonshine. It's some crazy white boy s— that they bring in a jar."
Rock ended up rushing home to get an MRI and said he found that he completely tore his adductor and the top of his quad completely off his pelvis.
In regards to Steve Austin, he was someone who Rock said always pushed him and they constantly looked to make and break their goals when they had matches together.
"I think the matches I had with Steve Austin, they were really good," Rock said. "We just had a real special chemistry and any time we got in the ring it kind of created this magic and we broke a lot of records and PPV records. At that time WWE were still in a PPV model – they're not now – but that was always cool because Steve and I had a goal, which was let's sell out a stadium and let's break a PPV record. ... He would push me and we would push each other every single night."
Again, you can check out Rock's full comments in the video above.
If you use any of the quotes in this article, please credit The Rock with an H/T to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription.