The Rock Responds To Jim Cornette Comments

By Marc Middleton

Former WWE Champion Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson politely dismissed a comment from the legendary Jim Cornette today.

It was reported today by Sports Illustrated that Rock's Project Rock line with Under Armour's human performance team is partnering with his former high school football teams to begin a long-term project that is committed to the health and performance of student-athletes and coaches. Courtesy of Rock and Under Armour, the football teams at Freedom High School in Bethlehem, PA and McKinley High School in Honolulu, HI, will receive brand new Project Rock performance gear.

"I am honored to give back to the football players and coaches at McKinley High School and Freedom High School, my former stomping grounds in Honolulu, Hawaii, and Bethlehem, Pennsylvania," Rock said. "I often speak about how the lessons I've learned on the football field have proven to be invaluable—not just because of the wins but more importantly, because of the losses and the challenges I've had to overcome. I'm the same scrappy, hungry kid whose NFL dreams did not come true. But I learned over time that failures are often the best thing to happen to us, and that resilience and hard work will always begin and end with me."

He continued in the announcement, "Hopefully, my words of encouragement will open their eyes just a little bit wider to see the opportunities they all have this season as student-athletes, and hopefully, my Project Rock Gear will give them a little more gasoline to be the hardest workers in the room. I'll be keeping a close eye on their seasons, and rooting them on like the big, bald, tattooed, cheerleading dinosaur that I am."

Rock later tweeted about the project and wrote, "My family was evicted from Hawaii and forced to move to Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. Times were tougher back then, but I will always be grateful to McKinley High & Freedom High for the invaluable lessons of life I was taught. A pleasure to give back [football emoji] [heart emoji]"

Cornette responded to Rock's tweet, gave him props, but then said The Great One's comments about Bethlehem made the city, which has been one of the top smaller wrestling towns for years now, sound like a really bad place to be.

"The Rock is a national treasure. Having said that, read the first sentence of this tweet in a vacuum and tell me it doesn't shit all over Bethlehem Pa and make it sound like a cross between Devil's Island and Alcatraz with a domed force field," Cornette wrote.

Rock responded and got a laugh out of Cornette's comments, but disagreed.

"That's funny but [laughing emoji] I don't think it reads like that, Jim. It was a force move tho. Old man was working for Jarret in '87 in TN, when me and mom got evicted from HI. Uncle Afa was the one who brought us up to Bethlehem when my old man couldn't get booked anymore. [heart emoji] Bethlehem," Rock wrote back.

You can see their full tweets below:

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