The Rock is not to blame for the delayed release of the WrestleMania XL: Behind the Curtain documentary, according to Brian Gewirtz.
Gewirtz, a former head writer for WWE and now an executive for The Rock and Dany Garcia’s Seven Bucks Productions, appeared on The Ringer’s Masked Man Show Thursday and explained that an error in promoting the documentary is responsible for the delayed release, and dismissed speculation that The Rock was “holding hostage” the project.
WWE originally announced that the documentary would premiere on the company’s YouTube channel on Wednesday, April 10. The documentary has still yet to be released.
Gewirtz says:
“There is, believe it or not, there is an awesome doc that WWE… The Rock isn’t holding hostage until he has approval of every frame… Jesus. But there was, I think there was an error in terms of promoting it so soon because it wasn’t ready to come out. So, that was an error that was made. But this was a doc that I think went from 11 minutes to 45 minutes, now it’s over an hour. And it’s pretty awesome, and it will be coming out in some form pretty soon, is my understanding.”
Gewirtz also discussed Seven Bucks’ Who Killed WCW series that is coming to Vice TV on June 4 in his Masked Man Show interview. The episode is embedded below.
More details are now known about The Rock’s WWE talent contract that he signed upon joining the TKO Board this past January.
Wrestlenomics’ Brandon Thurston did some digging into Dwayne Johnson’s contract that was published as an exhibit this past February with WWE’s annual report.
Here’s a few of the highlights from what Thurston found in addition to some other notes:
The contract allows Johnson to hire “third party service providers in connection with developing concepts, scripts, storylines” with WWE’s approval.
As part of that process, WWE will reimburse Johnson’s Seven Bucks Entertainment for the costs of those service providers. One such person was named in the contract, but their name was redacted. That very well could be former WWE writer and Seven Bucks executive Brian Gewirtz who is a longtime Johnson collaborator.
The deal is worth $30 million in TKO equity (“the Johnson Equity Award”) that vests on a schedule through the end of 2025. The vast majority of that award will be doled out by the end of 2024.
Part of that equity is for Johnson licensing his name, likeness and “certain other intellectual property rights to WWE for use in connection with certain categories of licensed products related to professional wrestling for up to 10 years, subject to certain earlier termination rights.”
That IP, which includes The Rock and nearly all of his famous catchphrases, cannot be used on things like political ads, alcohol, tobacco, marijuana, porn, or pop-up ads without Johnson’s approval.
At the end of 2023, Johnson got nearly $491,000 for royalties and will continue to receive yearly royalties for the sale of products with the aforementioned IP.
After his return match on the first night of WWE WrestleMania 40, he confronted Cody Rhodes on the following Monday’s Raw to set up a future clash which could be quite a while from happening. Johnson is currently filming A24’s “The Smashing Machine” before moving onto production on Disney’s live action Moana film.
The Rock says he’s not leaving WWE after WrestleMania 40.
Rock and Brian Gewirtz spoke with ESPN recently about what will come next for him following this weekend’s events in Philadelphia. According to The Rock, he will always be part of the company.
“I’m not off the board after WrestleMania,” Rock said to Gewirtz during the interview. “I’m still on the board, and I will always be a part of this. And we are in it now. This is our thing and will forever be our thing.”
However, Gewirtz clarified that this doesn’t necessarily mean Rock will be a consistent fixture on WWE programming after Mania.
“But I do think there’s gonna be a Rock presence in WWE going forward until whenever he doesn’t want to…,” Gewirtz said. “I could definitely say that this isn’t [over a] day after WrestleMania and I’m gonna go off into the sunset now.”
“This whole run has really kind of rejuvenated him,” Gerwitz continued. “He is not physically and mentally capable of ever being on autopilot. But there was kind of like this safe zone in the babyface space that is fun and fan-pleasing, but isn’t the edgiest of things you can do in a ring with a microphone. Not to the point of bloodying up the No. 1 babyface in WWE and threatening his mother and dog.”
“It’s like he’s never been bigger than he is now,” he added. “He’s part of the board. He just kind of carries a certain weight as opposed to when he came back earlier when he was at a great level, but not this. That’s why the Final Boss feels so organic, because it not only is the TKO literal final boss, but just the weight of Dwayne Johnson in 2024. It just feels important.”
WWE sent rings to Rock’s homes in Los Angeles and Hawaii to help him prepare for his in-ring return on Saturday. In Los Angeles, he’s been training with members of NXT’s Gallus, Wolfgang and the Coffey brothers. Michael Hayes, Bobby Roode, and Chad Patton have also been supervising training sessions where Rock runs through in-ring sequences and works on his timing.
In Hawaii, Rock trains alone, running himself through speed, mobility, and timing drills. He told ESPN that getting back in the ring has been just like “riding a bike.”
“Suplexes, a launch off the top rope, a catch, like bodies hitting bodies,” Rock said. “It’s things like that that you have to do and have to prepare for. And you’re getting bruised up, you’re hitting the ropes. It comes back fairly quick. … It’s like riding a bike.”
“Fortunately for me, very lucky in that I became somewhat of a ring general where I see the circumference of the ring and where I need to be usually timing wise,” Rock continued. “Because timing is really important in our business of wrestling. So, just putting in the work, training, the diet begins, which always sucks. And taking the falls and just getting my ass kicked every day. So, we’ll see how it goes.”
Brian Gewirtz has shed new light on the Cleopatra’s golden egg storyline from late 2021.
The former WWE head writer appeared on The Bill Simmons Podcast on Wednesday and said the original plans for the angle were “way worse.” However, he wouldn’t elaborate on what those plans were.
Gewirtz said:
We were doing Red Notice product integration in the pay-per-view. There was this magical golden angle that If you recall, it was a heavily reviled night of creative, everybody hated the angle as far as this golden egg that Austin Theory found and Sami Zayn ratted him out and everything else like that. The original creative for that, I won’t go into, but just trust me, it was much, much, much worse.
When I discussed it with Dwayne [Johnson], it was like, ‘Yeah, that’s gotta change.’
Gewirtz continued to say that Vince McMahon began to take notice of Sami Zayn’s ability as a performer during the filming of vignettes for the angle.
And then Vince and the team came up with this egg thing which most people watching it didn’t like it for whatever reason, that’s fine, but I was told that during those vignettes where Sami kind of stooged off Austin Theory and wanted him to be punished and then was put in a situation where – whatever the creative was – that was the turning point as far as Vince going, ‘Hey, this Sami is… I mean, I always liked him but…”
I think we should look at that egg angle now a little bit differently and perhaps give props to the golden, magical, $100 million egg because – listen, talent always rises to the top and Sami is amazing and would have risen to the top anyway – I just thought it was funny that it was those vignettes where Vince really took notice as far as Sami as a performer.
The Cleopatra’s golden egg storyline was a tie-in to The Rock’s Netflix movie, Red Notice. Austin Theory was eventually revealed to be the culprit behind the stolen egg. He stated that he was only trying to take a selfie with it but then all the security made him nervous and he ended up walking away with the egg in his possession. After Theory admitted to the crime, McMahon rewarded him with a WWE title match against Big E on the November 21, 2021 edition of Raw. Theory lost the match after being distracted by Kevin Owens and Seth Rollins.
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MONDAY NEWS UPDATE
Bryan and I will be back tonight talking about Mustafa Ali, Raw, Cody Rhodes, Ultimate Fighter, Hall of Fame and much more. You can send questions to the show tonight to [email protected]
Regarding Cody Rhodes, if for some reason he is pulled from Wednesday’s show, then there is a story. Right now he’s agreed to do a second season of Rhodes to the Top and is advertised for Wednesday’s Dynamite.
Raw tonight is from Tulsa. The advance was only 4,000 and paid was well below that. The show would be expected to do among the lowest numbers in the show’s history due to the Cardinals-Rams wildcard playoff game tonight. If they equal last week’s number, which was the fourth lowest in history in 18-49, one would have to consider it a success. To make things worse, Dwayne Johnson will be head-to-head as part of the Manning Brothers announcing the football game on the ESPN 2 simulcast. This is the last week against football and the first time Raw has ever gone against a playoff game. The Raw number should bounce back to whatever normal is next week.
Announced for Raw are Seth Rollins vs. Bobby Lashley and Becky Lynch & Doudrop vs. Liv Morgan & Bianca Belair. There is set to be another Alexa Bliss segment as well.
WWE
Sorry to report that Sasha Banks’ father passed away over the weekend. The father-in-law of Trish Stratus also passed away over the weekend.
AEW
Thunder Rosa will wrestle Tony Deppen on the next GCW show in Los Angeles on 2/25 at the Ukrainian Cultural Center.
UFC
Mike Jackson, who some may remember as the MMA reporter who beat C.M. Punk in Punk’s second UFC fight, returns to UFC in his first fight since the Punk win. He will face Dean Barry on the 4/23 show.
OTHER NOTES
Brian Gewirtz’s book on his life as head writer of WWE now has a title: “There’s Just One Problem: True Tales from the former one-time seventh Most Powerful Person in he WWE.”
Brooklyn Brawler, at age 60, wrestled Saturday night for UPW in Iron Mountain, MI pinning a guy named Kato (thanks to Leonard Brand)
On HBO’s second season of The Gemstones, John Goodman’s character is revealed to be a one-time pro wrestler with Memphis wrestling. No promotion is mentioned, just the Eli Gemstone, who is a patriarch of the family, when he was young wrestled under a mask as The Maniac Kid. We also see him as a heavy collecting for the mob. It’s a dark comedy, said to be very funny. The idea is the son of his promoter returns and his family finds out about his past (thanks to Brendan Faherty)
The Briscoe Brothers will be doing open challenges both Saturday night for Northeast Wrestling in Poughkeepsie, NY and Sunday for GCW on their PPV show from New York’s Hammerstein Ballroom. Obviously the reason is to give you the idea it’ll be FTR, which would be who fans are expecting. I’d think Tony Khan would want that match for himself, but we’ll see how this plays out.
A first-time ever meeting of Killer Kross vs. Homicide takes place on 3/3 for Outlaw Championship Wrestling in Ridgewood, NY.
Terri Runnels replaces Tammy Sytch for Great Lakes Championship Wrestling on Saturday in Cedarburg, WI at Circle B.
Wrestling Revolver from last night in Clive, IA: Mike Bailey b Acey Romero, Masha Slamovich won three-way over Billie Starkz and Tootie Lynn, Eddie Edwards & Chris Sabin b Myron Reed & Warhorse, Crash Jaxon won over JJ Garrett, Cole Radrick, Dan the Dad, Jason Strife, Kody Lane, Marcus Mathers and Kevin Giza, Jake Manning & Manders b Logan James & Tyler Matrix, Madman Fulton b Ninja Mack, Ace Austin won four-way over Alex Zayne, Andrew Everett and Blake Christian, Brian Cage b Jonah, Alex Colon b Jake Crist in a scaffold light tubes deathmatch
Adam Scherr and EC3 are announced as competing in a tag team match on 3/7 in Dubai. (thanks to CBS Sports)
Epic Pro Wrestling on 5/21 in Los Angeles featuring Peter Avalon. Avalon is still under contract with AEW although he has started taking more independent dates
Impact is doing TV on Friday and Saturday at the Charles Dodge Center in Pembroke Pines, FL featuring Jay White,Tama Tonga and Tanga Loa from new Japan Pro Wrestling. The Iinspiration vs. Tenille Dashwood & Madison Rayne Knockouts tag title match that was scheduled for the 1/8 PPV show will be taped this week. The match was postponed due to COVID protocol.
Former WWE head writer Brian Gewirtz is releasing a book about his time with the company.
The book is now available for pre-order and is currently scheduled to be released on Tuesday, August 16, 2022. It’s being published by Twelve Books.
“Heels and Heroes: Writers Rooms, Metal Chairs, and Other Shocking-but-True Stories from the WWE” and “There’s Just One Problem: Inside the WWE with Demented-but-True Stories of Mayhem, Metal Chairs, and Major Insanity” are both listed as titles for the book.
Gewirtz joined WWE in 1999 and was a writer for the company until 2012. He was then a consultant for WWE until 2015.
Gewirtz currently works as an executive for Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson and Dany Garcia’s Seven Bucks Productions. Gewirtz and Johnson worked closely together in WWE, with Gewirtz serving as Johnson’s main writer.
On Twitter, Gewirtz responded to someone who said they were excited to read his book: “Thank you! News got out early and the book (with the actual title and cover) to be released next year but very excited about it. I mean what good is spending 16 years in the business if you don’t have at least 25+ completely insane but true stories to tell.”
The full description for the book is available below:
Former WWE head writer Brian Gewirtz brings readers behind the scenes for an unprecedented look at the chaotic, surreal, unbelievable backstage world of the WWE.
With untold stories from a career spanning over 15 years and featuring the biggest names and controversial moments in wrestling history, HEELS AND HEROES is an honest, unflinching look on how an introverted life-long fan unexpectedly became one [of] the most powerful men in all of professional wrestling.
For decades wrestling was shrouded in secrecy. It had larger than life personalities, bone crunching physicality and jaw-dropping theatrics but backstage it was an industry devoid of outsiders. Then in 1999, after working together on a special for MTV, Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson turned to 26-year old television writer Brian Gewirtz and asked ‘You ever consider writing for WWE?’ That question, and its answer, would have a profound effect on both of their lives for years to come.
HEELS AND HEROES is a story about perseverance, tenacity, and steel chairs. Most writers in the WWE last for a matter of months; Gewirtz was there for over 15 years, writing some of most memorable and infamous storylines in WWE history (covering the ‘Attitude Era’, the ‘Ruthless Aggression Era’ and into the ‘PG’ and ‘Reality’ eras).
Throughout this journey Gewirtz found himself becoming both friend and antagonist to some of the biggest names in WWE history – Stone Cold Steve Austin, John Cena, Stephanie McMahon, Bill Goldberg, Paul Heyman, Chris Jericho, Shawn Michaels, and the two men who he worked the most closely with WWE Chairman Vince McMahon and Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson. These men not only shaped his life professionally but also personally, forcing him to grow and change both as a writer and a human being.
So how does a lifelong fan and outsider break through to become the ultimate insider? How does a low-key personality deal directly with his boss, the most brash, unpredictable ‘alpha male’ on the planet, WWE Chairman Vince McMahon? How does one gain respect in a locker room that wants nothing more than to see him disappear? Where does one go when every year in wrestling takes you further away from the writing career you always wanted? Taking advice from his idol, the late ‘Rowdy’ Roddy Piper, when you’re so full of fear, there’s only one way to push through: become fearless.
The Rock may soon be bringing another project to television.
Variety reported on Friday that Dwayne Johnson’s Seven Bucks Productions, along with Will Ferrell’s Gary Sanchez Productions, is developing a professional wrestling-based sitcom pilot for Fox. The series is based on Johnson and former Raw head writer Brian Gewirtz’s relationship and their experience in the industry.
After leaving WWE, Gewirtz joined Seven Bucks Productions as a creative consultant in 2013. He was later promoted to the company’s Senior Vice President of Development.
“This November will mark the 20th anniversary of my professional wrestling debut,” Johnson told Variety. “I was 24 years old, putting in the hard work, making $40 bucks per match and had no clue of the long journey that lay ahead of me with characters and backstage stories so colorful you’d think there’s no way that can be true. The entertaining show that goes on in front of the crowd pales in comparison to the insanely entertaining show that goes on backstage. Brian and myself can’t wait to tell our stories.”
Variety notes that the series focuses on a charismatic young wrestler and an awkward comedy writer new to pro wrestling. Both Johnson and Gewirtz are listed as executive producers for the project.
“Coming from Hollywood to the wrestling industry, with its intense backstage atmosphere and larger than life personalities, was a major culture shock.” Gewirtz said. “After working in the business for over 15 years, Dwayne and I had encounters and experiences that were unbelievable as well as unforgettable. We can’t wait to bring this project to the fans.”
The series is set to be a single-camera hour-long comedy, and Ferrell and creative partner Adam McKay are among those attached to the project as executive producers. It has received a put pilot commitment from Fox, but it remains to be seen whether the series will ever each air.
