Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson has opened up about the severe injuries he suffered during his main event match against John Cena at WrestleMania 29, revealing that he tore his abdomen, adductor, and quad tendons but continued the match for another 20 minutes because he believed it would be the final match of his career. The story highlights the incredible toughness and old-school mentality of “The Great One,” who was determined to “do the honors” and pass the torch to John Cena, regardless of the physical pain he was in. His comments provide a fascinating behind-the-scenes look at one of the biggest main events in WrestleMania history.
Appearing on NPR’s “Fresh Air” to promote his new film, “The Smashing Machine,” The Rock recalled the moment the injury occurred and his decision to push through it.
“In this WrestleMania match, if [Cena] would have asked me, ‘Hey, are you okay?’ And I say, ‘No, there is something wrong,’ and he says, ‘Okay, let’s go home,’ we would know where to pick up. It’s almost like you go right to the third act of the script, and we would go home. That would be the end of the match. I didn’t want to tell John that because I knew the match would end, and I didn’t want the match to end in that way. Not only was it important to me to go out on my shield, I knew this was my very last match of my entire career. My career was going to end on this night. No one knew, but I knew.”
He explained that his primary motivation was to ensure that John Cena had his proper crowning moment.
“The other reason, and maybe more important than my career ending, I was doing the honors. That means you’re passing the torch to someone who is going to carry it from here on out. That was to John, and that was the finish to our match; me doing the honors for him and him beating me in the middle of the ring to become champion. That’s why I didn’t want the match to end right away. I wanted him to have his moment. That’s important.”
While he believed it would be his last match at the time, The Rock did eventually return to the ring for a tag team match at WrestleMania 40.