By Jason Powell, ProWrestling.net Editor (@prowrestlingnet)
The following are the notes I’m taking while watching each episode of the five-part “WWE Unreal” docu-series that is available to stream on Netflix.
-Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson was spotlighted to start the episode. Rock said his Final Boss character is “the greatest heel that professional wrestling has seen.” Rock said the character is an insurmountable antagonist, and there’s nothing he can’t say or do. Rock said becoming this new version of his character has been the most gratifying decision that he’s ever made.
-WWE President Nick Khan spoke about his long history with The Rock. He said that despite everything Rock has done over the years, if you asked him to name his favorite business, he would say WWE. Khan spoke about the Elimination Chamber event being held in Canada, “with a tough Canadian economy.” He said there was a little bit of concern as to how they would overdeliver. He mentioned The Rock’s involvement, as well as Travis Scott’s appearance. Khan said Rock and Paul Levesque spoke by phone, and they both called him and said, “We think we’ve got it.”
-Footage aired of Rock announcing at a production meeting that Rock would be at the Elimination Chamber event.
-Michael Hayes said he loves Rock, but he doesn’t use a script that he reads verbatim. Footage aired of Rock telling Cody Rhodes that he wanted his soul. Khan said he thought the segment was perfect. He said you want to leave the fans wanting a little more, and they knew they would give it to them.
-John Cena announcing his retirement at WWE Money in the Bank was shown. Cena said he wished he could do this longer. Levesque said Cena is at a place in life where he is transitioning out of the business. Levesque said Cena was coming back for roughly one calendar year with a limited number of dates. Levesque said Cena’s health after a long career would dictate the performance he gives. He said if this were a movie, they could use CGI to make Cena look like everyone’s greatest memory of him. Levesque said reality drives what they do.
-CM Punk said he couldn’t hear what Cena was saying when he announced his retirement at MITB. Punk said Cena told him afterward that he was retiring. Punk said Cena earned the right to go out how he wants.
-Levesque said Cena would be in a top character slot. He said that comes with a lot of ifs and questions about what they would get once they really got into it.
-Footage aired of Cena returning backstage after making his retirement announcement. Seth Rollins hugged him and said Cena almost had him in tears. “I didn’t know you were calling it a day,” Rollins said.
-There was a clip of Cena being asked if we might see a darker side of him before his retirement. Cena said he didn’t know how that would work because it goes against his values.
-Michael Hayes said that to be a heel, you have to love people not liking you. Hayes said the last thing he needed was to be approved by society. He said he made a lot of money looking up at the lights because he was the bad guy. He said he had his opportunities where he would win, but the final chapter is that the good guy prevails. Hayes said winning is important, but it’s not the only thing. “Creating interest for the fans, that’s what it’s f—ing all out,” Hayes said.
-Xavier Woods spoke about New Day, including Big E suffering an injury that no longer allowed him to wrestle. Woods set the table for footage of New Day’s tenth anniversary angle, which featured Woods and Kofi Kingston turning on Big E. Woods said they have arenas with thousands of people saying that he and Kingston suck, which is wild. He said he wants to be booed. “That’s what I define as success,” Woods said.
-Hayes said nobody thought Kofi and Woods “would become assholes.” He said the key to the turn was not letting the audience see it coming.
-Levesque said the hardest thing in this day and age of information is keeping something secret. Hayes said stories from Dallas and Dynastyto Game of Thrones would not have been as good had the scripts been released ahead of time.
-Koskey spoke about Cena being “the ultimate good guy in WWE.” He said Cena was the prototype for what you’d want from a top guy. He said Cena was reliable and said yes to everything. Koskey said there had been calls over the years for Cena to turn heel. He said they opted against it for a long time because Cena’s Make-A-Wish work and because being an ambassador for the company would have been taken away had he turned heel.
-Bruce Prichard said they looked at how to feature Cena and tell good stories throughout the years. He said the initial thought was to feature him against marquee opponents for a year.
-Hayes said they were “okay for a while” with babyface Cena vs. babyface Cody Rhodes.
-Former WWE creative team member Brian Gewirtz, who is the current SVP of Development for The Rock, checked in. He said the idea of Cena meeting Cody as babyfaces felt dry to them, so he and Rock pitched something twofold. Gewirtz said he had the idea of Cody needing to be Rock’s champion, which was the hook. He said Cody was going ot turn down Rock at Elimination Chamber, which would have led to Rock booking an impromptu match that would have resulted in Kevin Owens beating Cody for the championship.
Powell’s POV: As much as I enjoy the work of Kevin Owens, I’ve never been a proponent of booking world title changes so close to WrestleMania.
-Gewirtz said Owens winning the title wasn’t the end goal. He said the takeaway was that whatever they did needed to be seismic.
-Levesque said he didn’t know who brought up the idea of Cena turning heel. He asked the person behind the camera if Bruce Prichard remembered. Prichard was shown saying that he, Levesque, and Koskey were the three people involved in the initial conversation. He said they “were challenged with… with an idea.” Levesque compared it to Marvel having different universes/timelines. He said you play things out in your mind as to where they go and what is best.
-Koskey said the overall framework from Rock’s team worked, but the issue they had on the WWE side was changing the championship that close to WrestleMania (amen!). Koskey said he, Levesque, and Prichard got together on a Zoom call, and they came up with “what if” scenarios. Koskey said he was the first person to ask what would happen if Cody accepted The Rock’s offer and dropped The Rock. Koskey said Prichard asked what if they turn Cena. “Oh yeah, this is it, this checks all the boxes,” Levesque said. Koskey spoke about how the Cena turn would add a new layer to the farewell tour and the rest of the year. Prichard said they needed to get others on board.
-Levesque said he spoke with Rock, Cody, Cena, Travis Scott, and Nick Khan. He said he ran the idea by Khan first, then turned to Rock. Levesque said Rock just listened and said “mm-hmm” every now and then. Levesque laughed while saying he couldn’t tell if Rock was saying “mm-hmm” with the idea of getting to the end so he could tell him how much he hated it. Levesque said he got to the end of the pitch, and Rock said he thought it was genius, and then he started sharing thoughts and ideas. He said they spent another 30 minutes on the phone, and they both got more excited the longer they spoke. Levesque made sure Scott was comfortable with the creative, and Cody was surprised by it and thought it was really cool.
-Levesque said his last call he made was to Cena, who told him that he was in with whatever Levesque believed in. Levesque asked him to take the bullshit hat off. He said it wasn’t the head of creative talking to Cena, the performer. Levesque said he wanted the gut feeling of Cena, the human being. Levesque said it would affect Cena as a person, his movies, and his PR schedule. Cena told Levesque that he liked the idea of turning heel a lot. Levesque said that when he hung up the phone, he got three texts from Cena with ideas and thoughts, so he knew Cena was engaged. Levesque said he didn’t want anyone who wasn’t involved in those talks to know what they were planning.
-Cody said he never foresaw being so interlinked with Rock. He said the mystery of Rock either wanting him to be his champion or to rip his face off left WWE fans more confused than they had ever been (um, sure). Cody said it was a fun mystery. Footage aired of Rock and Cody speaking briefly about how nuts it would be. Cody said it had WrestleMania vibes. Rock said it was “f—in’ crazy.”
-Cena spoke about his jorts being from Kmart, and he said his kneepads were originally from OVW. He said he had four or five sets for different gear, and those kneepads survived from roughly 2001.
-Hayes was shown talking with Cena, Rollins, Punk, Damian Priest, and Logan Paul four hours before the Elimination Chamber event. He told Cena he wanted to feel Cena kicking out and nearly being eliminated, and the desperation of Cena nearly having his dream evaporate. Cena said he didn’t want to do anything special with that or overtell the story.
-Punk brought up kicking out of an Attitude Adjustment so that Cena could flash an “oh, shit” facial expression, and he could lean into what he had to do. Punk walked through the idea of Cena going for a hold during the match, and then Punk would scramble and make it to the ropes. Punk said he would kick Cena, who would land on his ass, so he would have a clear view of Rollins hitting Punk with a Stomp. Punk said Cena would pull Punk by the ankle and put him in his hold.
-Punk referred to Elimination Chamber as “possibly the stupidest match that we do here.” He said you can’t prepare for it. He said the structure is unforgiving, but not in a PR way. He said it hurts like hell, and it doesn’t make any noise, so it’s your worst enemy. He said the person who designed the structure doesn’t like human beings, or at least the wrestlers work inside of it.
-Levesque said he told the wrestlers in the Elimination Chamber match that there would be an aftermath, but they did not know any specifics. Hayes said Levesque pulled him aside and told him the plan for Cena turning heel. Hayes said there were people who are in the know nine times out of ten who were not in the know on that particular plan. “It was a very well-guarded secret,” Hayes said.
-Levesque and Rock were shown meeting near the stage two hours before the show. Levesque said he got that Travis Scott was the story, but Rock should be way bigger. Rock said he loved it, and it kept the fans waiting. Levesque asked Rock if he felt that his character already had a plan with Cena. Rock said yes. Levesque said they wondered during a creative meeting whether that was the plan or if Cena would see Cody pass on joining Rock and opt to take the spot on the fly. Rock said it didn’t have to be about Cena’s soul; it would be about business between them.
-Levesque wondered if they should hold off on Rock doing anything physical, and instead leave that to Cena, with the idea being that Rock orchestrated it. Levesque said it would be like the movies where the top bad guy doesn’t do anything physical until later in the film. Rock threw out the idea for the throat slash gesture that he did during the angle.
-Cody was shown telling Levesque that the angle would be bonkers.
-Footage aired of the end of the Elimination Chamber match. Levesque said no one knew Cena was going to turn heel. Levesque said the people in the production truck didn’t know.
-WWE SVP & Director of TV Marty Miller spoke about the angle. He said Leveque told him beforehand to follow along and everything would line up. He said that didn’t happen every day.
-Levesque recalled telling everyone through the headset to lay out and he would walk them through the shots step-by-step.
-A multi-camera approach showed how everything played out in the ring, at the Gorilla position, and in the production truck. The Rock and Cena were shown high-fiving as Rock headed through the Gorilla position. Levesque told the production truck that Rock and Cody would cut promos, and Cody would tell Rock to go f— himself. Levesque said he was okay with “not clipping it.” Levesque told the truck that Cody and Cena would hug and disengage, and “as long as you’re on a wide two-shot, you’ll see what happens.” Once the show ended, Levesque said, “Nice shit, guys,” and then shook hands with Prichard.
-Hayes said if the story of Cena turning heel had leaked, it wouldn’t have been as big of a deal. Hayes said there was a collective gasp from the audience. Hayes said that’s where the money is, and that’s why you have to keep secrets, which is harder to do now more than ever.
-Cena was shown returning backstage. Levesque told him it was “f—ing awesome.” Michael Cole showed up and told Rock and Levesque that Cole never thought in a million years that Cena would turn heel during his retirement year.
-Rock was shown telling Cody and Levesque that the moment Cena held Cody and then looked at him, Rock did the throat slash gesture, and that’s when he heard the fans start to express their surprise.
-Rock, Scott, and Levesque were shown talking. Rock recalled telling Scott to lay in his shot on Cody. Levesque said he heard it, and then they all had a laugh.
-Cody was shown FaceTiming with Travis Scott afterward. Scott told him he was addicted to it now. Cody said Scott has the fever, and he told him he was there for him with whatever came next.
-Cena told a producer that he doesn’t like to spoil anything they do. He said if he gave them the information, it might spoil it for someone. He said many performers talk of the dopamine rush that comes from hearing their entrance music. Cena said he strongly prefers the surprise. He asked the producer if that’s the answer he was looking for. “That’s the answer you gave me,” the man said. Cena laughed and said, “Very good.”
Powell’s POV: The scenario that Punk described for the final moments of the Elimination Chamber is exactly how the match played out. The crazy thing is that Punk didn’t know that Cena was going to turn heel later in the show, but the way it played out made Cena look heelish for not hesitating to take advantage of Rollins hitting Punk with the cheap shot after Rollins had already been eliminated from the match.
When it comes to the overall episode, it provided a cool look behind the scenes at this major angle. I appreciate the effort put in to prevent any spoilers. The angle was a shocker in the moment, but I wish we could give all the players involved some truth serum to find out if they have any regrets about doing it now with the benefit of hindsight.
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