Why WWE Released The Rock In 2004, Explained

Highlights

WWE released The Rock in 2004 when they forgot to extend his contract.
The Rock became one of the most successful Hollywood actors after retiring from wrestling.
Despite initial difficulties, The Rock embraced his wrestling past and made a successful return to WWE.

WWE releases its talent now and then, and it is not a surprise to anyone. In the past few years, there have been questionable releases as well. One of them was Bray Wyatt’s release, and another could be Braun Strowman – both of these wrestlers, who fans thought were WWE lifers, got released for some reason. Although they were brought back to the company later, it was still a surprising thing to do, since top wrestlers rarely get sacked like that. But this wasn’t the first time WWE released a main-event wrestler. Back in the day, they let The Rock go as well. The same Rock who took the wrestling world by storm in the late '90s, and whom everyone knows today as Dwayne Johnson. But why did WWE do such a thing?

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The Rock Was One Of WWE’s Biggest Stars In The Attitude Era

The Rock Debuted At Survivor Series 1996

Main Evented WrestleMania 5 Times
8-Time World Champion In WWE
Last Match Against Erick Rowan At WrestleMania 32

Starting his wrestling career at Survivor Series 1996 and receiving a push right off the bat, The Rock didn’t have the best first few months in wrestling despite that. His character was not up to par, and he just wasn’t ready to get over as a babyface in WWE. He was also known as Rocky Maivia at that time. It didn’t take long for the fans to turn on him with many even telling him to “die” as well. Even behind the scenes, there were attempts from Shawn Michaels and Triple H to put The Rock down and not let him become successful, as this story has been told by “The Hitman” Bret Hart on his Confessions of the Hitman podcast.

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Despite all of these difficulties in his career, The Great One managed to become one of the greatest, if not the greatest, superstars of his time. His promo skills were amazing, he was very charismatic, and while he may not have been the best in the ring, the Attitude Era was a time when these things didn’t matter much. If you were able to get the crowd behind you, you had all the tools to succeed and The Rock knew all the tricks to get the people to chant his name. That happened after a heel turn when he joined the Nation of Domination and later became its leader as well. After this, The Rock’s popularity only went off the charts. While he was a top wrestler in WWE for most of his run, he ended up retiring in his early thirties.

WWE Let The Rock's Contract Expire In 2004

The Rock's Last Match Was At WrestleMania 20

There is also a story that when The Rock’s contract was expiring, Triple H went to Vince McMahon to convince him to let his contract expire. At that time, he was trying to make it to Hollywood and people in WWE didn’t want that. They thought that if they just let him go and have his shot at acting, he would eventually fail and come back to WWE. However, there doesn’t seem to be much truth behind this story.

On his Something to Wrestle With podcast, Bruce Prichard revealed that the reason The Rock was released from WWE was simply because they forgot to extend his contract. Prichard explained that Vince McMahon never wanted to let The People’s Champion go, but apparently things were a bit messy backstage, so they did not even know that his contract had run out. After that happened, The Rock took a break from wrestling and focused solely on his acting career.

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The Rock's Became One Of The Most Successful Hollywood Actors

The Rock Made A Return To SmackDown In 2023

The Rock retiring at the age of 32 was the biggest risk that he had taken at that time. He had only started his acting career a few years back with The Mummy Returns. He stopped calling himself The Rock because he was told he had to leave his wrestling self behind. People didn’t treat him with respect initially, but The Rock continued being nice to them.

After trying to fit in and change himself in so many ways as he was told to, he decided he would do things his way. He wouldn’t hide his wrestling past, rather he would embrace it. The Rock eventually made his return to WWE as well and had a great feud with John Cena. He continued doing movies and was even the most-paid actor in the world at one point. He recently made another cameo return to WWE, but with the actors’ strike now over, he’s back to Hollywood. There’s a chance that he could return for a match against Roman Reigns down the line, but there are no guarantees yet.