The Rock Reveals It Was His Idea For A WWE Heel Turn, Called Nick Khan In January
The Rock has stated that turning heel in WWE was his idea and pitch to Nick Khan
Following Cody Rhodes’ Royal Rumble victory earlier this year, plans seemed to change as The Rock emerged to take his spot in an Undisputed WWE Universal Championship match with Roman Reigns. This caused an outcry amongst fans, with #WeWantCody trending online. WWE seemingly changed track, with The Rock turning heel and Rhodes getting his WrestleMania 40 main event back.
According to The Rock in interviews over the last couple of days, he has implied that the plan may have always been for himself to turn heel. When speaking in an interview to Will Cain of Fox News, he explained that the plans for a heel turn went back to January, which was before Rhodes gave up his WrestleMania spot.
"Back in January, I called Nick Khan, my friend, and I said, 'I have an idea, how about this. Why don't we take care of the people, give them this story of Cody Rhodes and Roman Reigns.' Nick said, 'Great.' I said, 'However, a little bit of a twist.' 'What's that.' 'What if I became the greatest bad guy of all time.' That was the intent and intention.”
This was contradicted slightly in another interview with Joe Tessitore of ESPN, with The Rock explaining how the reaction from fans caused him to call Nick Khan and suggest a heel turn.
"When the fans voice their concerns, whether it's five, five thousand, or five million. You can listen, you can choose to truck through it, or you can choose to take action and serve them properly. As we started to put the whole thing on its feet, a moment came, I felt like it was a critical moment, I remember calling Nick and Ari. 'I have this idea, I don't think we should truck through this. The thing that bothers me most is that there are a group of fans who are upset. I don't know what the answer is, but how about this as an idea. Why don't we go with this incredible storyline between Cody Rhodes and Roman Reigns. This idea of finishing his story is one the fans have invested in, we as a company have invested in that too. Rock and Roman can wait. However, what if The Rock turned heel? What if The Rock not only turned heel, but I was able to present a version of The Rock that was 10.0.'"
This could simply be a case of The Rock getting his months wrong and the exact details of what went on jumbled up, but either way he has claimed that the heel turn and evolution into “The Final Boss” character was his brainchild. Earlier in the week, The Rock did also run with the notion that plans did change and he pivoted to a heel turn.
H/T Fightful
