-- Former WWE writer and long-time collaborator of The Rock, Brian Gewirtz recently spoke to the Masked Man Show and explained how The Rock's absence from WWE this time is different from his previous hiatuses, specifically pointing out that the Rock is now on the TKO Board of Directors and is intricately tied to WWE:
"There is definitely a difference between the usual 'I’m going to go make a movie and maybe I’ll return' to this lingering presence of Dwayne Johnson on the TKO Board of Directors and The Rock essentially now existing in the space that is WWE, who can drop a Final Boss promo on Instagram anytime he wants in relation to a storyline, or tweet something.
"I don’t think it’s going to be a regular occurrence, but I do think it’s going to happen and it’s great because he’s in it, and by extension, I’m in it too. We’re all so happy how this run turned out because it’s a hell of a lot more interesting and fun and unpredictable than had we just gone Rock vs. Roman, babyface vs. heel. I’m sure that would have been good, too. We had some fun ideas for that, but this new direction, nothing is out of bounds in terms of 'why don’t we suggest this....yeah, let’s try it and do it.'"
-- He also spoke of how WWE was able to change course with their WrestleMania 40 main event, first from Roman Reigns vs. Cody then to Reigns vs. Rock and then finally back to Rhodes in the picture:
"Cody is a human being who is genuine and real and he wears his heart and emotions on his sleeve. If you read the transcript, you’re like ‘Nixon kicked [Kennedy’s] ass’ but if you watch it it’s like ‘Oh he [Nixon] was a sweaty terrible mess. He looked like someone shot his dog in the face in the parking lot. That, I don’t think helped matters. I don’t blame Cody for that. He’s real. He’s one of the realest people I’ve ever met. We could push forward like WWE has often done or we could do something pretty incredible."
