There has been a backstage update on The Rock’s WWE SmackDown promo controversy, and how FOX has reacted to the language involved.
On last week’s WWE SmackDown, The Rock gave the fans in Memphis, TN the gift of a special ‘Rock Concert’, the first of its kind in over a decade.
While The People’s Champion has never been known to hold his tongue during promos, the language used by the TKO board member did potentially ruffle some feathers behind the scenes.
Rumors of Rock’s profanity ‘rubbing talent the wrong way’ are not known for certain to be true, but Rock himself did acknowledge, or at least claim, that his words may have got him heat with “networks” and “standards & practices” in a recent post on Instagram.
However, now a new report from Dave Meltzer on Wrestling Observer Radio seems to dispel this somewhat, with Meltzer stating that Rock’s promos are sent to FOX ahead of time, in order for them to anticipate and censor any profane language Rock is set to say.
Meltzer said:
“The deal with the TV, what they have to do is, FOX gets the script ahead of time so they know when to bleep. Because the whole thing, the Rock promo, obviously it’s completely scripted.
“If it was anyone else, they would just be not allowed to say it, but with The Rock, it’s like, he can say whatever he wants, but they know what he’s gonna say and when he’s gonna say it, so anything they wanna bleep out, they will bleep out.
“And they know when to bleep it out because they’re told ahead of time. “So that’s kind of the gist of the promo and why certain things were bleeped out and everything like that, and they didn’t miss on anything.”
As well as the drama surrounding his language in the promo, there had also been rumors that Rock went over his allotted time for the segment – leading to over parts of the show having time cut.
A backstage name, known to be close to The Rock responded to these rumors, which you can read about in full at this link here.
The Rock is not currently advertised to appear on the next episode of WWE SmackDown on March 22, however, his cousin Roman Reigns will be – and is set to go face-to-face with his WrestleMania 40 opponent Cody Rhodes.
We’ll keep you posted with any further updates.
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