The Rock Confirms WWE Heel Turn on Cody Rhodes in Post Calling Out 'Bulls--t' Rumors

While debunking a claim made by an independent reporter regarding donations made to the Hawaiian island of Maui for wildfire relief, The Rock confirmed Sunday that he turned heel during Thursday's WWE WrestleMania 40 press conference in Las Vegas.

Back in August, The Rock formed the People's Fund of Maui along with talk show host, author and philanthropist Oprah Winfrey, and they kicked it off by donating $10 million to Maui for wildfire relief.

On Friday, journalist Nick Sortor posted a video of The Rock getting booed at the WWE WrestleMania 40 press conference and claimed the booing was due to The Rock failing to deliver on tens of millions of dollars he promised to the people of Maui:

The Rock retorted Sunday with a lengthy tweet on X in which he called Sortor's claims "bulls--t," and noted that the People's Fund of Maui had already donated $50 million to the island:

Additionally, The Rock provided the true explanation for why he was booed, writing:

"I typically refrain from responding to toxic, false clickbait garbage like this because I hate dignifying bulls--t with a response, but when you use Hawaii's tragic events to draw attention to yourself I won't stay quiet.

"This moment you're referring to is from our WWE press conference this past Thursday where I turned 'heel'—wrestling parlance for bad guy. I'm playing it up with our crowd as they boo. It's what we do in our WWE Universe, and we all love every second of it."

The Rock, who has not had a true WWE match in 11 years, made a surprise return on SmackDown earlier this month, as Royal Rumble winner Cody Rhodes seemed to suggest The People's Champion would challenge Roman Reigns for the undisputed WWE Universal Championship at WrestleMania.

A press conference was held last week to hype up WrestleMania 40, and it saw Reigns choose The Rock as his opponent. The Rock then talked about the legacy of their family before Rhodes interrupted.

Rhodes reversed course and chose Reigns as his WrestleMania opponent, leading to both men taking shots at each other's families. The Rock punctuated the event by slapping Rhodes across the face.

Afterward, The Rock had a run-in with Triple H backstage, and The Rock very much came off as a heel, imploring Triple H to "fix" what had just happened.

When it looked like Reigns vs. The Rock was the direction for WrestleMania 40, there was an outpouring of support from fans for Rhodes, and The Rock seems to be leaning into it by portraying a heel character leading up to WrestleMania 40.

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