The Rock Misses Wrestling, Hogan Responds to Ronda Rousey; Matt Hardy on AEW BTE

Bleacher Report catches you up on the latest news from WWE and AEW.  

The Rock Misses Wrestling

While The Rock will likely never have another WWE match—that's what happens when you're one of the highest-paid actors in the world—that doesn't mean he lacks the itch. 

The Rock said he misses wrestling while answering fan questions on Instagram Live (h/t Marc Middleton of Wrestling Inc):

"I do miss wrestling. "I love wrestling. I loved professional wrestling. I loved it. Here's what I loved about it. I loved creating with the pro wrestlers that I had great chemistry with, but the thing I miss the most about professional wrestling is just being able to connect with an audience every night. Every night was just a showcase. I didn't give a s--t about being, as many of you know if you followed my career in pro wrestling, I didn't give a s--t about being the biggest guy, the strongest guy, the loudest guy, the toughest guy, the guy who won all the time, the guy who was the craziest and jumped off the top of the cage, and moonsaults, and all that s--t... no, but by the way, there's a purpose for those guys by the way and many of those guys are my friends. I just always cared about connecting with an audience, that was really the most important thing for me, so I do miss that part about pro wrestling, because there's nothing like it. And there's nothing like being able to listen to an audience, I love it.

"But I do miss that, but also the wrestling business has changed, really dramatically since I was in it. Not to say that it's changed for the worse or for the better, it's just different, and I still follow it and I have a lot of love and respect for all the men and the women who continue to put their bodies on the line and by the way, it's crazy that they're continuing to put their bodies on the line through this pandemic. They're just working hard and just wrestling, and sweating on each other, and just doing all this, but all in the name of entertaining the fans, which I think is always cool, because wrestling has always had this adaptability to it, that was always very cool. So, I do... thanks for asking me about that."

Both AEW and WWE would fall over themselves handing Rock a check if he ever actually had the desire to get back in the ring. But barring some unforeseen halt to his ascending movie career, that's never going to happen. Studios would struggle or outright refuse to get him insured for any film project if he were to return to the ring, which given Rock's box-office appeal, would likely cost him millions—if not tens of millions.

Plus, The Rock turns 48 next month. For as great of shape as he's in, it's better to just leave the memories alone and allow him to go out on his own terms.

Hogan Supports Rousey Trolling Fans

Ronda Rousey has become the most hated woman in wrestling over the last week, first ripping fans in a podcast appearance before later calling wrestling "fake" in a follow-up tweet. The controversy has led to people inside WWE and fans ripping her for her attitude about the business—all while many wonder whether the whole thing is a work.

Rousey seemed to hint at a work in progress, posting a video of herself fighting a Hulk Hogan wrestling dummy while adding a callback to an old Hogan tweet:

Hogan responded to the video on Instagram, per Middleton, offering his support for the former UFC star: "Wow that's how I need to wake up every morning instead of coffee, marks always work themselves into a shoot especially when they are in the ring, truer words have never been spoken, yo Travis love u guys. HH"

Suffice it to say, we're leaning toward this being one long work by WWE and Rousey now.

Watch Being The Elite Episode 199

Come for Matt Hardy's rules of a squash match. Stay for Luchasaurus having a bout of #sadboihours.