The Great One takes a massive L at the box office
Stop me if you’ve heard this one before, but the guy who once saved a struggling SmackDown with a single promo is currently getting absolutely torched in the comments section. The live-action Moana project was supposed to be the cinematic equivalent of a WrestleMania main event—high budget, massive star power, and guaranteed money. Instead, it’s looking more like a botched spot that took out the whole stage.
Reports are suggesting this thing could potentially hemorrhage upwards of $125 million when all is said and done. In wrestling terms, that’s losing the belt, half your push, and the crowd chants all in the span of one opening weekend. Disney thought they had a blockbuster, but the audience is looking at it like a mid-card match that went ten minutes too long.
The wrestling community is having a field day
If you head over to the forums or check the replies to the recent coverage from F4WOnline, you’ll see that wrestling fans are absolutely relentless. There is no middle ground. You’ve got the die-hards who treat The Rock’s career like a sacred text and the skeptics who have been waiting for this exact moment of weakness to unleash their inner Jim Cornette.
One group of contrarians is pointing out that this is karmic justice. They argue that if you spend your entire professional life focused on Hollywood instead of the squared circle—following the long path laid out by PWInsider’s report on the failure—eventually, the box office is going to book you for a squash match. These folks are loving the narrative that some stars just can’t replicate their ring magic in front of a green screen.
The damage control vs the reality
Then you have the defenders. These are the people arguing that one bad weekend doesn’t negate a legacy. They want to talk about international markets, merchandising, and the long tail of streaming releases. It’s like watching a fan try to justify a terrible booking decision by saying the storytelling will make sense in three months, even though the viewership numbers are cratering right now.
My take? The math doesn't lie. When the projected loss is in the nine-figure range, as indicated by Ringside News, calling it a flop is just being honest. You can look at the data, the ticket sales, and the buzz—or lack thereof—and recognize that this wasn't just a miss. It was a complete misread of what the audience currently wants from their summer viewing.
The criticism here isn't about The Rock’s ability to draw on a microphone. We all know he can cut a promo that makes a crowd of 80,000 people hang on every word. But movies operate under different physics than a Monday night arena. In the W-C-W days, this is the version of a show that gets you canceled before the second hour.
The bottom line
Is this the end of his Hollywood career? Don't be ridiculous. The guy is a machine, and he’ll pivot back to whatever blockbuster action franchise needs a human boulder to carry the poster. But fans are rightfully pointing out the hubris in thinking a live-action remake of a perfectly fine animated film was high-priority content. It reeks of corporate overreach.
At the end of the day, wrestling fans love a good comeback story almost as much as they love watching a giant fall. This is the wrestling equivalent of a top-tier heel getting hit with a chair behind the referee's back and eating the pin in the middle of the ring. It’s messy, it’s loud, and the internet is going to talk about it for weeks. Maybe The Rock should stick to the ropes and leave the high-fantasy animation to the professionals.
