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JBL Says WWE Smackdown Segment With The Rock And Cody Rhodes Was Strange

Originally posted on Wrestling on SI | By Jon Alba | Last updated Feb 24, 2025 12:23 PM ET

All eyes were on Smackdown last Friday, as The Rock made his return to WWE television to announce WrestleMania 42 would be heading to New Orleans. Then, things took a strange turn.

"The Final Boss" called out WWE Champion Cody Rhodes, and over the course of a 25-minute segment, repeatedly told him he wanted Rhodes to be "his" champion. The encounter was ambiguous and uneasy, catching the attention of many.

That includes WWE legend JBL, who commented on the segment on his "Something To Wrestle" podcast, explaining he believed it came off as it was intended to.

“I thought it was strange, and I thought it was probably supposed to be strange," he said. "Sometimes, you do stuff that you don’t have a finish to. That’s why you call it episodic television, and I thought that’s what that was. I have no idea what ‘I’m gonna take your soul’ [meant], I don’t think anybody else does. I thought it was incredibly well done. It looked uncomfortable, and I think that’s how it was supposed to look. I thought it was incredibly well done."

The Rock's return may have thrown a wrench in some of WrestleMania's booking plans, but JBL believes that's a problem worth navigating if you're WWE.

"By the way, you got the biggest movie star in the last 20 years coming back to WWE. There’s no downside to this," JBL said.

"A lot of people have always gotten mad about guys coming back, mad about the Warrior coming back, about Sid coming back, about Hogan coming back, about The Rock coming back. Look, if you’re big enough, you don’t need ‘em. But there ain’t nobody bigger than that man, and so it’s always great to someone like that come back because it really does help the show,"