WWE refutes report The Rock was three hours late for WrestleMania 40

WWE has responded to a report that stated The Rock's "chronic lateness" impacted WrestleMania 40. 

On Tuesday, the Wrap posted an article about production issues that plagued Rock's film Red One, due for release later this year. The film cost $250 million to make and production issues, including The Rock's "chronic lateness and lack of professionalism" are said to be a reason for it going over budget. 

"Insiders told TheWrap that Johnson showed up as much as eight hours late to set on the movie — forcing the crew to shoot around him on some days," wrote The Wrap's Umberto Gonzalez.

The article continues to say Rock's frequent lateness was a factor at WrestleMania 40 as well. 

"Earlier this month, he was three hours late arriving ahead of his main event match at WrestleMania 40, two insiders told TheWrap," Gonzalez continued. 

WWE has denied this claim, however. 

 “Dwayne was not only on time for WrestleMania, he was hours early to help with rehearsal — and a pleasure to work with throughout the entire run,” said Chris Legentil, WWE’s executive vice president for Talent Relations and Head of Communications.

Rock was also more than two hours late for an appearance at WWE World in the lead-up to WrestleMania. However, WWE sources claim Rock was late due to traffic and other WWE-related commitments. 

Regarding Red One, a spokesperson for Amazon MGM also denied there were issues with Rock or his Seven Bucks Productions that led to increased costs.

“Dwayne Johnson and Seven Bucks have been incredible partners on ‘Red One’—a film that audiences of all ages are going to love this holiday season,” the spokesperson said. “Our testing has been very strong — the reaction from CinemaCon speaks for itself — and we couldn’t have made it without Dwayne’s constant work and support. Any reporting that implies that we got to this point with him showing up seven-eight hours late to set is both ridiculous and false.”

However, other industry insiders stated The Rock's lateness cost the film as much as $50 million. 

"Johnson was late an average of seven to eight hours per day and missed several entire days of production, ballooning costs by at least $50 million according to three insiders who insisted on anonymity for fear of being fired," Gonzalez wrote. 

Other industry insiders denied these claims, however, stating Rock "averaged no more than one hour late to the “Red One” set." The film is set to release in November.