The Rock’s tribute to PAC caught people within WWE by surprise, mainly because of the way he praised AEW and Tony Khan.
Rock mourned Benjamin Satterley, the former Neville, in a video posted on September 29, two days after Satterley died. Along with mentioning Satterley’s WWE run, Rock called AEW a “phenomenal” company on the rise and referred to Tony Khan as a friend.
On a recent episode of Wrestling Observer Radio, Garrett Gonzales asked Dave Meltzer how those comments were received internally, particularly since Rock also sits on TKO’s board of directors.
Meltzer responded, “Rock and Nick Khan are close. I do not believe that that has changed. Were there people in WWE who were very surprised at his wording and what he said, especially with them being on the TKO board of directors? Yes. Okay. They were very surprised.”
The issue, Meltzer made clear, was not that Rock paid tribute to PAC, but the very positive way he spoke about WWE’s top competitor.
“Not that he did the video or anything like that, but the wording in the video, you know, where, you know, he praised them and, you know, essentially gave the stamp of, yeah, you guys are good for business and work hard and you’re helping make wrestling. Not the message that I think that the company wants out, you know, not, you know, the idea of him doing the video. I don’t, you know, no one’s gonna be mad at that. But, yeah, the wording. People brought it up to me. Yeah, yeah.”
Rock has served on TKO’s board since January 2024, when the company also granted him full ownership of his “The Rock” name.
This comes during the same week that people inside WWE voiced displeasure with the decision to keep Worlds Collide opposite AEW’s special Dynamite tribute to PAC.
Meltzer did not, however, say that WWE President Nick Khan was bothered. He said Rock may even have spoken with Nick Khan before posting the video.
“But as far as Nick Khan, I couldn’t tell you. I mean, Nick Khan and him, you know, he may have called Nick and told him, and Nick’s just like. It’s not like, what’s Nick gonna say? Oh, you know, you can do the video, but. But you can’t praise Tony Khan.”