![The Rock Says... Too Much: Overshares in GQ and The Rise of All Access Fans [Photo Cred: GQ/Eli Russell Linnetz]](https://lastwordonsports.com/prowrestling/wp-content/uploads/sites/15/2024/11/gq_dwayne-johnson-gqs-men-of-the-year-interview.jpg)
The Rock is an enigma these days; look at his recent comments. There are some laughable anecdotes about his newest film, Red One, but one interview has given people the most pause.
In a sit-down with Zach Baron at GQ, The Rock addressed the rumors that he would relieve himself in a bottle on set and would often run late for shoots. For a WWE legend who is permanently “working the marks,” he shocked many by confirming both while calling the piece that spread those rumors out.
GQ: “If you do a deep dive on you, there’s not a lot of negativity.”
The Rock: “Like, in terms of…?”
GQ: “People writing negative stuff about you.”
The Rock: “Not really. I mean, they tried. I pee in a bottle. Yeah, that happens.”
GQ: “That does happen? What about the ‘late’ part of that story?”
The Rock: “Yeah, that happens too.”
GQ: “Really? Okay.”
The Rock: “But not that amount, by the way. That was a bananas amount.”
So, The Rock overshares in GQ, but why does that matter? Well, this story and the initial round of rumors are just part and parcel of a broader trend among celebrities. It has been going on for years, and wrestling stars have never been immune despite their typically smaller profile within the entertainment industry.
It is also manifesting in other ways, some significantly scarier than fans learning about Dwayne Johnson’s bathroom habits or the pregnant Garcia Sisters’ (fka Bella Twins) bedroom activities in 2021. This phenomenon cuts to the heart of what it means to be a celebrity in modern society and what constitutes fandom.
The Rock Overshares in GQ and Creates Expectations
It is essential to start this with a simple idea. Everyone has agency over their own life and choices. Even those who, through no fault of their own, are suffering with conditions that make it harder can.
Your mental health status isn’t your fault, but it is your responsibility. Everyone can and should behave correctly and keep privacy, peace, and safety as top priorities. That doesn’t tend to happen, though.
Instead, good behavior is tossed aside in the wake of hurt feelings and missed expectations. This sets us up to cover the role that The Rock’s comments have while he promotes his current movies.
When a superstar like The Rock gets involved with the rumor mill, it creates a permission structure for that same mill to keep spinning. It also gives fans an expectation for more, reasonably or not. That is why a celebrity can end up with days of bad publicity over not speaking on a subject or failing to deliver responses to the satisfaction of their fans.
While the GQ interviewer wisely omits this, The Rock has been centered in a lot of these situations recently. His recent slate of movies has come with routine criticism of Johnson. This includes his ties with Vince McMahon or TKO Holdings, his support for Hawaii after the wildfires, his evolving politics, and his on-set demeanor.
With each interaction and outreach to fans, the feeling that a celebrity is talking to them grows, as does the expectation that they are listening.
Expectant Fans Can Become an Obsession
Most WWE fans know about the ongoing discourse about hating on wrestlers online. This was directed very squarely at Maxxine Dupri recently and, unsurprisingly, the women’s roster more generally.
Another common complaint is the way that fans or merchants approach Superstars in public spaces out of character for signatures and pictures and so on. Regardless of where you stand on these, the reality is that these are about chasing cash and clout. Accounts posting content want views, which means more money.
The merch people are doing the same thing. There is an entire ecosystem whose monetary impact is in getting TMI or unique information to share with curious fans online. Online can take a turn quite suddenly, though.
Rhea Ripley on defending Maxxine Dupri from WWE audience criticism:
“You’re just being a dick!” pic.twitter.com/5uagoT4b2h
— IMPAULSIVE (@impaulsive) March 26, 2024
As bad as we may find some fans behave in an attempt to make a buck or “get themselves over” with fans, there are worse ways this constant connection goes. An obsessed fan attack on Sonya Deville in 2020 is a stark reminder of that. Nothing Deville, The Rock, or anyone could do or say would have made that okay or reasonable.
Luckily, the perpetrator is going to prison for his crimes. Still, it does underline the reality that, for some people, their fandom of something or someone is all they know. In a far more common and slightly less intense example, sports fans around the world have been escalating in violence for winning and losing.
These events include personal and property damage alike. When fandom becomes identity or happiness, people seem far more willing to fight for it.
Is Fandom About Obsession?
Are you a fan of The Rock if you don’t know his on-set bathroom antics or his typical and challenging workout routine? Is waiting to see if The Rock overshares in GQ indeed the only way to call yourself a fan?
When placed into that context, it’s ridiculous. However, we accept that premise all the time. There is a sizeable number of fans who share claims that promotion-specific fans aren’t real fans and that knowledge back a certain amount of time or of a large swath of wrestling is required for that label.
The companies themselves, in wrestling and elsewhere, have started to hold fan events and fan festivals with increasingly expensive ticket prices. These are making it harder to be a true fan without a significant amount of capital.
It is fun that fans care so deeply about what they love. It is even fun that celebrities, even big-time wrestlers like The Rock, sometimes feed into this with salacious details. Not every superstar wants this, though.
A lack of privacy out of one, or even most wrestlers, doesn’t mean all of them have to relent to those exact expectations. With the price of seeing these icons live increasing, parasocial relationships become the only content that most fans can engage with personally. We have seen numerous times the tremendous power of social media.
It can control what we see, what we learn, and eventually who we are. Fans should brace themselves for this; we all have agency. However, it might help if the highest among us left a little bit to the imagination when talking to strangers who may very well idolize them.
More From LWOS Pro Wrestling
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@therock Pretty cool and humbling to be this year’s first #GQMOTY cover star. I sat with Zach Baron for this feature and we talked a lot about how it’s hard for me to “hide,” as we sat on the porch at my farm, which is the place I go to step away from the noise. There’s no being inconspicuous these days. But after two decades of high action, adventure and comedy in huge movies, we talked about how I’m excited to do something entirely new: vanish. Zach and I talked about our big upcoming films, Red One and Moana 2, and the deep exploration I did with a completely different kind of movie – A24’s, The Smashing Machine. Read or watch the full story by @GQ’s Zach Baron at the link up top.
