The Rock Explains Why He Continued WrestleMania 29 Bout Despite Injury, ‘I Knew It Was My Last Match’

The Rock clashed with John Cena in the main event of WrestleMania 29 with the WWE Championship on the line.

Early in the match, The Rock suffered a torn abdomen and tore the adductor and quad tendons off his pelvis. Despite the injuries, Rock wrestled for another 20+ minutes and finished the match.

Speaking on NPR’s Fresh Air, Rock explained why it was important to him to finish the match.

“In this WrestleMania match, if he would have asked me, ‘Hey, are you okay?’ And I say, ‘No, there is something wrong,’ and he says, ‘Okay, let’s go home,’ we would know where to pick up. It’s almost like you go right to the third act of the script, and we would go home. That would be the end of the match. I didn’t want to tell John that because I knew the match would end, and I didn’t want the match to end in that way. Not only was it important to me to go out on my shield, I knew this was my very last match of my entire career. My career was going to end on this night. No one knew, but I knew. The other reason, and maybe more important than my career ending, I was doing the honors. That means you’re passing the torch to someone who is going to carry it from here on out. That was to John, and that was the finish to our match; me doing the honors for him and him beating me in the middle of the ring to become champion. That’s why I didn’t want the match to end right away. I wanted him to have his moment. That’s important,” said Rock.

Rock would return to the ring over a decade later, competing at WrestleMania 40, teaming with Roman Reigns against Seth Rollins & Cody Rhodes.

Rock stars in “The Smashing Machine,” which is now in theaters.

If you use any of the quotes above, please credit and link to the original source with a h/t and link back to Fightful for the transcription.