Was Vince McMahon happy with a 17-time champion leaving WWE? AEW star reveals the possible truth

Vince McMahon has been directly or indirectly responsible for every WWE Superstar joining or leaving the company. Considering the size of the promotion, no single entity can claim to be bigger than the brand itself.

However, The Rock could challenge that fact during his peak wrestling years, and that could possibly be why Vince McMahon was happy to see him leave, according to Matt Hardy.

The Great One stopped being a full-time wrestler in 2003. Since then, he has gone on to become one of the biggest Hollywood stars in the world. In a recent episode of his podcast, AEW star Matt Hardy praised The Brahma Bull before stating that Vince McMahon was happy to see him go as The Rock was becoming a bigger brand than the promotion itself.

"I think Vince didn't want to consciously try and allow anyone to become bigger than the WWE," Matt Hardy said on "The Extreme Life" podcast. "He wanted to make the biggest thing about WWE the brand itself. But, man, The Rock really was special. One of my all-time favorite moments in professional wrestling was WrestleMania X8 when he and [Hollywood] Hogan were in the ring, the crowd was going nuts, [and] it was so amazing to see Hogan being given that moment. The crowd was eating out of their hands — it was unreal." [H/T: WrestlingInc]

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The Rock recently made an appearance on an episode of WWE SmackDown

The Rock returned to WWE on the September 15, 2023, episode of the blue show. That was his first televised appearance for the company since October 2019. He destroyed Austin Theory on the mic before dropping him with a Spinebuster. The Brahma Bull hit his signature People's Elbow to A-Town and received a thunderous ovation from the crowd.

Since turning into a Hollywood megastar, The Rock's appearances have been extremely sparse. His last match took place all the way back in 2016 when he defeated Erick Rowan in six seconds at WrestleMania 32.

The People's Champion's last memorable match was against John Cena at WrestleMania 29 when The Leader of Cenation defeated him for the world title. There are strong rumors that Rocky could be set to face Roman Reigns in a blockbuster clash at WrestleMania 40.