Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson received 96,558 TKO shares worth millions on Sunday upon the completion of WrestleMania.
Johnson, who has been back in WWE as The Rock in recent months, played a starring role in WWE‘s biggest show of the year as Cody Rhodes became the new WWE champion.
Adopting a villainous persona, he teamed with real-life cousin Roman Reigns to beat Rhodes and Seth Rollins in the main event of night one, before featuring in the night two main event between Rhodes and Reigns.
In late January earlier this year, Johnson was appointed to the board of TKO, the conglomerate created by WWE and UFC‘s parent company, Endeavor, to unify the entities.
Now, he has been awarded shares worth just short of £7.5million after reaching a series of requirements stated in his January 2024 contract.
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Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson has received £7.5million worth of shares in WWE umbrella company TKO
Johnson played a vital role in the production and performance of WrestleMania weekend
Johnson joined the board of TKO earlier this year and has now received 96,558 shares
Given in the explanation of responses, it was stated that Johnson received the shares was ‘vested upon completion of certain services’ from his contract.
It was a year ago that WWE and UFC agreed to a merge to form a new publicly-listed company to be controlled by Endeavor Group, with the move completed in September.
Endeavor, who have owned UFC since 2016, hold a 51 per cent stake in the combined company, while WWE shareholders hold 49 per cent. Former WWE chairman Vince McMahon is one of those shareholders.
The deal valued TKO at more than £17.3billion according to the companies, with UFC valued at £9.8bn and WWE at £7.5bn. The Rock was given around £23.7m in stock when joining the board.
It’s possible that the awarding of shares related to appearances on WWE TV by Johnson, who admitted on Raw on Monday that he was stepping away from programming again for the foreseeable future.
The Rock received the shared ‘upon completion of certain services described’ in his contract
WWE was valued at £7.5billion at the time of the merger, with TKO valued at more than £17.3bn
Johnson continues to receive loud crowd reactions whenever he appears on WWE television
‘I have been lucky to have participated in some cool things,’ Johnson said on Saturday evening in the post-night one press conference. ‘There is nothing like performing at WrestleMania in front of your fellow pro wrestlers and thousands of people.
‘There might be (more matches). I can’t elaborate that much on that but I love what I do. We will see.’
Johnson continues to get loud crowd reactions wherever he goes and whenever he appears, and he was serenaded by a rendition of Steam’s ‘Na Na Hey Hey Kiss Him Goodbye’ from the Philadelphia crowd when he revealed he had to step away from WWE.
His Hollywood career calls, but he will be back soon, and is certain to be more involved now he is working board level in the company.
