A released WWE star was once heavily rewarded for training with The Rock.
Last year, in 2024, The Rock made his shocking return to WWE ahead of WrestleMania 40. In a surprising turn of events, the Brahma Bull turned heel and joined forces with Roman Reigns to ignite a feud against Cody Rhodes.
Making his in-ring return in over eight years, Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson tagged alongside Reigns to take on the team of Seth Rollins and Cody Rhodes on the Night 1 main-event of WrestleMania 40. However, returning to in-ring action in nearly a decade required severe training ahead of the bout.
Popular NXT UK stars, Gallus (Joe Coffey, Mark Coffey, and Wolfgang) were selected to train with Johnson ahead of the highly anticipated match. During a recent episode of the Refin’ It Up podcast, Joe Coffey opened up about the training sessions with Johnson and how he initially felt they were a prank.
“I mean, it was a ridiculous experience (helping The Rock train for WrestleMania 40) … So, myself and Mark (Coffey) were getting a gym session in before we went into the PC… But my parents had come out to visit for 10 days and they get in the night before. So I’m sitting there going like, ‘We’re gonna go to Universal on the Wednesday after TV or something.’
So I’m just sat and I’ve paid 600 dollars for Universal tickets for all of us, and then I got a text group, and I thought, oh, that’ll just be the confirmation, and it was a text from Matt Bloom, saying, ‘Hey guys, pack your bags. You’re off to L.A. to train with The Rock.’ So my initial reaction was, ‘I’ve just spent 600 dollars on tickets…’ We have a really good relationship with Matt Bloom and he’d done a hell of a lot for us career-wise.
Just (a) great guy… I’m waiting for the punchline. I’m waiting for the rib, and then Wolfy texts back going, ‘Is this a rib?’ And then me and Mark are like, ‘He’s trolling. This is for someone else,’ and he texts back like, ‘No, I’m serious. You guys are flying out’ and then me and my boys were sat there for a couple minutes going, ‘This is crazy.’ As I said, coming from Glasgow and Scotland where I felt there was zero professional wrestling, to be — asked to be, hopefully, help The Rock for the biggest WrestleMania match at that point. So it was great.
We got our bags packed and then we’re sitting, waiting and we’re like, ‘I don’t know where we’re going for that’ and then he texts with travel, and it was like 4 o’clock at this point… ‘Hey guys, your flight was supposed to be 4 o’clock but just go to the airport. You’ll get the next one.’ ‘Okay, no problem’ so, we got to L.A., checked into a hotel downtown… And the next day, we get a text because it was supposed to start first day’s training I think. There was travel issues from Raw or something…
We pull up. I’m certain it (training location) was in Compton. It was just this little warehouse in Compton. You wouldn’t have thought anything was happening, and I think obviously, we kept it that way because he didn’t want press or, you know, kept it off the beaten track to avoid anything. So he pulls in and I’m like, ‘This can’t be the place.’ I’m just, ‘Nah,’ and it honestly felt like you were going to meet The Avengers or something.
Because it’s The Rock so, we gotten in. Rock’s security guy is there, great guy. Just chatting to him and we got changed, got the boots on and we’re just ready and then, Michael Hayes came in, Bobby Roode, because I think they were producing the match. Chad Patton, referee. Larry (Heck), the trainer and we’re just waiting on The Rock and then you hear the pickup truck pull up and it’s The Rock and as he walks in, it’s The Rock. He’s got a presence, he’s got an aura. I just kind of try to treat it like it’s another pro wrestler. You try your best but you still will be like, it’s The Rock.”
Coffey further continued,
“I just went up to him and I went, ‘So what do you wanna do?’ And he went, ‘I don’t really know’ and I was like, ‘Well, why don’t we just get in? …’ Because being from Glasgow, the word ‘Gallus’ means bold, confident, cocky. So I’m just like, let’s go. I’m excited. I’m excited to get in and work with The Rock in the ring, because I might not ever get that chance — probably not. So we go in and we start putting the match together.
It was the tag team match which it was Seth Rollins and Cody Rhodes against Rock and Roman (Reigns). So we’re all playing the different parts. I’m Seth, Mark’s Cody, Wolfy is Roman Reigns and The Rock is The Rock. It was a lot of fun. It was just a lot of fun and we’re just helping and then, after the first couple days — we know our place and are very professional.
We’re not gonna touch into someone else’s match but to be fair, Bobby Roode and The Rock said, ‘If you guys have any suggestions, please feel free’ so, it was really nice professionally to be treated like that and you know, we did see a couple things which, little bits did get in the match which was really cool, and it was a great tag match and that whole storyline was just great.
We weren’t a part of it but it was just nice to be a part of helping The Rock prepare for that… I think Cody Rhodes, Roman Reigns, I think Paul Heyman and Seth were supposed to be there at some point but again, their schedules were so crazy.”
Further in the interview, Joe Coffey also revealed the handsome perks they received for training with The Rock ahead of his tag-team match. Revealing the hefty additional prize, he said,
“He’s as humble as he comes across in interviews. We got paid on top of our salary for it. We arrived home and there was three and a half thousand pounds worth of the new — I’m sorry — dollars of the new Under Armour Project Rock line, some case of Teremana, a nice note from him. You couldn’t ask for anything more. Just a top experience.”
H/t Fightful
WWE Hall Of Famer Goldberg Discusses Current Relationship With The Rock
“We’re cool, man. I haven’t spoken to him in years. I love him to death, you know. There’s the story of him reaching out and asking if I wanted him to check on my mom during one of the hurricanes, before we had even met in person. So, for that gesture, I’ll always be a Rock fan, not to mention the fact that he’s extremely talented and extremely successful in everything he’s done. He sets the bar higher for guys like me and the people that would follow in his footsteps.”
In other news: A major update has emerged on Stone Cold Steve Austin’s last match.