Jon Jones and The Rock have TKO by the balls

Their anti-star model leaves them dependent on the last stars standing

TKO finds itself in an interesting position.

They own UFC, which has an 80-90%+ market share in MMA.

They own WWE, which has at least a 60% market share in the U.S.

They’re launching TKO Boxing, which, with the generous backing of the Saudi Public Investment Fund and the eager bootlicking of many in the boxing world, seems poised to grab huge chunks of the boxing market.

And yet, they can’t get The Rock to show up for WrestleMania, and they can’t get Jon Jones to defend his UFC heavyweight title.

This leads a dumbass such as myself to ask, um, what the fuck?

How do these two guys have all the leverage against the Kings of Leverage and value extraction? How did WME Group leave itself so vulnerable?

If the brands are the stars, why do Jones & Johnson have all the leverage?

So let’s talk about Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson first, since all this pro-wrestling stuff isn’t my wheelhouse and you probably didn’t follow the drama at WrestleMania.

Let’s just say, they’ve been using The 52-year-old Rock to juice the return of 48-year-old John Cena since February, and most fans expected to see Johnson playing a big role at WrestleMania.

But, alack and alas, WrestleMania came and went, and… no Rock.

Fans were disappointed. The Uncrowned gave the match a “D” rating saying, “After seeing The Rock — the ultimate architect in this current story — at Elimination Chamber, we haven’t seen him on WWE programming in more than a month. Last year worked so well because the “Final Boss” was present and a looming threat. This time around we had an uneven build with solo promo work carrying it for more than a month — and the resulting match was nothing short of a disappointment.”

Johnson sort of explained himself on The Pat McAfee Show:

"I called John after Elimination Chamber, spoke to him, called Cody, and I said, 'I think 'The Final Boss' work is done. We've established it,'" Johnson said. "We just pulled off the greatest angle in the history of professional wrestling, other than Hulk Hogan turning heel back in the '90s. I said, 'This is amazing. We have six weeks. Now, let's build. You guys go and crush it. I'll be right there with you, and I'm always here if you need me, but I think it's best for 'The Final Boss' not to be involved in that finish. Six weeks to plan for that.'

Sounds like Dwayne gave them the “it’s not you, it’s me” talk before vanishing mid-plotline.

So why was The Rock even at Elimination Chamber in the first place?

Turns out TKO bossman Ari Emanuel made a phone call and asked nicely.

"(Ari) said, 'We need help at Elimination Chamber. Ticket sales are a little slow. Beyond that, we've found that Elimination Chamber has become the pay-per-view that's interesting and fans are having fun, but it's also the conduit to WrestleMania. How do we create an Elimination Chamber that people must tune in to see? Right now, we don't have that.' He asked if 'The Final Boss' would show up."

Oof. So ticket sales were “a little slow.” Slow enough that billionaire Ari Emanuel had to get on the phone with multi-millionaire Dwayne Johnson and call in a favor.

Rock took advantage of Ari’s value extraction instincts and greed in needing constant bigger, better sellouts while UFC is in media rights negotiations. TKO is on a hamster wheel of hitting new records without doing anything fundamentally and substantively of value.

But I guess ticket sales were just great for WrestleMania, and they just decided to let the plotline drop.

Either that or The Rock just decided he couldn’t be bothered. He can do that, he’s The Rock.

The Rock’s got a lot on his plate

Naturally, Johnson’s got a lot on his mind. He’s producing and starring in The Smashing Machine, a dramatic re-creation of the 2002 documentary of the same name about “UFC legend” Mark Kerr, directed by Uncut Gems co-director Benny Safdie.

The trailer dropped earlier this week. Take a look at let me know what you think.

Personally, I found it weird and disconcerting to see a jacked-up 52-year-old Rock playing a 30-year-old Mark Kerr in what looks like a shot-by-shot remake of one of the best documentaries ever made about MMA.

Given that Johnson was doing WWE playfights against UFC legends like Ken Shamrock and Dan Severn when Mark Kerr was fighting in the UFC and PRIDE and battling demons and drug abuse, I have to wonder if the Rock isn’t trying to re-litigate his life choices almost thirty years later.

Is Rock facing a situation where his God complex is competing with his inferiority complex? How does a guy who became a God in WWE end up wanting to relive his past through the eyes of people he saw as industry leaders and contemporaries?

But enough psychoanalyzing WWE champ turned Hollywood star Dwayne Johnson, WTF is up with the Prodigal UFC heavyweight champ Jon Jones?

X.com readers Community Note ESPN post about Jones’ title reign

Some poor intern on the ESPN social team tried to celebrate the UFC’s biggest star and his incredible record-setting run as heavyweight champ. Unfortunately, even the credulous Elon-dupes who haven’t fled for Liberal Nirvana libtard heaven (ie Bluesky), called bullshit on that.

That’s because Tom Aspinall is out there breaking records for his tenure as interim heavyweight champ.

Holy crap, Jones is still ducking Aspinall

UFC analyst Din Thomas spoke to Mike Bohn and had some thoughts about Jon Jones’ apparent refusal to face Tom Aspinall in a title unification bout:

Well that's the problem with fighter leverage. As a fighter you go through so much to get to where you are wherever that is And when you can really start to call your own shots…think about all the guys who've had the leverage and it's only like a few of them, Conor McGregor being one Jon Jones being the other. And once they're in a position where they can string you along they’re going to do it They going to go ‘you know what after all you guys put me through y'all going to feel this one.’ And they've put us through it man.

Jon has strung us along. Connor strung us along. And now we got to sit and eat it because we done gave these guys all the leverage They done got all the cards in their hands.

I’m not sure who Din means by “we.” From my perspective as a pay-per-view buying fan, TKO management is who gave Jones (and Johnson) all the leverage by refusing to spend the money to build other stars.

Like Johnson, Jones became a star in a different era, under different ownership at a time when the UFC produced stars.

Why doesn’t the UFC (or WWE) produce new stars under TKO’s ownership?

This infographic I found on social media (if you know the source, please let me know) explains a lot of the issue:

TKO has only themselves to blame for this situation, and someone on X had a fine explanation: “Surplus killing: where predators kill more prey than they can consume. It has short & long-term consequences. It reduces their short and long-term food supply with cascading effects throughout the ecosystem, potentially destroying the environment they depend on for survival.”

That’s TKO’s dilemma and why the last stars of previous eras like Dwayne Johnson and Jon Jones have them by the balls. TKO has strip-mined the combat sports/entertainment ecosystem to the point that it’s no longer producing new stars and the old stars “done got all the cards in their hands.”

Ari and Shapiro are falling into the same trap that help kill Hollywood. Now, it’s just a game of how much more cash they can generate in fight sport before they shift that money into MLB (Chicago White Sox?) and the NBA (Chicago Bulls). The irony is that the two guys who have them trapped, Jon Jones and The Rock, are guys with one or two fights left and nothing else. Everyone involved is all in this for the short term and not for the long haul.