Tourism bosses make bold pitch for The Rock to come to Perth ahead of WA’s WWE fight

[Dale]

Tourism officials launched an early bid to lure Hollywood megastar and former wrestler Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson to Perth as part of negotiations with WWE for a WA event.

In emails obtained by The Sunday Times under freedom of information laws, tourism officials posed a series of questions about the deal with the WWE, including whether they could lure stars down under for the Elimination Chamber at Optus Stadium on February 24.

“What ability does the host have to dictate key talent to participate in a standalone premium live event? For example, could we aim to secure WWE alumni such as Dwayne Johnson?” Tourism WA staff asked. WWE’s response was redacted.

The push for The Rock adds to growing speculation he will join the Elimination Chamber event at Optus.

The West Australian revealed in September the growing speculation that the 10-time world champion who hasn’t wrestled at a main event for years, could make his return via Perth’s event.

Already announced are wrestling stars Cody Rhodes, Logan Paul and Australian-born Rhea Ripley with Tourism Minister Rita Saffioti hinting at future announcements on more WWE stars coming to Perth.

“It’d be huge having someone like the Rock here in Western Australia. I saw he made a surprise appearance recently at a SmackDown! event, so of course, we’d love to see him in the ring as part of this exclusive event,” Ms Saffioti said.

“This is such a huge opportunity for Western Australia — WWE has millions and millions of loyal followers right around the globe, and we are so excited that we get to showcase what we have to offer as part of this exclusive event, right here in Perth.

“There’ll be more announcements made soon about other WWE stars making the trip to Perth, so stay tuned.”

Ms Saffioti said of the tens of thousands of tickets already sold, about half were to people from outside WA.

“When we consider bidding for these types of events, we conduct thorough assessments and analysis to ensure we’re getting value for money. The strong advice when considering WWE was that it would provide massive benefits for our economy, generating thousands of out of state visitors and injecting millions of dollars into our economy.

The emails also revealed the State Government wanted to create its own “premium live event” over two nights at the smaller RAC Arena, but was rebuffed by the wrestling entertainment giant.

“We ... believe that the novelty of a WWE event in Western Australia should achieve the outcomes of strong visitation and media impact,” a Tourism email in February reads.

“We would also like to explore the option of creating our own PLE and holding it over two nights at RAC Arena, a venue very well suited to events of this nature.”

The WWE representative said the organisation was happy with the reduced investment but would need a larger-scale event to ensure viability.

“We’d need to run a stadium event and not a two-night arena event to make the numbers work,” the WWE wrote.​

Interesting they also wanted their own 2 night PLE too

 

[Cwalker]

Better chance of getting their own PLE than getting Rock imo

 

[Storm Trooper]

I mean you miss every shot you don't take. Can't blame them for trying.

Rock will make appearances based on when his schedule permits. You'd think it'd be Mania but if he's busy at Mania but free during EC (or in Australia anyway filming) maybe he makes an appearance.

 

[Lethal]

I will lose my shit if he appears.

Perth going all in cos ticket sales gave dried up. It’s cool and all but Sydney/Melbourne are the bigger markets and could’ve sold out by now with our various stadiums. SFS holds 44k seated so could modify for 46, Marvel holds 50k.

 

[Sabretooth]

I mean it wouldn’t be crazy if he made an appearance. No reason not to unless the ol’ schedule prevents it.

 

[Deezy]

Promise him tax breaks for filming.

 

[Cwalker]

Only shot he’d be there is if he needs to be in Australia at the time for something.

If not, it’s going to be a scheduling conflict. Man has his hands in so many pots, free time is hard for him to find.

Article mentions him being on Smackdown a few months ago, but they only reason he was there was cause he happened to be like 30 minutes away from the arena