And then there is The Rock himself. It doesn’t take a detective to take a look at all the sequence of events related to WWE this year and see that the wrestler turned Hollywood star kind of has his hands in everything that has ruffled fans feathers. He was the one who announced the WrestleMania location that wasn’t. He was the catalyst behind Cena’s turn, a turn that began with Rock, Rhodes, and a bizarre “SmackDown” segment where people mocked Rock for asking for Cody’s soul. His disappearance from WWE after Cena’s turn was seen as many to be a big reason it petered out, and his later explanations for why he wasn’t part of WrestleMania led to more criticism, and some pondering if there was a rift between him and Triple H behind the scenes. And even things that preceded those sequence of events, like Rock appearing on “Raw’s” Netflix premiere and seemingly ending potential programs with Rhodes and Roman Reigns, or his rambling follow up promo on “NXT” one day later, have been seen as a prelude to the poorly received events to come.

Is that entirely fair? Of course not; even if one holds Rock responsible for changing WrestleMania plans, it doesn’t explain the rest of the build underwhelming fans, or the post-WrestleMania swoon, neither of which Rock is involved in. It’s also unfair to lump everything onto Cena’s turn. Does Cena’s so-so switch to the darkside mean everything in WWE is bad? No. Is WWE devoid of anything interesting at the moment? No. But the lackluster Mania build, fallout from Cena’s turn, disenchantment with The Rock and TKO’s decisionmaking have all become a symbol for fans that believe that the new golden era of WWE’s product may have come to an end. Whether that is the case or whether things can turn around remain to be seen.