Logan Paul burst onto the scene in WWE in 2022 to great acclaim. But at least one all-time great had already soured on the YouTube star turned grappler.
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00:00Logan Paul burst onto the scene in WWE in 2022 to great acclaim, but at least one all-time
00:06great had already soured on the YouTube star-turned-grappler. WWE legend Dwayne The Rock Johnson ended
00:12his budding friendship with Paul years before the YouTuber ever stepped in the ring, and
00:17honestly, Paul has no one to blame but himself for The Rock choosing to distance himself.
00:22Paul and Johnson's friendship traces back to 2016. In December of that year, Paul surprised
00:26his followers by teaming up with the superstar actor for a video. Paul wasn't shy about his
00:31near-worship for The Rock at the time.
00:33Anyways, big collab day with someone who I admire and have the utmost respect for and
00:37potentially, I think, might be the best person on Earth at this moment."
00:41They apparently met on the set of Baywatch, where Paul had a cameo that was ultimately
00:45cut out. In a guest appearance on The Chris Fade Show, Paul confessed that The Rock was
00:50the sole celebrity who truly intimidated him, saying,
00:52"...I don't get starstruck, I do not. And when I was next to The Rock for the first
00:56time, I was shaking like a little girl. He's my idol. He's the one guy who I actually resonate
01:01with in Hollywood."
01:02The bromance blossomed on YouTube, with both stars featuring on each other's channels.
01:07Their collabs came to an abrupt halt near the end of 2017, when Paul found himself in
01:12the middle of a controversy that tanked his reputation and nearly ended his career.
01:16On December 31st of that year, Paul uploaded a vlog from Japan's Aokigahara Forest, colloquially
01:22known as the Suicide Forest. It's notorious for its tragic history of people taking their
01:27own lives there, dating back decades.
01:29Touting the video as the most real vlog I have ever posted on this channel, Paul included
01:34uncensored footage of an apparent suicide victim, sparking outrage far and wide. YouTube
01:40removed Paul from its Google Preferred program as a result, and he eventually pulled the
01:44video himself. He also issued an apology video.
01:47I've made a severe and continuous lapse in my judgment, and I don't expect to be forgiven."
01:53One person who did not forgive Paul was Johnson, who found the video particularly appalling,
01:59given his personal connections to mental health issues.
02:01DJ was one of the people I hurt because of his mother's experience."
02:07Johnson has been open about his mother's suicide attempt when he was a teenager. He was with
02:12his mom and dad in Nashville, driving behind them when she got out of her car.
02:15And she walks right into the middle of I-65 and continues to walk down into oncoming traffic."
02:24Johnson has also detailed his own struggles with depression, telling Express in 2018 that
02:28there was a time in his life when he had lost all hope. He said,
02:31"...I reached a point where I didn't want to do a thing or go anywhere. I was crying
02:36constantly."
02:37So, understandably, the fallout over Paul's video was brutal. Paul said The Rock stopped
02:41communicating with him entirely, aside from requesting the YouTuber take down all the
02:45videos they made together. Paul admitted he'd have done exactly the same if he were in The
02:50Rock's shoes.
02:51"...a guy in his position doesn't want to be affiliated with a person who did something
02:55as reprehensible as that."
02:56Those videos seem to have gone back up on Paul's channel at some point, and there may
03:00be a chance of patching up the relationship yet. On the True Geordie podcast in June 2022,
03:06not long after his WWE debut, Paul said Johnson attempted to reach out to him on social media,
03:11though they didn't actually make a connection. Paul admitted, at the time, that he was at
03:14a loss about how to re-engage with his once-idol.
03:17"...I've wanted to have a conversation with him about it. I didn't know what to say."
03:22When Paul appeared on In Depth with Graham Benzinger in March 2024, he provided a further
03:27update. He said Johnson left him a voice memo, saying he enjoyed Paul's Monkey Took My Prime
03:32video.
03:33"...That's funny, man. Hope you're doing well. Always wishing you success from a distance."
03:38But there's less distance between the two now than there was. Now that he's a member
03:42of the board of WWE parent company TKO, Johnson is kind of Paul's boss — the final boss,
03:49even.
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