The Rock Wants To Eat Salmon On Hot Ones And We're Here For It
Throughout the seasons "Hot Ones" has been on the air, a number of pro wrestling superstars have sat in the hot seat, including Goldberg, Stone Cold Steve Austin, and Chris Jericho (whose "bit of the bubbly" AEW catchphrase became a sparkling wine brand). "Hot Ones" has even rated an appearance by the legendary Undertaker, who revealed the surprising fact that he hates to break kayfabe, despite doing just that by appearing on the show. The one coup "Hot Ones" has yet to achieve, however, is landing Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson. The in-ring career of the People's Champion was relatively brief, but he went on to even greater fame and fortune in Hollywood, so the show would obviously love to have him as a guest and has been trying to make this happen for years. While The Rock has yet to agree, he hasn't said no outright. In fact, he once offered to appear — if a certain condition was met.
"Hot Ones" host Sean Evans says he received a note from The Rock that read, "Would you be willing to do, instead of wings, grilled salmon strips?" As Evans told Bloomberg, "In my head I was like, that had to come from his mouth." While the idea of salmon kind of goes against the whole premise of the chicken-centric show, Evans didn't characterize the request as a deal-breaker. However, he did note that further negotiations with The Rock eventually hit a wall (a stone one, no doubt).
Why won't The Rock eat wings?
A much as we'd love to see The Rock raise a People's Eyebrow over a plate of super-spicy salmon strips, why wouldn't he want to eat chicken wings? Well, it may not be the wings themselves since the Rock's daily diet does include chicken. Could it be the way that "Hot Ones" prepares them? It seems the show doesn't cook the wings onsite but sources them plain from local restaurants before applying the sauces. Perhaps he doesn't want the wings fried? In that case, you'd think he could simply ask for grilled ones. However, maybe celebrity logic dictates otherwise.
Some commenters on Reddit's r/entertainment forum seem to assume The Rock's salmon stipulation is just him being "extra," which sounds plausible since he doesn't really like the fish. Others say they'd rather not see him on "Hot Ones" at all, fearing he'd spend the show shilling for his tequila and energy drink brands. As far as we know, though, he doesn't own any salmon fisheries, so that can't be the reason for the request.
As to whether we'll ever see The Rock on "Hot Ones" (with or without salmon), we wouldn't rule it out. Netflix is negotiating a deal to air exclusive episodes of the show, and the streaming platform will also be home to WWE's "Raw" as of January 2025. Since The Rock sits on the board of directors for WWE parent company TKO, he's got skin in the game called "keeping the network happy."