Logan Paul admits he's not perfect. A controversial figure, Paul's past has given him a mix of fans and detractors. Recently, the YouTuber revealed his past affected his relationship with The Rock.
Paul and The Rock are two of the biggest stars in the world, thanks to their large social media following and interaction with fans. Both are also involved in pro wrestling. The Rock is a multi-time WWE Champion who created headlines during the Attitude Era. He has recently appeared on WWE programming. Paul signed with WWE a few years ago and is the current WWE United States Champion. However, they have yet to cross paths in the ring, which may not happen.
The Rock and Logan Paul beef, explained: What happened between the WWE superstars?
John Cena recently joined an episode of Paul's Impaulsive podcast. Cena has a history with The Rock. They had an in-ring rivalry that blurred the lines of reality and wrestling. It eventually turned into a friendship. “The Maverick” discussed his relationship with The Rock and how it has gone from friendly to the latter cutting ties with Paul.
Paul posted an infamous video in 2017 from Japan’s Aokigahara Forest, aka "Suicide Forest." In the video, a dead body was featured, with Paul reacting (laughing in disbelief). There was massive blowback on social media following this. Paul deleted the video, but YouTube removed his videos from various platforms, eventually suspending him, and he got removed from planned shows. Paul did donate $1 million to suicide prevention agencies, but his reputation hasn't been the same.
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The video changed his relationship with The Rock, which Paul understood following the controversy.
“You (Cena) and Dwayne are two people I definitely looked up to, a lot, when I was trying to figure out the blueprint for my career that didn't exist. Dwayne, especially. My idol. My hero. He's doing it, to the highest degree. I wanted to be like Dwayne. Eventually, in the same way, I met you, I met Dwayne. He was just as cool in person as I thought he was on TV. He's awesome. Made content together. Went mega viral. 70 million views, 50 million views. Linked up a couple of times. Visited him on the set of Ballers. I would have considered us acquaintances, at least. He was great. Then, Japan happened,” Paul said via Fightful.
“I could go into so much depth about my remorse, and the place I was in and the faults I made at that time of my life. I had to really re-wire my brain and backtrack and ask myself how I let that happen and what went wrong in my life where I thought that was okay. In that process, I did a lot of damage. It wasn't something that was on the forefront of my mind, and I've had to do a tremendous amount of therapy and figure out what in my life happened or didn't happen to where I did that. DJ was one of the people I hurt because of his mother's experience. That's his experience to tell, I'm not going to share. I hurt him. So much so that he basically wanted nothing to do with me, and rightfully so.
“I let down my hero. He requested that I remove all the content we've ever done together and basically kicked me to the curb. I would have done in the same thing, a guy in his position doesn't want to be affiliated with a person who has done something as reprehensible as that. I remember it being such a low moment because I knew I let myself down, my fans down, my family down, but my idol too. It just sucked so bad. It wasn't like I got the call from him. I got it from the publicist. It's not like he did anything wrong. I think my ego told myself that 'I'm going to remember that, and if I ever become great one day, I'm going to remember this and remember the way I was discarded,' and again, rightfully so.
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"I don't think I've ever been truly able to let go of that. I have a lot of stuff to work through in terms of that. I'm not even sure where to go from here, in terms of reconciliation. We're kind of swimming in the same world a little bit in WWE, and I see him coming back, and I know we're going to cross paths, and I just wonder how I'm going to handle it.”
Since the video, Paul got involved in several more controversies. However, he has since improved his reputation to a degree. He continues to use YouTube as a platform. Paul has over 22.5 million YouTube subscribers. He later transitioned to podcasting full-time. Paul also entered the boxing world, owns Prime Energy, and competes in WWE.
His next match is at the Royal Rumble, defending the WWE United States Title against Kevin Owens.
The Rock recently returned to the company and was appointed to the Board of Directors at TKO Group. He went on Monday Night Raw not long ago and teased fighting Undisputed WWE Universal Champion Roman Reigns.