'It's like riding a bike': How The Rock prepared for his WrestleMania 40 return - ESPN

DWAYNE "THE ROCK" JOHNSON stepped up into his tour bus parked outside the Allstate Arena loading dock in Chicago and slammed the door behind him. Raindrops beaded up on his muscular, tattooed arms, which were exposed to the Windy City's elements by a sleeveless designer vest. The blood of Cody Rhodes was still on his hands.

Brian Gewirtz, a longtime former WWE writer who still works closely with The Rock as the senior vice president at Johnson's Seven Bucks Productions, entered the bus behind him, following the final segment of «Monday Night Raw» on March 25. The presence cast by the 6-foot-5, nearly 300-pound former football defensive lineman, chest heaving, was an intimidating one.

«We've been working together for like 25 years,» said Gewirtz. «He's in intense breathing and everything. And I actually felt a little uncomfortable because he was so much in that zone still. It wasn't like laid-back, friendly Dwayne.»

Johnson, 51, has been back in WWE since New Year's Day, but this is not the same affable Rock that fans of his movies or television projects know. It's not even the same cocky «People's Champion» that wrestling fans loved — or loved to hate — in the 1990s and early 2000s.

Evolving with the necessary storyline and bringing in elements of reality, Johnson has become the «Final Boss,» a menacing bad guy who beat Rhodes bloody outside in the rain while vowing to whip Rhodes with a weight belt in front of his mother.

It's that version of Johnson that will team with Roman Reigns against Rhodes and Seth Rollins in the main event of WrestleMania 40's first night Saturday in Philadelphia. And that's not all that's new for Hollywood's most recognizable star. Johnson is now, as of January, sitting on the board of