About a month ago, Tyrese Gibson — Roman Pearce in the Fast & Furious franchise — used one of the articles I wrote to throw shade at The Rock. The article discussed Hobbs & Shaw‘s North American opening weekend box office gross ($US 60 million), the lowest in the franchise since Tokyo Drift. Gibson screenshotted the headlines of the article and in a now-deleted Instagram post, took jabs at the film’s so-called lack of success and even criticized The Rock for breaking up the Fast & Furious family.
What Tyrese Gibson didn’t account for is the franchise’s popularity outside of North America, particularly in China. Since its release in China a couple of weeks ago, the film has been going from strength to strength at the global box office. After six weekends in cinemas (four in China), Hobbs & Shaw has now grossed over $US 700 million worldwide and is the 4th highest-grossing earner in the franchise. Not to bad for a spinoff, eh?
Now, it’s The Rock’s turn to hit back at his “candy ass” co-stars. The best sh*t-talker in pro-wrestling history took to Instagram and wrote:
“Assassins quietly play chess♟loud clowns play checkers. Thank you audiences worldwide for this incredible support and massive win. Very cool and we’re grateful for the love 🙏🏾 #hardestworkersintheroom #hungryhumble #nocandyass🤡s”
While The Rock didn’t drop names or tag anybody in his post, it’s easy to put two and two together and assume that he’s talking about Tyrese Gibson. But it isn’t just Gibson, The Rock has taken issue with a lot of his male co-stars since The Fate of the Furious. A couple of years ago, the 10-time WWE/WCW champion said:
“My female co-stars are always amazing and I love ’em. My male co-stars however are a different story. Some conduct themselves as stand up men and true professionals, while others don’t. The ones that don’t are too chicken shit to do anything about it anyway. Candy asses.”
Hobbs & Shaw is currently screening in Malaysian cinemas.
