The deal fell through.
Legendary professional wrestler Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson’s $11 million partnership with the U.S. Army is reportedly so disastrous that it may actually hinder the military’s recruiting efforts.
The Army claims “The Rock” breached his contract by sharing an agreed upon number of social media posts during the United Football League season and is now trying to recoup the money. Military.com report.
The Army declared the relationship to be purely negative, stating that an internal review of the plan obtained by the outlet assessed that resources tied up in the deal could have been put to other uses that would have yielded more favorable recruiting results, resulting in a projected loss of 38 enlistees.
The Army division struck a deal with Johnson, who is a co-owner of the UFL, earlier this year that will see Army branding prominently displayed on players’ uniforms and during games and Johnson serve as a de facto Army spokesman on social media.
Johnson, who has 396 million followers on Instagram, was valued at $1 million per post by the Army, and as part of the deal, the “Moana” star will make five posts honoring the military throughout the UFL’s inaugural season, which runs from March to June.
But Johnson allegedly failed to fulfill the terms of the agreement and has only shared two Army-related positions since April, the documents state.
In one post, he is shown surrounded by Army generals and embracing Gen. Randy George, who reportedly pushed for the partnership despite internal concerns that it would come to nothing.
“With regards to The Rock, it is unfortunate that he was pulled away at a time when we were expecting him to be with us creating content for our social media channels,” George’s spokesman, Col. Dave Butler, said in a statement to Military.com.
“However, we are working with the UFL to rebalance the contract and Rock remains a good partner to the Army.”
The document also noted that “inexperienced” UFL staff had caused multiple communication breakdowns, forcing the Army into “significant additional work.”
According to the documents, Army marketing officials ultimately decided they were “not confident” that a future deal with UFL would be successful and are now seeking to recoup $6 million of the $11 million contract.
A spokesperson for the Army’s marketing team told Military.com they are still in discussions with the UFL about the final cost.
The United Football League did not respond to The Post’s request for comment.
The disastrous alliance comes at a time when the Army is in the midst of a historic recruiting crisis.
The Army recruited about 50,000 new recruits in 2023, well below its target of about 65,000.
