Footage of crowd booing Dwayne Johnson not linked to Maui fire controversy | Fact check

Hannah Hudnall, USA TODAY
·3 min read
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The claim: Crowd booed and chanted 'Maui' at Dwayne Johnson

A Feb. 10 Instagram video (direct link, archive link) shows actor and WWE wrestler Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson standing on a stage while a crowd boos him and chants.

"Dwayne 'The Rock' Johnson is no longer the people's champ as the crowd confronts him by yelling 'Maui, Maui' while booing on the once babyface wrestler," reads part of the post's caption. "The gimmick is over for Oprah and him. They have betrayed the people of Lahaina and Hawaii."

The on-screen text at the bottom of the video says, "The Rock gets booed out of Las Vegas."

The post garnered more than 500 likes in two days. Similar versions of the claim were shared on Instagram, Facebook and X, formerly Twitter.

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Our rating: False

The crowd was not chanting "Maui." It was chanting "Cody" in reference to one of Johnson's fellow wrestlers. The booing was a result of Johnson playing the bad guy at a press conference, not any Maui controversy.

Crowd's chants misrepresented in Instagram video

Johnson received backlash in October 2023 after he and Oprah Winfrey launched the People's Fund of Maui to help those affected by the wildfires that ravaged the island in August 2023. Though the two launched the joint fundraiser by donating $5 million each, critics felt they should've contributed more before asking their fans to donate.

But the February video of Johnson being booed isn't linked to the 2023 controversy.

The same footage with identical on-screen text was shared on TikTok on Feb. 9 without any mention of Maui.

"The Rock Heel?" reads part of the TikTok video's caption. The term "heel" refers to a wrestler acting as an antagonist in a wrestling match. The caption also includes hashtags of other wrestlers' names, such as Cody Rhodes and Roman Reigns.

Johnson confirmed that the footage showed him being booed for this reason in a Feb. 11 X post.

"This moment you’re referring to is from our @WWE press conference this past Thursday where I turned 'heel' – wrestling parlance for bad guy," his post reads. "I’m playing it up with our crowd as they boo."

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The chant at the press conference was "Cody," not "Maui," according to a CBS Sports article. Some fans of fellow wrestler Cody Rhodes felt that Johnson had taken Rhodes' rightful place facing off against Roman Reigns at the upcoming Wrestlemania 40, and thus began chanting, "We want Cody" and "Rocky sucks," the article reported.

The "Cody" chants can be heard in a full version of the press conference shared on YouTube.

USA TODAY reached out to the user who shared the post for comment but did not immediately receive a response.

Lead Stories also debunked the claim.

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This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: No, crowd didn't chant, 'Maui' at Dwayne Johnson | Fact check