The fishy reason Dwayne Johnson hasn’t been on Hot Ones

This camera, this camera, this camera – tell the people what you have going on! First We Feast’s Hot Ones has become a pop culture phenomenon, but one thing it doesn’t have going for it is The Rock. Hot Ones has well over 300 episodes at this point but one of the most high-profile guests they haven’t been able to land is Dwayne Johnson…and it comes down to one specific request.

As host Sean Evans told Bloomberg, a mixture of demands and things cooling off have kept Dwayne Johnson out of the hot seat. “We’ve been pitching [The Rock] obviously for years and one time I got a note back that was like, ‘would you be willing to do, instead of wings, grilled salmon strips?’ And in my head I was like, that had to come from his mouth … that’s as close as we’ve gotten. And then it fell through.”

While plenty of Hot Ones guests have gone with vegan chicken wings, like Natalie Portman, Paul Rudd and “Weird Al” Yankovic, that Johnson requested something completely out of the realm of one of the show’s key hooks puts him in a field of his own. While having Johnson on the show would no doubt result in a cool interview – and we’d love to see him suffer a bit during The Last Dab – it just wouldn’t be the same without chicken wings. And considering his diet would absolutely include that form of protein, it stands as a pretty odd request.

Hot Ones launched nearly a decade ago in March 2015 but has picked up a lot of steam over the past few years. Such an internet powerhouse it has become that Netflix has reportedly been in talks to have Sean Evans host a number of live episodes. Hey, if they’re showcasing hot dog-eating contests, why not some conversation over hot wings?

Recent Hot Ones guests include Vince Vaughn, Ariana Grande, SZA, Heidi Klum, and even Donald Duck, invited on as part of the cartoon’s 90th anniversary.

What are your thoughts on Dwayne Johnson’s demands in order to appear on Hot Ones? Should the show relent or stand their ground?