169. Hobbs & Shaw (Summer of Rock)

Author: Laci Roth & Matt Stokes
Published: Fri 22 Aug 2025
Episode Link: https://sites.libsyn.com/99026/169-hobbs-shaw-summer-of-rock

They went and made a dang spin-off to the Fast & Furious franchise, and it made a ton of money, and there's no chance it'll ever get a sequel because no one liked it. Especially not Matt. Matt is utterly miserable talking about Fast & Furious Presents: Hobbs & Shaw (2019), but Laci's able to help him get through it by diving in to all the messy drama surrounding Dwayne Johnson's feud with Vin Diesel that led to Luke Hobbs getting exiled from the main Fast & Furious series of movies.

Next week: Jungle Cruise (2021)

The Summer of Rock is our summer 2025 miniseries covering the movie career of Dwayne Johnson through nine movies, presented in chronological order. Starting with his attempt at crossing over from the world of wrestling, The Rock’s career got off to a bumpy start before finally taking off in the 2010s. But it wasn’t long before the bumps returned, and we’ll be telling the story for you all summer long!

Subscribe to our Patreon, Load Bearing Beams: Collector's Edition for $5 a month to get two extra episodes! — patreon.com/loadbearingbeams

Time stamps:

00:02:20 — General thoughts on how The Rock is evolving, his chemistry with Jason Statham, and broad reactions to Hobbs & Shaw
00:22:10 — History segment, part 1: Career overview of Jason Statham and director David Leitch
00:31:30 — History segment, part 2: The feud between The Rock and Vin Diesel
01:03:35 — In-depth movie discussion
02:13:40 — Final thoughts and star ratings

Sources:

“Inside The Rock and Vin Diesel's 'Fast 8' Feud: 'Tension Has Been Building for Months,' Says Source” by Mike Miller | People (2016) - https://bit.ly/4lB8SJg
“Vin Diesel talks Rock feud: 'In my house, he's Uncle Dwayne'” by Bryan Alexander | USA Today (2017) - https://bit.ly/4lB9Ntc
“Vin Diesel Is 53 and Still Shifting Up” by Ryan D'Agostino | Men’s Health (2021) - https://bit.ly/4lx5fUv
“Dwayne Johnson Lets Down His Guard” by Chris Heath | Vanity Fair (2021) - https://bit.ly/45qy3rI
“Dwayne Johnson reflects on his record-breaking year, becoming the tequila king and whether he’ll run for the White House” by Chloe Melas | CNN (2021) - https://cnn.it/4mIWwj2

Artwork by Laci Roth.

Music by Rural Route Nine. Listen to their album The Joy of Averages on Spotify (https://bit.ly/48WBtUa), Apple Music (https://bit.ly/3Q6kOVC), or YouTube (https://bit.ly/3MbU6tC).

Songs by Rural Route Nine in this episode:

“Summer of Rock” - https://youtu.be/dvRY72jNIEE

“Winston-Salem” - https://youtu.be/-acMutUf8IM

“Snake Drama” - https://youtu.be/xrzz8_2Mqkg

“The Bible Towers of Bluebonnet” - https://youtu.be/k7wlxTGGEIQ

"Summer of Rock" theme song credits:

Words and music by Matt Stokes

Engineered, mixed, and mastered by TJ Barends | Bare Sounds

Personnel:

TJ Barends - backing vocals

Wade Hymel - drums/guitar/backing vocals

Laci Roth - vocals