The Rock makes shock WWE return hours after teasing WrestleMania 40 appearance
WWEThe Rock just made a surprise return to WWE, appearing in the squared circle on Smackdown mere hours after teasing a WrestleMania 40 appearance on the Pat McAfee Show.
When it comes to superstars in the professional wrestling business, none are bigger than The Rock. The A-List celeb has transcended the world of sports entertainment to become one of the biggest stars on planet Earth today.
Naturally, despite his busy schedule filming Hollywood blockbusters and running the XFL, wrestling fans are always speculating when he might lace up the boots once more.
Shocking everyone on September 15, that day finally arrived. Years after his last WWE appearance, The Rock made his surprise return on the first episode of Smackdown following the WWE and UFC merger under the TKO umbrella.
From the very first notes of his iconic entrance theme, The Rock set Denver alight as the crowd came unglued. From there, it was trademark Dwayne Johnson through and through, getting the packed arena off its feet while ripping into Austin Theory.
The segment ran for just over 15 minutes, with much of it censored on live TV given some particularly creative chants directed at A-Town’s Theory. Before long, push came to shove as it always does, and The Rock laid Theory out while the world was watching.
Now exactly where things go from here, remains unclear. It could have been a one-off appearance just to spike ratings on the first WWE show following the TKO merger. It could be the start of a possible feud with Theory to get The Rock’s wrestling legs under him again. Or it could even be the first step in a much bigger plan.
Appearing earlier that day on the Pat McAfee Show, The Rock was transparent in his potential WWE comeback plans.
“It’s not the injuries I’m concerned about. It’s not even the schedule, I can control the schedule to a large degree,” he explained. “Me going back to WWE and wrestling a match always comes down to the reason why. What can we create that’s never been done before, for the fans?”
Given his cousin Roman Reigns has made history with his multi-year-long title reign, we’ve seen plenty of speculation over a possible feud between the two, especially given The Bloodline narrative involves their entire shared family.
It turns out, such a match between the two was indeed in the cards, as The Rock claimed it was even locked in for last year’s WrestleMania event, the biggest spectacle of them all.
“The Rock headlining WrestleMania with Roman Reigns, that was locked. We were doing it. In the beginning of 2022, Nick Khan, we all flew together, we went to LA, we toasted life, about an hour later, we started talking about the potential of what this match could be between myself and Roman Reigns, headlining WrestleMania. We shook hands and said ‘Let’s do this.’”
Ultimately, those plans fizzled out, as we eventually saw Roman square off with Cody Rhodes in that main event. But that’s not to say a feud with The Rock is completely out of the question now.
“There’s WrestleMania in Philadelphia…” The Rock teased, letting the crowd erupt at the thought of a main-event matchup at next year’s WrestleMania 40.
“Let’s not do something good, let’s not do something great, let’s do something unprecedented. What can we create for the fans that’s never been done before? WrestleMania isn’t the end, it’s actually the beginning of something bigger. We got really close, but we couldn’t nail what that thing was.
“That’s a potential… I’m open. But let’s figure out what that is. The fans deserve something unprecedented.”
