SUMMARY
- Even since Dwayne 'The Rock' Johnson made his return to WWE, he has been making headlines in the wrestling world.
- Johnson made his way to the ring, interrupting Jinder Mahal, and after having a trash talk with Mahal, he cleared him out of the ring.
Even since Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson made his return to WWE, he has been making headlines in the wrestling world. Moreover, fans were surprised to watch him return on New Year’s Day on RAW. The People’s Champion is one of the biggest and most well-known superstars in the history of the Stamford-based promotion.
Johnson’s surprise return made fans go crazy in the arena, and everyone was on their feet, including ring announcer Samantha Irvin. He made his way to the ring, interrupting Jinder Mahal, and after having a trash talk with Mahal, he cleared him out of the ring. After that, The ‘Brahma Bull’ teased about his possible feud with the ‘Head of the Table’ Roman Reigns.
With his recent return on RAW, the trend of The Rock’s unannounced returns has been proven to be the case. Rock made a surprising return to SmackDown in September 2023, where he interrupted a segment between McAfee and Austin Theory. He went on delivering a ‘People’s Elbow’ to Theory in the middle of the ring.
Fans were surprised by both of these returns, which were not announced in advance. Dave Meltzer on Wrestling Observer Radio talked about the reason behind this. According to Meltzer, The Rock does not care about TV ratings and is more concerned about the loud cheering from the crowd. Moreover, he is appearing on WWE for fun rather than having any business prospects.
He said, “He’s doing this for fun because he doesn’t have to do it. And he’s doing it for excitement. That type of thing. That’s why when he came back Monday, it wasn’t announced at a time like if they had announced that ahead of time. I mean, the rating would have been much higher, much higher than it was”. He said that it was exciting for Rock to make unannounced appearances on the Stamford-based promotion.
He further added, “He was doing it because in that case, he wanted that pop because of people in the building not knowing he was going to be there.” Explaining why The Rock wanted to surprise the people.
The Rock’s comment on his recent return to WWE
Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson posted a video of his return on social media, and in the caption, he commented on his return. He explained that the theme of the event, the crowd present there, the connection, and the reaction hit him differently. He called it a huge and fantastic way to begin 2024.
It all hits differently.
The theme, the crowd, the connection, the reaction, the electricity, the chills.
Helluva way to bring in 2024. Grateful, blessed & inspired to forever be, the People’s Champ. @WWE #WWERaw pic.twitter.com/uTN9469WEm— Dwayne Johnson (@TheRock) January 3, 2024
Dwayne Johnson wrote about how he is grateful and blessed to be the ‘People’s Champion’ forever. And at last, he wrote, “We are just getting started”. This opens up really exciting possibilities for him in WWE.
25+ years of sacred connection with the people that I’ll forever honor.
This eruption at the end just hit different. I’ve experienced some very loud crowd pops, but this was different. Layers. Chills.
~ people’s champ 🖤💪🏾 https://t.co/360XKztor0— Dwayne Johnson (@TheRock) January 6, 2024
The Rock again took to his Instagram and ‘X’ accounts on January 5, 2024, to post another video of his return. In the caption, he expressed his gratitude towards the crowd in the arena that day. He claimed that the loud cheering from the crowd was on another level for him, and he had never seen it before. He had chills and believed that it was a result of his 25-year-long connection with the people. With that, it is still to be seen what The Rock brings to the table in the future.