The Rock is back in WWE after an eventful night on the debut episode of Raw on Netflix.
Dwayne Johnson invested a significant part of his 2024 back in the industry that gave him his path to fame, wrestling his first match in over a decade at WrestleMania in April.
Despite the lengthy run between the New Year and the Philadelphia spectacular, he all but vanished from WWE screens – barring a cameo in October – but finally got back into the swing of things as Raw settled into its new home.
After an introduction by old foe Paul ‘Triple H’ Levesque, Rock strode to the ring, but chose not to discuss Cody Rhodes, the rival he’d threatened to return for last time out, or any other WWE storyline, and instead opted for the more corporate approach.
Gone was the Final Boss who’d beaten and battered Rhodes backstage and left children in tears as fans in California watched as the Hollywood megastar went to ringside and hugged the American Nightmare instead, before sharing a drink with him backstage.
The moment at the very least seemed to waste much of the storyline equity Johnson had built up with his work in the early months of the last year, something not lost on confused fans on social media, one of whom said: “That Rock/Cody business left a sour taste.
“The creative foundations rebuilt over the last 2.5 years are rooted in your investment being rewarded. It’s only one story on a show with lots of awesome ones, but as far as seemingly dropped threads go, it’s the worst one possible.”
Another agreed, saying: “Final Boss Rock was some of the best s*** we’ve seen in years… I would have rather Rock not show up at all than what we actually got.”
A third echoed: “This totally negates the segment on the Raw after Mania where they seemingly were setting up a match between the two of them.”
One plus might just be that fans haven’t seen the last of The Rock on WWE TV this week – the star himself confirmed on social media that he’ll head to NXT on Tuesday night for the brand’s New Year’s Evil show.
NXT is the developmental show where the next generation of wrestling talent hone their skills and sharpen their teeth, all under the watchful eye of on-screen authority figure Ava – The Rock’s daughter.
Ava has solidified her character role in recent years after opting to progress her career down that route as opposed to being an active wrestler, going viral in November after being left floored by a wrestler who’d been left angered by one of her decisions.
It’s not known whether Rock will journey to NXT to avenge that scary moment or for something else, but the announcement certainly had Ava standing to attention on social media as she wrote: “Big day tomorrow.’
Should father and daughter unite on screen on Tuesday, it will be the first time they’ve featured together on WWE programming.
Monday’s Netflix also featured a bone-crunching Tribal Combat win for Roman Reigns over Solo Sikoa, and a victory for Rhea Ripley as he regained her Women’s World Championship from Liv Morgan.
