A week on from a fairly eventful return to WWE for Dwayne Johnson and everyone is still talking about The Rock.
After barely featuring in the squared circle since last April’s WrestleMania spectacle, wrestler turned acting royalty Dwayne Johnson burst on to the scene in time for WWE’s debut on Netflix.
The world’s biggest wrestling company and the streaming giant teamed up in a $5bn deal and presented the first Raw of the new era on January 6 with Rock, John Cena and Undertaker all featuring.
The Great One pulled double duty, too, following up an entertaining if slightly surreal showing on the red brand show with an appearance the following night on NXT.
WWE’s developmental brand, unlike Raw, remains on network television in the US but, in the UK, among many other territories, it has also landed on Netflix, making Johnson’s arrival quite the talking point.
The veteran gave a whistle-stop tour of the New Year’s Evil event, stopping for a chin wag with former AEW star Ethan Page and his real-life daughter who plays the role of on-screen NXT GM, Ava.
Johnson even had the privilege of main eventing the first NXT on Netflix, in a fashion – his in-ring promo was the final thing to air before the broadcast came to an end, with The People’s Champion providing entertainment aplenty by hitting back at fan criticism and even appearing to forget his lines at one stage.
For better or worse, fans had a blast, but not everyone was delighted. New Year’s Evil was a huge night for NXT powerhouse Oba Femi, widely tipped to be one of the next big things in the wrestling world.
Billed at 6ft 4in and weighing over 300lbs, Femi continued a meteoric rise through NXT, winning the brand’s top male championship just two years after is wrestling debut.
He unseated Trick Williams as champion in a triple-threat match with Eddy Thorpe to snare the gold, the accolade added to a win in the Breakout tournament in 2023 and a run as NXT North American Champion.
On any other show, such a high-profile bout would’ve been the main event, but Rock’s cameo shuffled it down the running order and, according to Femi himself, even cut it’s time short.
Appearing on Busted Open Radio, he was frustrated at not being able to be the final scene of the show and, after being egged on considerably by the hosts, responded blasting: “At the moment the time was being stolen from me, I wasn’t even aware it was being stolen from me.
“Maybe if I knew, I would have gone up to him and been like: ‘Hey, Uncle Dwayne, what are you doing?’”
‘The Ruler’, 26, followed up with a further warning: “I’ll let it slide this time, but next time Uncle Dwayne comes in and steals time from me, there are going to be problems.”
Towering grappler Femi won track and field championships prior to his transition into wrestling, notching indoor and outdoor titles between 2021 and 2022 before being snapped up by WWE.
