The on-off saga over The Rock’s WWE return continues to take twists and turns as the company heads into WrestleMania season.
Dwayne Johnson, known to millions around the world as The Rock, has been seen just once in WWE since just after WrestleMania, the biggest annual event in wrestling, earlier this year.
The grappler turned acting megastar had played a pivotal role during storylines going into the Philadelphia blockbuster as he tried to halt Cody Rhodes’ charge towards the the Undisputed WWE title.
He wrestled in his first meaningful match in over a decade in teaming with Roman Reigns to defeat Rhodes and Seth Rollins – Rock even pinning the American Nightmare along the way.
He ended up powerless to prevent Rhodes from achieving his aim the following night, however, in epic scenes that featured not only Rock, but The Undertaker and John Cena, too.
Rock featured the following night on Raw to confront Rhodes, but then vanished to continue filming commitments and wasn’t seen on WWE screens again until Bad Blood in October where he showed up at the climax of the show to confront Reigns and Rhodes.
Talk of just how and when he’ll return have begun to heat up over recent weeks, not least with Mania season now coming round again and WWE’s hotly-anticipated debut on Netflix coming on 6th January.
With his daughter left laying after a backstage row on NXT earlier this month, fans were certain The Great One would storm to her defence – talk fuelled by the fact that the culprit, Eddy Thorpe, was mysteriously taken out at the climax of the most recent episode.
With all that bubbling up, it’s easy to assume a return for The Rock is a given but, according to a new report, it may not be that straight forward.
The Miami native himself had already blasted online rumours about his WrestleMania status earlier this year, but they have resurfaced one again after Sean Ross Sapp of Fightful verified a report from journalist Dr. Chris Featherstone that again cast doubt on the likelihood of the star appearing.
Featherstone had penned: “WWE has decided to move forward in creative plans as if The Rock will not appear at WrestleMania 41, as of now.
“I have been informed that these plans could ‘change at any moment,’ and WWE is definitely interested in using him if he becomes available, but he is not currently scheduled to compete.”
Despite Rock previously beating away such chatter, the persistence of the idea that he won’t be around for the Vegas megashow has left some fans disappointed.
Some immediately hit back on social media with the former champion’s earlier response, leading Sapp to add: “I see a bunch of people posting The Rock’s Instagram comments from months ago in his replies.
“He’s the Rock and ultimately he can do what he wants, but [Featherstone’s] post is correct and has been for quite a while.”
WWE arguably gone from strength to strength during the last six month even without having The Rock on the scene.
Saturday’s Survivor Series event – and the Raw that followed it – were the company’s latest sell-out crowds while the $5bn switch to Netflix promises to a huge event.
