On tonight’s episode of WWE SmackDown, the fans at the Ball Arena in Denver, Colorado were treated to a real surprise when The Rock returned to SmackDown for the first time since 2019 where he appeared on the 20th anniversary episode.
Tonight’s episode kicked off with the surprise return of Pat McAfee but his promo was cut short by Austin Theory who wrestled McAfee at WrestleMania 38. After going back and forth for a few beats, McAfee said “This is the people’s show, and you know what that means?” as The Rock’s music hit leading to the fans erupting into cheers. Theory starts taking shots at The People’s Champ but Dwayne is pretty quick to silence him, simply saying “shut your b**** a** up.”
Theory tried to go after them again demanding a match, even taking a page out of “The Great One”s playbook by telling him it doesn’t matter what The Rock says. The Rock says it does matter what he says and he’s going to prove it by getting the crowd to chant that Theory is an “a-hole,” much to Theory’s frustration. After getting worked up, Rock laid him out with a spinebuster and then hit him with The People’s Elbow, followed by McAfee doing the same.
The return comes hours after Johnson appeared on McAfee’s show and confirmed that Roman Reigns vs. The Rock was set for WrestleMania 39 in Los Angeles adding that it “wasn’t going to be the end of something, but the beginning.” Ultimately, things didn’t pan out which lead to Cody Rhodes vs. Roman Reigns in a shocking upset for fans. Johnson also noted that he’s open to appearing at next year’s WrestleMania 40 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
