In the history of sports and Hollywood, few actors and athletes have been able to exude the kind of personality and charisma that Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson seems to be entirely comprised of. As such, just about everything Johnson does is worth paying attention to, especially when it involves making a return to the place that cemented his iconic pop culture status: WWE’s Monday Night Raw. Check out his triumphant and hilarity-filled homecoming below.
“Finally, The Rock has come back…home.”
Obviously you can’t just bring someone as high profile as The Rock back to primetime wrestling by just quickly ushering him into the ring. You have to milk the shit out of him arriving backstage, and that happened in full on Monday night. We not only get to see him put The Miz in his place, which is basically on the bottom of the barrel, but we also get to see Johnson mixing it up with rapper and music producer Rick Ross for some reason. Miami attracts all kinds.
Following that, he manages to make The Big Show feel like a shameful mope over a past Royal Rumble that Big Show should have won, which could have theoretically led to him starring in The Scorpion King instead of Johnson. (Not really, but you know.) Next up, he breezily causing relationship woes between diva Lana and Rusev by bringing up some late night shenanigans. And after some quick birthday wishes, he ends it all by bragging about how badass he is for filming a huge day for HBO’s Ballers and then still having enough juice to appear on Raw. The central point behind it all is: The Rock is cooler than you’ll ever hope to be.
Of course, you also can’t just keep Dwayne Johnson backstage for a live taping, either. He has to emerge from the curtains and give the people what they want. And boy, did he. Check out how sharp Johnson’s ringleader skills still are.
Not only was he primo on the mic, but he also brought out the Rock Bottom AND the People’s Elbow. The ridiculousness of that latter move manages to level off whenever it hasn’t been around for a while, but boy was it an absurd treat to watch him break it out again against one of the New Day members. It’s like he never left the ring to star in a bunch of big budget snorefests.
We already know Dwayne Johnson will be bringing his Brahma Bull-ness to this year’s Wrestlemania, so seeing him on the small screen without having to shell out all kinds of money was great. Now we’re just hoping for him and WWE semi-star Stephen Amell to team up both in the ring and out of it.
It seems like the Return of the Rock would have been a good way for Raw to reverse some of its recent pitiful ratings, as it did with the return of Vince McMahon. But what’s the point in keeping it a surprise? In any case, tune into Raw every Monday night on USA to see what other former superstars might show up.
