The WWE put a huge emphasis on Survivor Series 2021, noting it as the 25th anniversary of when Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson made his WWE debut. The weeks preceding the pay-per-view were loaded with homages and clips of The Rock’s run in the organization, as it went during the event night itself, and the WWE even went the extra mile by promoting his latest movie, Netflix's Red Notice, throughout the night with CEO Vince McMahon obtaining and losing track of Cleopatra’s egg, valued at $100 million. Despite all the connective tissue, the Brahma Bull didn’t make an appearance the entire night, and now we basically know why.
News regarding The Rock’s absence from WWE’s Survivor Series came via Dave Meltzer, who noted on Wrestling Observer Radio that the problem was tied to geography and travel restrictions. Dwayne Johnson is currently filming over in Europe, and due to his filming schedule as well as travel restrictions related to COVID-19, it wasn’t possible for him to make the trip to appear in Brooklyn’s Barclays Center in a way that wouldn’t impact his present situation.
Rumors swirled throughout the night that Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson may make an appearance, especially after the Red Notice egg prop Vince McMahon toted as “the actual egg,” and not a prop from the streaming movie, turned up missing. It seemed possible the night would close out with the revelation that The Rock stole the egg to mess with McMahon, and might even use it somehow in the main event match between Big E and Johnson’s “cousin,” Roman Reigns. But no.
As we now know, The Rock didn’t show up, nor did he send any kind of video message to fans during the event, making it seem possible that he really had no plans to handle anything involving Survivor Series. So, for anyone holding out hope he’ll show up on Monday Night Raw ready to reveal he’s had the golden egg this entire time, that doesn’t seem like a possibility either. That is, unless that's where we'll see him show up via video recording we’ll see during the episode, though one may question why it wouldn't have been shown during the higher-profile pay-per-view event.
It’s unknown if or when Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson will return to the WWE, though past reports stated that something is in the works for WrestleMania 39 in 2023. Given how busy The Rock is, it certainly tracks the WWE may have to plan just that far out to arrange a match of some sort, though it’s not even a sure thing something like that will happen. The Rock is a busy actor, and beholden to a lot of contracts that can limit what he can do outside of work to avoid injury. Obviously, wrestling fans want to see him return and have an actual wrestling match, but we’ll just have to wait and see whether that’s a viable option when the time comes.
Monday Night Raw airs over at USA on Mondays at 8:00 p.m. ET. Tune in to find out whether or not The Rock actually will surprise fans with something special.
