The Rock shocked the world with his latest WWE NXT appearance.
On the January 7th NXT New Year’s Evil episode, The Final Boss made his shocking appearance. Announced the night earlier, The Rock confirmed his presence for his daughter Ava Raine’s show in Los Angeles.
The night prior at the Raw on Netflix premiere, Dwayne Johnson moved on from his feud against Cody Rhodes and acknowledged his tribal chief, Roman Reigns. During his NXT appearance, fans witnessed a bizarre promo segment between The Rock and Ethan Page, before he walked out for a live promo in the conclusive moments of the show.
However, it was his appearance that brought a significant change to NXT. As per Variety, NXT boasted a massive viewership of 957,000, up from the 626,000 viewers from the December 31st episode. Also, it is the highest number that NXT has recorded since September 25, 2019. The Brahma Bull’s appearance on the Tuesday-night show helped them break their five-year-long record.
Already hot amongst the fans, the New Year’s Evil episode also witnessed Oba Femi defeat Trick Williams and Eddy Thorpe to win the NXT Championship, while Giulia defeated Roxanne Perez to win the women’s championship.
Triple H Clears Misconception About The Rock In WWE
Before The Rock’s return on the Raw on Netflix premiere episode, several reports emerged about the WrestleMania 41 main event, which were related to Johnson’s involvement and return.
However, this was met with criticism as fans started questioning the influence The People’s Champion had on the promotion. Dismissing all such misconceptions, Triple H cleared the air during his recent interview with Jimm Traina of the SI Media podcast.
“The one thing about The Rock, you can call him the Final Boss, in a way it’s an accurate statement. He is, I don’t want to say more so than anybody else, but he is the biggest box office star in the world. He has earned the right, and is in the position to do what he wants to do.
“He does what is right for WWE and the projects that he works on. He sees this as that as well. His passion, DNA, lineage, family, all of that is intertwined in this. He loves it. We joke about it all the time, every time he comes in, no matter what it is, the [goosebumps he gets] when he comes out, that’s legit. He’s so passionate about that. Rightfully so because there is no electricity and feeling like that. When you walk out in front of 20,000 people in an arena that is jam-packed, there is nothing like it in the world.
“He’s earned the right to kind of come and go and do what he pleases and trust that he’ll always do what is right for WWE in the end. He’s super collaborative with me and super collaborative with Nick on what we want to do, contrary to what a lot of people think. Time will tell. I don’t want to give anything away, but I do believe that as moments appear here that are huge game-changing moments, he’s a game-changer. That’s what he does and who he is.”
In other news: A former Divas Champion has opened up on her possible WWE return.
In other WWE news, the Raw on Netflix premiere ratings are in.
In a new update, plans for The Rock at WrestleMania have been scrapped.