The Rock recently made his long-awaited return to SmackDown.
On the 21st February episode of WWE SmackDown, fans in New Orleans witnessed the return of The Brahma Bull. Making his entrance in front of an erupting crowd, The Rock made his way to the ring and announced WrestleMania 42’s location and date.
However, soon after, he was involved in a tense segment with Cody Rhodes. Asking for Rhodes’ soul, the moment was left on a cliffhanger, with The Rock demanding Cody Rhodes’ answer during his next appearance.
However, not only were the fans left impressed with the showing, but even the Blue brand benefited a lot from his appearance. The viewership and ratings for the episode are now out, and it looks impressive. As per Programming Insider, SmackDown drew 1.736 million viewers on USA Network. This number is up big from the 1.384 million viewers the show drew on February 14.
The show has achieved its highest viewership since its September 2024 return to the USA Network. It also scored a 0.51 rating in the 18 to 49 demographic, up big from the 0.42 from last Friday.
While the 21st February SmackDown edition featured several other iconic segments, Rock’s pre-announced return might have played a major part in the viewership ratings. Ranking #1 on cable TV, the episode also gathered some good numbers on social media, with The Final Boss and The American Nightmare’s segment gathering around 1.4M views on YouTube.
In a further report, some within WWE were not happy with The Rock.
Hall Of Famer Left Confused With The Rock’s Latest SmackDown Segment
Speaking on the latest edition of Busted Open Radio, Mark Henry shared his opinion on the Rock-Cody Rhodes segment from SmackDown. Confused at what went down, Henry commented,
“This year has been very confusing. The confusing part is easy to deal with. It’s the weirdness and the out-of-syncness that is troubling me as a fan.”
In other news: Rey Mysterio has been ruled out of action indefinitely.