Backstage details on why The Rock hasn’t been advertised ahead of his recent WWE appearances have been revealed.
On the Day 1 special of WWE Raw earlier this week, Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson returned to the company for the first time since September. Johnson confronted Jinder Mahal who had been revealed as the highly-teased former WWE champion returning at the event just moments before.
After a verbal back-and-forth between the two men, The Rock quickly dispatched Mahal with the People’s Elbow before going on to hint that he may challenge his cousin and Undisputed WWE Universal Champion Roman Reigns in the near future. Reigns, and his advocate Paul Heyman, have since responded to his tease.
While The Rock’s appearance caused a big ratings spike for Raw Day 1, some have questioned why the company did not advertise The Great One’s appearance in advance of the show as this would have undoubtedly drawn in even more viewers.
The Rock Doesn’t Want WWE To Advertise Him In Advance
Speaking on the latest edition of Wrestling Observer Radio, Dave Meltzer reports that The Rock himself is responsible for him not being advertised ahead of his WWE appearances.
As Johnson’s recent returns to the company have been for fun, he would rather appear as a surprise and get a thunderous reaction from the live crowd as opposed to helping the company get a higher show rating with an announcement of his appearance in advance.
“But also, he’s doing this for fun because he doesn’t have to do it. And he’s doing it for excitement. That type of thing. That’s why when he came back Monday, it wasn’t announced at a time like if they had announced that ahead of time. I mean, the rating would have been much higher, much higher than it was.
He was doing it because in that case, he wanted that pop because of people in the building not knowing he was going to be there. And there he is. That’s what he wants. Every time he comes back, they never announce it ahead of time. They’ll do the little tease, but they won’t do so, but they won’t do the announcement.”
h/t to WrestlingNewsCo