AEW Veteran Reacts To The Rock’s WWE Return

AEW star Matt Hardy has heaped praise on The Rock after his WWE return.

The Rock made a stunning return to WWE on 1st January 2024 edition of WWE Raw and is set to compete in his first advertised WrestleMania match in eleven years when he teams with Roman Reigns to take on Cody Rhodes and Seth Rollins.

The highly anticipated bout on night one at Lincoln Financial Field will have huge implications on the Undisputed WWE Universal Championship match between Roman Reigns and Cody Rhodes that will headline the second evening of WWE’s top Premium Live Event.

Legendary former WWE star and current AEW competitor Hardy was quick to praise The Rock during a recent edition of his podcast ‘The Extreme Life Of Matt Hardy‘, highlighting how important it was for business that the top movie star had returned to his wrestling roots:

“The fact that he is one of the biggest stars in the world when it comes to Hollywood, and he’s killing it on that front, and he’s somewhat of a boss [in WWE] and he’s sitting there with the rest of the boss men with the TKO deal.”

Former ECW Champion Hardy went on to praise The Rock for putting aside any fear of losing popularity as an actor by portraying a villain on WWE television, believing other top actors would not be so prepared to take such a risk:

“They would say like ‘I don’t wanna damage my popularity as an actor, or make people think that I’m a bad person.’ But he’s kind of relinquished his fear of being an a**hole and playing the gig as far as wrestling goes.”

Matt Hardy Praises Raw Segment Involving The Rock and Cody Rhodes

The 25th March edition of Raw went off the air with The Rock delivering a savage beating to ‘The American Nightmare’ Cody Rhodes in the parking lot of the Allstate Arena in Chicago, Illinois.

Such was the severity of the attack, Rhodes was busted wide open by ‘The Great One’ in a rare display of blood on WWE television. The Rock had promised to make Rhodes bleed earlier on in the broadcast and the angle was highly praised by veteran Hardy:

“He fulfilled the prophecy, he made him bleed. I feel like it was done very right, because blood isn’t something we see very often on WWE TV.”

H/T: WrestlingInc for the above transcription.