The Rock Praises Rhea Ripley In Backstage Moment (PHOTO)
The Rock had some good things to say to one of WWE’s biggest stars while sharing some backstage photos from a fun interaction.
On the New Year’s Day episode of Raw called Day 1, WWE legend Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson made a special appearance in a segment where the company promoted that former WWE Champion would appear.
Jinder Mahal was the first WWE Champion that showed up, which the fans didn’t like and that’s why they booed him heavily. After Mahal berated the fans, The Rock’s music hit as the People’s Champion received one of the loudest ovations of his career. Johnson called it a reaction that was “on another level.”
The Rock ended up berating Mahal on the microphone by getting the crowd to chant “Day 1 Douchebag” at Jinder. That was followed up by a physical altercation that saw Rock drop Mahal with a spinebuster and a People’s Elbow, much to the delight of the crowd.
In another post on his Instagram account with 395 million followers, The Rock praised Women’s World Champion Rhea Ripley while also showing photos of him interacting with Ripley and backstage interviewer Cathy Kelley. As usual, Rock had a positive message and encouraged Ripley to “keep raising the bar.”
She wears black.
I love black.
She’s a bad ass.
And I got famous for wearing a fanny pack.
We had fun f*cking around backstage 😈🥃Love, appreciate and respect you champ @rhearipley_wwe – thanks for trusting me with your title, keep kickin’ ass and raising the bar 🖤💪🏾
Big shout to @cathykelley for being a total pro and having fun 🎤 👊🏾
The Rock’s Appearance On Raw Broke WWE Records
On the January 5th edition of SmackDown, WWE also touted the success of The Rock’s appearance on Raw while claiming that Rock’s appearance drew 171 million social media views, which is a new WWE record.
Since Rock is the People’s Champion, he credited the people for it rather than himself.
Not a bad days work.
The people break the records, not me.
I just try and look cool, don’t screw up and not cuss too much 😈💀🎤
Love U back.
@wwe
#peopleschamp
There’s no word on when The Rock might appear on WWE TV again, but since he commented there’s “more to come” in another Instagram post, it sure sounds like he plans to be back soon.