The Rock’s WWE Return Draws Massive Social Media Views
The Rock’s return to WWE on SmackDown has led to an incredible of social media views for the company.
Fans who attended WWE SmackDown in Denver last Friday were in for a treat when Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson made his return to WWE after being away for several years.
Pat McAfee started the show with a promo when he was rudely interrupted by former US Champion Austin Theory, whom Pat had defeated at WrestleMania 38. After Theory claimed it was Austin Theory’s show, Pat told Austin this will never be Austin Theory’s show, this will be the People’s Show and do you know what that means? That’s what led to the appearance of “The People’s Champion” known as The Rock.
It was not an advertised return for The Rock, who was in the state of Colorado earlier on Friday with Pat McAfee on Pat’s ESPN/YouTube show. The two men also attended the Colorado Buffaloes football game in Boulder, CO on Saturday night. Since Rock and McAfee were in Colorado, they made their way to Smackdown too.
The Rock led the crowd in chanting that Austin Theory was an “a**hole” which led to the censors on FOX being used, but the fans seemed to enjoy it. Theory tried to do an attack, but The Rock handled him with a spinebuster and People’s Elbow. McAfee did his own People’s Elbow followed by the two men celebrating with the crowd.
Despite not being advertised, The Rock’s return obviously led to a lot of attention among WWE fans who likely alerted their friends about the future Hall of Famer being on the show.
The Rock’s SmackDown return led to massive amount of views on social media
According to WWE, The Rock’s appearance on SmackDown has been viewed across the company’s social media channels over 103 million times!
🤯 @TheRock's #SmackDown return has been viewed over 103 MILLION times! pic.twitter.com/d9IcFKP7xi
— WWE (@WWE) September 18, 2023
On WWE’s YouTube channel, the clip of The Rock’s segment has over 4 million views while a clip of a brief Rock-John Cena segment has nearly 2 million views. Those are very high numbers for WWE’s YouTube channel.
In an interview with McAfee earlier on Friday, The Rock said he’s open to the possibility of wrestling at WrestleMania 40 while also admitting that he nearly competed at WrestleMania 39 against Roman Reigns.