Fans go wild as The Rock makes surprise return to WWE

Dwayne Johnson might have put his major WWE days behind him, but his surprise return to the sport proved that he's always The Rock at heart.

The crowd in Pechanga Arena in San Diego, California absolutely lost their minds when The Rock made an unexpected appearance at WWE Raw yesterday (January 1), to kick off the new year with a bang.

Organizers had teased the return of a former world champion at the event and delivered as Jinder Mahal walked out in front of the crowd to take a few shots at The Iron Sheik and some of his other competitors.

The surprises didn't stop there, though, as before long Mahal was interrupted by the sounds of Johnson.

The Rock confronted Mahal and defended the Iron Shiek, who died in June, 2023, before he began to hype up the crowd and seemingly tease a showdown between himself and Roman Reigns.

Johnson made reference to Reigns' WWE theme song as he asked the crowd: "When The Rock goes out to get something to eat tonight in San Diego, should The Rock sit in a booth? Or should The Rock sit at the bar?...

"Or should The Rock sit at the head of the table?!"

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The question prompted a burst of cheers and applause from WWE fans, who joined in with the wrestler as he said: "And that's when I thought, if you smell what The Rock is cooking!"

Johnson's appearance at Raw marked his first WWE appearance since SmackDown in September, and fans made clear they couldn't get enough.

"This truly is WWE's Renaissance Era. #WWEDay1," one fan wrote after watching The Rock's appearance.

Another added: "We're finally going to get Rock vs. Roman."

Fans expect a match between The Rock and Reigns to take place at WrestleMania, with Johnson having previously spoken about an outline for the event.

In an interview on The Pat McAfee Show, Johnson explained that plans were 'locked' for The Rock to fight Reigns at WrestleMania 39, but the exact details were never worked out.

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"We started talking about the potential of what this match could be between myself and Roman Reigns headlining WrestleMania at SoFi," Johnson said.

"So then we had a year to really think about this. So the north star thought was, 'Okay, let's not do something good. Let's not do something great. Let's do something unprecedented'.

"It was in, what can we create for the fans that has never been done before? A match, great. Roman, incredible athlete. He's gonna be on Mount Rushmore. Super handsome, good dude, my cousin, family. Amazing.

"We can have the match, but the bigger thought was, what can do for the fans and the business that love, where WrestleMania isn't the end of something, it's actually the beginning of something bigger."

Johnson's tease at WWE suggests organizers may have managed to work something out - now we'll just have to wait and see what it could be.