The Rock Celebrates His WWE Anniversary

By Liam Crowley

Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson may reign over Hollywood these days, but the Black Adam star once called the squared circle his home. Throughout the late 1990s and early 2000s, Johnson competed for WWE as The Rock, headlining WWE WrestleMania on a number of occasions. While he would depart to pursue an acting career in 2004, Rock returned to the wrestling industry in 2011 to kick off a multi-year feud with John Cena. In the years since, Rock has made a number of one-off appearances on Monday Night Raw and WWE SmackDown, but has not wrestled since 2016.

Before he was dropping people's elbows and laying the smacketh down, Rock was donning blue and green tassels to the ring at WWF Survivor Series in 1996, an event that took place 26 years ago today. Rock took to social media earlier today to celebrate his professional wrestling anniversary, calling it a "grateful journey."

"Wow 26 years ago.  What a fateful night in Madison Square Garden having my first ever wrestling match for WWE," The Rock wrote. "That big kid who was willing to be the hardest worker in the room would go on to only become famous for wearing a fanny pack. Seriously tho, what a grateful journey."

While Rock's full-time wrestling days are in the rear view, many fans are clamoring for the Brahma Bull to lace up his boots one more time against Undisputed WWE Universal Champion Roman Reigns. Since returning to WWE in August 2020, Reigns has taken on the persona of The Tribal Chief, proclaiming himself as the head of the Anoa'i table.

Things can change in the next five months, but reports have circulated that a Rock vs. Reigns clash is all but locked in for WWE WrestleMania 39 next April in Hollywood.

"It's the plan. It's 100 percent the plan for this year (WrestleMania 39). But the idea is, it's the plan if he can do it," Dave Meltzer of the Wrestling Observer said. "We're still months away, months and months away. So many opportunities and things like that may come up that are far more important than WrestleMania."

If Rock is to come back for another match, it would be his first real bout since losing to John Cena at WWE WrestleMania 29. He did have a brief match against Erick Rowan at WWE WrestleMania 32, but that only lasted for a total of six seconds.

Stay tuned to ComicBook.com for updates on The Rock's potential return to WWE.

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