The Rock's WWE SmackDown Appearance Sets Insane Viewership Record

Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson made his first televised WWE appearance in nearly four years this past Friday on WWE SmackDown. Rock had been in the Colorado area due to appearances on The Pat McAfee Show and ESPN College Gameday, both shows emanating live from University of Colorado Boulder. With the global leader in sports-entertainment running its blue brand just a couple of towns over in Denver, Rock made the trip and was welcomed with one of the loudest pops in recent memory. Rock confronted Austin Theory in the opening segment, laying out the former WWE United States Champion with a People's Elbow.

The Rock's WWE SmackDown Return Breaks Records

As touted on social media by WWE, The Rock's WWE SmackDown appearance brought in over 103 million views across all social platforms, making it the most socially-viewed video of the year.

Rock shared his appreciation for the fans on social media.

"I'll raise a glass to breaking records together," Rock wrote on Twitter. "Thank you for the unforgettable memory (and insane crowd reaction) No place like home."

Will The Rock Wrestle For WWE Again?

Hours before he appeared on WWE SmackDown, The Rock stopped by The Pat McAfee Show to drop the bombshell news that he was once scheduled to face Undisputed WWE Universal Champion Roman Reigns at WWE WrestleMania 39.

"The Rock headlining WrestleMania with Roman Reigns, SoFi Stadium, that was locked. We were doing it," Rock said. "In the beginning of 2022, (WWE CEO) Nick Khan was very instrumental in bringing Vince and I together. We all flew to LA. We met. We sat. We broke out the Teremana, and about an hour later we started talking about the potential of what this match could be. Myself and Roman Reigns headlining WrestleMania at SoFi. We shook hands and we hugged right there and said, 'Let's do this.'"

The match ultimately fell through due to WWE and Rock not being able to come up with a unique enough creative angle for the headlining contest.

"The north star thought was let's not do something good, let's not do something great, let's do something unprecedented," Rock continued. "A match? Great. Roman's an incredible athlete. He's going to be on Mount Rushmore. The bigger thought was what can we do for the fans where WrestleMania isn't the end of something, it's actually the beginning of something bigger. We got really, really close but we couldn't actually nail what that thing was."

Rock concluded the talk show appearance by teasing that he's "open" to revisiting the cancelled match come WWE WrestleMania 40 next April.