‘This is The Rock we love,’ say WWE fans as Dwayne Johnson turns heel for first time in decades on Smackdown
DWAYNE ‘THE ROCK’ JOHNSON took the WWE Universe by storm after turning heel ahead of WrestleMania 40.
The Rock has been making some sporadic returns this season and officially rejoined the professional wrestling giants last month after being named as a member of owners’ TKO board of directors.
Following that appointment, Johnson looked set to challenge his cousin and Undisputed WWE Universal Champion Roman Reigns at WrestleMania on April 7 at the Lincoln Financial Field in Philadelphia.
However, fans lashed out on social media as they wanted to see crowd favourite Cody Rhodes “finish his story” by finally becoming world champion after 15 years.
Rhodes came close to toppling Reigns last year at WrestleMania 39 but came up short after outside interference from Solo Sikoa.
But The American Nightmare won the Men’s Royal Rumble Match for the second time in a row to earn another crack against the longest-rigning world champion of the modern era at the Show of Shows.
The intense backlash led to WWE changing their main-event plans and replacing The Rock with the ex-AEW superstar.
Reigns and the Hollywood megastar made a rare appearance during SmackDown on Friday to slam the fans for ruining the “greatest WrestleMania main event” of all time.
The Head of the Table picked the microphone first and described the WWE Universe as “idiots” before announcing that The Rock has joined his Bloodline faction along with Sikoa and Jimmy Uso.
Then the 51-year-old wrestler-turned-actor made his way to the ring wearing a shiny vest and a pair of sunglasses, just like he did when he last performed as a heel – which is wrestling terminology for a bad guy – in 2003.
That was the time when the American grappler performed as a Hollywood sell-out that gave up on the WWE to pursue an acting career that ultimately paid dividends.
The Rock then went into full character and started out by joking at the crowd’s expense in Salt Lake City, Utah.
The 10-time world champion started out by claiming the fans broke an all-time attendance record for largest gathering of “trailer park trash” in Utah.
The ex-WWE Champion continued by claiming their lives “finally” have meaning as they will tell their “50 wives” and “600 inbred grandchildren” that they had the pleasure to witness him in all his glory.
The Rock tore the live crowd to shreds
The Most Electrifying Man in Sports Entertainment was interrupted by a heckler whom he called a “fatty” and threatened to “slap the herpes off his lips”.
The Rock insisted the fans are responsible for “flushing the greatest main event down the toilet”.
The Brahma Bull continued to taunt them by claiming they should have learned from their beloved Utah Jazz when Chicago Bulls legend Michael Jordan “crushed their dreams” in 1998.
The action star promised to do “everything in his power” to make sure Rhodes will leave WrestleMania as a “loser”.
And The Rock left the passionate Utah fans with the following: “You don’t understand because you are spoiled, entitled, crybaby b*****s”.
BACK TO THE ATTITUDE ERA
But that fiery promo had the opposite effect as the fans were thrilled to have the same vibrant and electrifying Rock that they remember from the legendary Attitude Era.
One wrestling enthusiast tweeted: “Exactly the Rock we remember.”
Another commented: “We finally got the real Rock after a 21-year leave.”
A third said: “HEEL ROCK IS THE BEST ROCK!!!”
This fan wrote: “I have missed this version of the rock for so many years.”
And that one stated: “THATS THE ROCK WE ALL LOVE.”