WOR Video: The Rock makes WWE return on SmackDown

  • F4W Staff
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The Rock made his first appearance on WWE TV since 2019 on Friday’s SmackDown.

Bryan Alvarez and Dave Meltzer discussed the opening segment of the show on Monday morning’s Wrestling Observer Radio. SmackDown saw Rock interrupt a promo between the returning Pat McAfee and Austin Theory. A large portion of the segment had to be muted due to The Rock instructing the crowd to chant “a**hole” at Theory, something that Fox censors did not approve of.

“Man, did they need some frickin communication,” Meltzer said. “They decided to build and entire segment of fans chanting “a**hole” without finding out that Fox did not want that on the air.”

Alvarez pointed out that perhaps the segment was meant for people to chant “a-hole” since Theory is from “A-Town”, however Meltzer said they wouldn’t have chanted for that.

“I’m sure live it was really cool, but on television it was kind of a disaster,” he added.

Later, The Rock met with John Cena in a backstage segment, who welcomed him home. The two ended up hugging.

Despite the mishap on television, The Rock would later go on to say that his ovation on Friday was one of the top biggest reactions he ever got walking to the ring.