The Rock explains how surprise WWE return happened

While appearing on The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon, Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson explained how his surprise WWE return from September came to be.

Johnson appeared on the September 15 episode of SmackDown, marking the first time he’s been on WWE programming since 2019. Johnson was a guest on The Pat McAfee Show earlier that day and then showed up on SmackDown alongside McAfee.

Johnson told The Tonight Show that he was in Boulder, Colorado for ESPN’s College GameDay and found out that SmackDown was taking place in Denver the night before. He called Nick Khan and told him that The Rock is coming to SmackDown.

It was incredible. So here’s the crazy thing about that is we were in Boulder. I was there for College GameDay. And I found out the night before that WWE SmackDown was going to be in Denver, which is right up the road. So I call my buddies at WWE, Nick Khan, and I said, ‘Hey man, I heard SmackDown is here. Can you confirm that?’ He said, ‘It is.’ I said, ‘Well good, The Rock is coming to SmackDown.’

I went out there — it was really an incredible thing. I’ve been really lucky over the years to entertain in a lot of different ways, but that kind of connection with the WWE audience — by the way, that kind of connection, it’s just like this tonight. With a live audience, there’s nothing like it.

So my music hit, ‘If you smell.’ And I went out there. They had no idea. And you guys know how hard it is to keep a secret. It doesn’t exist. This was a full-on secret. The people went nuts, 13,000 people sounded like 130,000 people. And it was just incredible. So WWE audience, it’s my family, I love them, and it was incredible. And by the way, I gotta say, not only is that connection just like this incredible, but there’s nothing like going to SmackDown and laying the smackdown on their candy asses all night long.

Johnson and McAfee took part in a segment with Austin Theory on the SmackDown episode. Johnson also had a brief interaction with John Cena during a backstage segment.

Johnson’s SmackDown appearance happened during the Hollywood strike. The strike also led to Cena making an extended return to WWE this fall.

On The Pat McAfee Show, Johnson stated that a match between him and Roman Reigns was “locked” in for WrestleMania 39 at one point. Though the match didn’t end up happening, Johnson left the door open for Rock vs. Reigns to take place at WrestleMania 40 next April.

Cody Rhodes was asked about Johnson’s comments during a recent appearance on Busted Open Radio. Rhodes said it would be outstanding if Johnson is part of WrestleMania 40, but he’s not worried about Johnson — or anyone else — taking his main event spot against Reigns.