The Rock: ‘We got some disruptive moves coming up, so tune in’

  • Ian Carey
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The Rock has responded to the TV ratings for Friday’s edition of WWE SmackDown.

The show, which featured a segment with The Rock telling Cody Rhodes he wants him to be “his WWE Champion,” averaged 1.736 million viewers, up 22 percent from the previous week. It drew a 0.51 rating in the key 18-49 demographic, up 18 percent from the previous week. It beat all other networks in the key demo, including ESPN’s NBA coverage and college basketball on Fox. It was SmackDown’s highest rating since returning to USA Network in September.

On Tuesday, The Rock took to social media to comment on the news.

“Thanks for watching the show, we got some disruptive moves coming up so tune in. Love playin’ this audacious, unpredictable character known as Final Boss. Toronto – I’ll see you this weekend at Elimination Chamber.”

The Rock took part in a press conference after SmackDown. He was asked if his program with Rhodes will lead to a match and responded that it didn’t necessarily need to.

“To be able to have a storyline and two characters who are very popular, to never have to get into the ring for a match but yet still hold this really unique, compelling, off-putting, kind of weird…he wants his soul, what does that mean? I love it and loved every minute of it,” Rock said.

The Rock’s return to WWE and possible angle for WrestleMania were addressed by our own Dave Meltzer and Bryan Alvarez on this weekend’s edition of Wrestling Observer Radio. Meltzer noted that The Rock’s appearance on SmackDown was only finalized days before the show.

“I don’t think anyone really knows,” Meltzer responded when asked what was going on with The Rock. “You know that he jumped on board in the last couple days. It was not the last 48 hours, almost nobody knew until Thursday, Thursday afternoon.”

“Obviously, this goes back a couple of days before, but only a couple of days.”

“Maybe part of it is just ticket sales for Toronto were not bad, but they’re not great. They’re not as good as I think they expected so now he’s going to be there,” Meltzer continued.

Since The Rock and Rhodes’ segment was added to the show, close to 2,300 tickets to Elimination Chamber have been distributed, bringing the total to just under 30,000, per WrestleTix.