The Rock was back on WWE Smackdown with Pat McAfee to bulldoze through Austin Theory in what appeared to be a major treat for the fans. After all, you don’t get the people’s champion on WWE TV regularly. The good thing about this return is that The Rock could be available for a bigger matchup at Wrestlemania 40 and WWE made the most efforts to give him as much TV time as possible.
BWE posted on X to reveal that a few changes needed to be made during this week’s episode of WWE SmackDown. It wasn’t noted which of the segments were trimmed due to time constraints but The Rock’s segment did run a bit long and you bet people didn’t have any complaints about it,
“Few things being changed due to the kick off. So time / seg / promos / ads cuts happening.”
The Great Khali’s Return At Superstar Spectacle 2023 Appreciated By Top WWE Star
— @LuigiWrestling (@luigiwvideos2) September 16, 2023
The Rock was close to this week’s WWE Smackdown venue
Heading into WWE Smackdown, John Cena was the first to indicate that something great was coming our way but anybody barely expected The Rock to be onboard due to his busy schedule. However, Sean Sapp noted behind Fightful’s paywall that The Rock did have plans to be on WWE SmackDown, this week. Pat McAfee was there as well since the venue was so close to College Football and from the sets of the Pat McAfee Show,
“The Rock is nearby tonight’s WWE Smackdown in Denver, as he filmed McAfee’s show from today. A cast member from McAfee’s show outright claimed to Fightful sources that The Rock and Pat McAfee would at least be at tonight’s Smackdown. Fightful has yet to confirm this otherwise.”
This marked four years later that The Great One was back on WWE TV. The last time, he checked on WWE Smackdown programming was during the October 4, 2019 episode which was the program’s debut on FOX TV. Eventually, he’s back on board at a point when WWE is about to negotiate TV rights with FOX.
With his return on WWE Smackdown, the dream match between The Rock and Roman Reigns is being heavily discussed by the fans. At one point, that match was a virtual lock for Wrestlemania 39 but The Rock’s unavailability scraped things. Time will tell if WWE can rearrange things for him at next year’s Wrestlemania 40.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cSDzSSxrpi
