“The Great One”, “The Brahma Bull”, “The Most Electrifying Man in Sports Entertainment”. The man may have a multitude of monikers but there is only one “People’s Champion”, The Rock. After last week’s announcement on Raw that the annual WWE supershow Wrestlemania would this year boast a guest master of ceremonies, speculation had built to a fever pitch about who would be the mystery person. Justin Bieber, Will Smith and Ryan Seacrest were all names being circulated amongst fans, but one name stood tall. That name belonged to perhaps the greatest entertainer that the WWE has ever seen and on last night’s Raw, Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson was indeed revealed to be the man who will guide fans from around the world through the events in Atlanta, Georgia on April 3rd.
When The Rock made his entrance into the Honda Centre in Anaheim, California last night the television set seemed to shake with the sheer volume of cheers emanating from the fans in attendance. It was as if “The Great One” had never been away. But it had been seven long years since “The Brahma Bull” had been seen in a WWE ring and the emotional reception that he received seemed to momentarily move the normally unflabble ex-WWE champion. He even removed his familiar sun glasses to briefly go back to being Dwayne Johnson – film star; family man- and promised to “never go away again” because he loved the WWE fans.
But after a brief moment of genuine humbleness The Rock went back to doing what he does best. Delivering an electrifying promo that set up potential clashes with current WWE champion The Miz and the new face of PG WWE, John Cena. The latter receiving a particularly cutting tongue lashing from the The Rock who promised to “Layeth the smacketh down” on the Cenation’s hero for unfavourable remarks he had made in a WWE online interview last year when questioned about The Rock’s decision to leave WWE and head for a career in films. The Rock retaliated last night by remorselessly ridiculing Cena’s bright attire and describing his famous “You Can’t See Me!” catchphrase as a lame version of Peek-a-boo. Could fans see Cena v The Rock down the line? This writer hopes so.
The best moment of The Rock’s comeback promo however was his reaction to the annoyingly familiar sound of the Anonymous Raw GM’s email to commentator Michael Cole. Before Cole could even get to the laptop on the stand beside the announce desk. The Rock cut him off with a verbal volley that mocked Cole’s sudden growth of a backbone and came with a threat to upload a picture to Facebook of him taking the laptop, “shining it up real nice, turning that son of a bitch sideways and shoving it straight up” Michael Cole’s “candy ass”. The Anaheim crowd cheered The Rock’s every word and he truly held the entire arena in the palm of his hand.
Wrestlemania XXVII has definitely become a must see PPV.