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The Rock’s return at Saturday’s Bad Blood premium live event to infuse The Bloodline with another layer of must-see chaos was predictable, yet it sent WWE fans into a tizzy anyway.
Understandably so.
It is a big deal whenever Dwayne Johnson comes around, of course. But it’s an even bigger deal to finally get the wheels turning on some of those fantasy-booked ideas that could come to fruition.
Not that Rock hinted at what comes next. He didn’t do much of anything other than stand on the entrance ramp, count to three and leave again.
Less can be more, though. Sure, it would have been nice to have him say something or order someone to attack someone else after the cage gets lowered or, well, pretty much anything.
And yet…we finally have motion. The simple act was a signifier that The Final Boss is back to throw his weight around and, if nothing else, at least be the architect behind a big tag match involving Roman Reigns, Solo Sikoa and others at Survivor Series: WarGames on November 30.
Much of the storytelling with Rock and The Bloodline to this point has been at least a tad messy and vague. Fans had that whole mysterious thing he gave Cody Rhodes after WrestleMania. There was his weird involvement, including taking Rhodes’ Royal Rumble triumph momentarily before ‘Mania, then the delay of the ‘Mania documentary. Now…the counting-to-three thing.
But it is, in a word, fun, too. Because if nothing else, it’s at least easy to see that the long-predicted angle in which Sikoa has been working under Rock’s orders as the new Tribal Chief all this time really gets going.
The implications of that are huge, too.
If that’s where things are going, it could say much about next year’s WrestleMania 41 already. It could mean fans can throw out the idea of Rhodes-Rock, thankfully, and instead get that Head of the Table showdown between Rock and Reigns. That would, in turn, free up the biggest title in the company and Rhodes to do something wholly unrelated.
Even in the short term, though, the direction seems obvious. Rock was, after all, staring down the ramp at Jimmy Uso, Rhodes and Reigns aligned together in the ring.
And to add fuel to the fire, WWE’s upload specifically says that Rock “stares down Roman Reigns,” for what it’s worth:
Sidebar: How cool was that reaction to Jimmy’s return to save his original Tribal Chief? It just speaks to the fact that no matter how tired the most vocal segment of fans say they are of Bloodline drama, the masses remain on the edges of their seats for each new development.
On paper, having those three square off with Sikoa and/or some of his lackeys at Survivor Series is not a terrible place for things to be in a month like November. Those PLEs around the winter holidays can feel like an offseason of sorts most years, so pro wrestling fans are feasting if The Rock lurks in the background of a tag match that has huge implications for next year and up to ‘Mania.
Weekly shows get a bump as a result, too. Now Jimmy is back, and one can see how Reigns might go on a redemption tour with his family and people who have been close to him over the years. Maybe Jey Uso avoids the whole ordeal, especially while clutching the intercontinental title. Still, there’s the matter of Paul Heyman and other roster members he’s brushed shoulders with, such as Sami Zayn.
The beautiful thing is, there’s no sure-fire way to tell how things will go. And that’s probably intentional so WWE can maintain some flexibility and avoid boxing itself into a corner as it nearly did last year when it misread the room and had Rock shove Rhodes aside.
Funnily enough, that flexibility also means chaos. And in pro wrestling, chaos, like predictability, can be super-entertaining when wielded properly.
That effectively sums up the main event at Bad Blood, where Jimmy came back, unwilling allegiances progressed, and The Rock came back to make sure everyone understood he is, until further notice, cooking up something big.
