Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson has set tongues wagging among wrestling fans after he confirmed he would be in Georgia to attend a high school football game.
In an Instagram post, Johnson revealed he was to take in Apalachee High School’s first home game after the tragic school shooting that occurred on September 4 in which two students and two teachers were killed, with nine others injured.
‘Big football game tonight as the Apalachee High School Wildcats take the field in their first home game back since their school’s mass shooting about a month ago,’ Johnson said.
‘These players, coaches, teachers, the entire community and ALL the students at Apalachee are the symbol of resilience, love and strength.
‘I promised them, I would be there tonight for them – and I will.
‘Win or lose, these Apalachee kids are already undefeated.’
Apalachee would go on to lose 25-6 to Jackson County High.
Despite the devastating reason behind Johnson’s visit to the school, it didn’t stop wrestling fans to join the dots as the WWE has a pay-per-view event in Georgia on the same day.
The event, titled Bad Blood, takes place at the State Farm Arena in Atlanta, Georgia.
On the card, Drew McIntyre faces off with CM Punk in a Hell in a Cell match, Nia Jax defends her WWE Women’s Championship against Bayley, Damian Priest takes on Finn Balor while Liv Morgan goes toe-to-toe with Rhea Ripley for the Women’s World Championship.
But the one match many fans cannot wait to see is a tag team clash featuring Cody Rhodes and Roman Reigns against Solo Sikoa and Jacob Fatu of The Bloodline, a faction Reigns was a longtime member of.
Rhodes and Reigns also shared a longstanding rivalry which came to an end at Wrestlemania XL in April as Reigns’ 1,316-day streak as the Undisputed WWE Champion came to an end.
Johnson, who is a member of an iconic wrestling family which Reigns is also part of, featured heavily in the build-up to the main event at Wrestlemania XL.
The Hollywood megastar took on a persona of the ‘Final Boss’ and was on Reigns’ side in The Bloodline.
But now that Reigns has split from the faction since returning, it’s got wrestling fans putting two and two together regarding Johnson being in Georgia at the same time of Bad Blood.
Johnson also has a rivalry with Rhodes, who he confronted on the episode of Raw the day after Wrestlemania and told the newly minted WWE Universal Champion he would return to face him.
Former NFL punter-turned-WWE-commentator Pat McAfee also poured fuel onto the fire of Johnson’s potential return at Bad Blood.
Rhodes appeared on ‘The Pat McAfee Show’ to promote Bad Blood and after the show had wrapped, a clip emerged on social media of McAfee stating he heard ‘the big guy’s coming back this week’, hinting it could be Johnson.
Bad Blood commences at 11pm on Saturday.