Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson kickstarted the WWE Netflix era on Monday Night Raw and fans are convinced he won’t be part of WrestleMania 41.
The wrestling legend turned Hollywood megastar made his return at the beginning of the history live stream, but he wasn’t showing signs of the villainous Final Boss persona viewers saw last year.
There has been speculation The Rock could reignite his rivalry with Cody Rhodes or Roman Reigns in Las Vegas in April.
However, Dwayne instead opened up about his own family history, and gave some shout outs to the fans, Netflix chiefs and the Undisputed WWE Champion himself.
Cody was shown on the front row as The Rock praised him for ‘carrying this company on his back’ for the last year, although he didn’t totally ignore their rivalry.
‘Tell Mama Rhodes The Rock says hello,’ he quipped, with the American Nightmare laughing at the reference despite his mother playing a key role in their blood feud last year.
Dwayne also promised to watch the match between Roman Reigns and Solo Sikoa ‘closely’ as his fellow Bloodline members kicked off the show with Tribal Combat.
He would return to the ring after that bout to present winner Roman with the Ula Fala before acknowledging his cousin.
‘That did not sound like a promo from a man who is working WrestleMania,’ wrote @JaredJared87 on X, with plenty of fans having the same opinion.
‘The Rock is not making WrestleMania. Why else would he basically ditch the angle with Cody and be all buddy buddy now. #RawonNetflix,’ argued @tonoT38939247.
And @AlanByMe added: ‘So The Rock was in his babyface character, acknowledged Cody Rhodes and everything, interesting, this could be the evidence that he’s not working on Wrestlemania #WWERaw #RawOnNetflix’
If Dwayne doesn’t appear at the Showcase of the Immortals in Los Angeles, WWE still has plenty of huge names to turn to this year.
His fellow wrestler turned actor John Cena is already confirmed to be part of the event, as he’ll be kicking off his year-long farewell retirement tour on the Netflix debut.
The Peacemaker star’s direction for WrestleMania is unclear, with Cody Rhodes and World Heavyweight Champion GUNTHER both mentioned in recent weeks as potential opponents.
What fans do known is that boss Paul ‘Triple H’ Levesque already has this year’s main event in mind and penciled in ‘with an asterisk’.
‘I cannot tell you what happens between today and Las Vegas. People get hurt, you get a phone call, “Have you ever considered doing this with me?” “Oh, that’s an amazing opportunity. Maybe we go in a different direction,”‘ he explained to the SI Media with Jimmy Traina podcast.
That happened last year when WWE scrapped plans for Roman Reigns versus The Rock, instead pivoting to a Night 1 main event seeing the two stars as partners against Cody Rhodes and Seth Rollins.
The next night, Cody beat Roman in the main event to become the Undisputed WWE Champion.
‘We had a card for WrestleMania loosely written out in October, and that’s morphed a lot. We’re sort of sitting down on a regular basis, weekly, and talking about what do we believe the shift is,’ Triple H explained.
‘Where do we see the shift happening and what do we need to move around? Can I say I have something penciled in? Yes. Do I think it will stay? I think, but I’m not sure.’
WWE Raw fans convinced legend has ‘ditched WrestleMania plans’ on Netflix debut