WWE fans attending a house show in Knoxville on Saturday night made their frustrations known with plans for Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson to replace Cody Rhodes in a match against Roman Reigns at WrestleMania.
The Rock made a shocking return to WWE television on Friday’s episode of Smackdown, when he came face-to-face with Reigns as the show went off the air.
That interaction, along with Reigns and Rhodes’ promos teasing his return, sent a clear message that WWE plans to challenge legendary Hollywood superstar Reigns for the Universal Championship, much to the dismay of fans across the country. world.
Wrestling fans spent the day after The Rock’s appearance absolutely blasting the company’s decision on social media, as Rhodes’ rivalry with Reigns was long-standing, and that displeasure manifested itself again when the WWE Live event kicked off in Knoxville.
As a clip of The Rock’s SmackDown return played on the video board in the arena, huge waves of boos could be heard as his entrance music played.
Fans at a WWE show in Knoxville loudly booed after a video of The Rock’s return was played
Fans are not happy with The Rock apparently facing Roman Reigns at WrestleMania
After his Royal Rumble victory, fans hoped that Cody Rhodes would “finish his story” against Reigns
Rhodes has undoubtedly become the biggest babyface (wrestling term for a good guy) in the company and seemed to be in a prime position to dethrone Reigns and take over the title to finally ‘finish the story’ that has been building for two years it was building up.
But instead of giving the fanbase what they so desperately wanted, WWE decided to change plans and draft Rhodes to challenge Heavyweight Champion Seth Rollins, despite having already defeated him in three previous high-profile matches.
Since The Rock appeared on Smackdown, several reports have emerged stating that the company has changed its plans following CM Punk’s torn triceps, forcing him to miss WrestleMania, while also trying to distract from Vince’s dark cloud McMahon’s sex trafficking lawsuit hanging over the screens. company.
Reports also stated that The Rock, who was recently appointed to the board of directors by WWE’s parent company TKO, used his newfound power to muscle his way into the match despite not having been a regular performer in the company for years .
The same video of The Rock’s return being booed by fans in the arena was posted to WWE’s YouTube channel and quickly became the most disliked video in the company’s history, with over 200,000 downvotes.