The Rock's RETURN promo on Raw last night.

WOW.

Just WOW.


Best thing to come from the WWE in the last 6 years, imo.

That was simply incredible.

I've often nitpicked Rock's genuine ring ability before, but this night proved why even years later since he's been within a 100 feet of a WWE ring, let alone been in it, the man steps into it and it's as if he never left it for a day. Because his overall chrisma and ability to captivate a crowd is still nothing short of legendary. I havn't seen a WWE crowd that deafeningly loud, and so far behind someone, anyone in years.

Simple brilliance from beginning to end.

Also, to be able to effectively take the face and poster boy of the WWE right now, John Cena, and in less than 5 minutes, manage to get an entire arena to light up with a deafening "Cena Sucks" chant from even a good 3rd of Cena fans... Well done, Rock. Well fucking done. Rock absolutely had that entire crowd eating out of his hand from start to finish like squirrels in a public park.

If Rock and WWE can capture any amount of the electricity from tonight and keep it in a bottle to let it power their product for the next few months, than I even dare say they wouldn't even NEED Sting. That one promo and appearance from Rock this night was that goddamn good.

ALSO, with that promo, that appearance and that set-up for a possible main event for WM, I think it's fair to say that WWE just sold a shit-ton more tickets and PPV buys than they ever needed.

Even if Sting never shows up at all, that promo alone, considerably softened that possible blow.

I, of course, didn't see it. I'm guessing they are going for Rock v Cena? It's a good match up, if they do. Cena, for all my apathy towards him, can work a mike when he wants to and so can the Rock. It won't be a technical battle for the ages but, as a show bout, it'd work big.

Well, firstly, I wonder if this topic ought to be retitled with spoiler tags?

But yes, that performance was 100% pure solid gold. Showed exactly why the Rock is right to insist he gets to write his own stuff if he comes back, and not rely on WWE writers to script promos. Like Mike said, if you could bottle the charisma that man has inside a wrestling ring and inject it into the rest of the roster, you'd make billions.

I honestly don't think you will see Cena .v. Rock at Wrestlemania. Unless somehow Rocky costs Cena at the Elimination Chamber to ramp it up quickly, I don't believe there's enough time to do the build justice. I think its more likely Rock may end up costing Cena the title at Mania, leading into a feud afterwards, because I get the feeling Rocky may be around for a few months at least.

But yes, just fantastic stuff from him.

"So in seven years we've gone from the powerful 'Austin 3:16' to 'If you smell what the Rock is cookin'' and now its..." (adopts baby voice) "'You can't see me'. 'You can't see me'. What they hell are you doing, playing peekaboo? 'You can't see me' Oh we can see you. A blind Stevie Wonder stuck in a basement could see you! Walking around in your stupid purple shirt, and before that your green shirt, and before that your orange shirt. You look like a bowl of fruit pebbles"

That was so amazing!

So epic.

Definitely not mad about Sting now. (although I still think he might in the future)

But FINALLY....THE ROCK....HAS COME BACK....home.

I hope they really build on this. Slow build with an insane moment at Wrestlemania that kick starts an epic summer feud between Cena and The Rock.

That was one hell of a pop when his music hit. This almost makes me excited enough to start watching wrestling again. But not quite

BASTARD! I had no idea had happened, and you just fucked up the surprise... Damn it!

I did say it should have been in spoiler tags, didn't I?

Yeah, and I was supposed to see that before I saw the title of this thread?

*Points to Mike*

IT WAS HIM!!

Wheato I wasn't blaming you you berk!

I meant Mike should have changed the title of the thread to something like "RAW Discussion - Spoilers"

Sorry. I just assumed everyone here would have watched Raw.

I assumed wrong, and I was stupid for it.

If it makes you feel any better, I didn't see Raw and it was spoiled for me by a Facebook status. Then I went to find it on Youtube.

Forget The Rock! La Parka was in the crowd at Raw!

Oh, and I love this aggressive John Morrison. He should wrestle like that all the time.

LMAO at William Regal on the kiss cam!

Hahahaha I know he wasn't on about me!

But hey at least Mike didn't spoil the La Parka moment right? :p

Wow, if this happened in CWA there is no doubt that this would be a universe destroying positive pop when The Rock's music hits

Ah, the over-pops in CWA. They were fun

The crowd went F*CKING APESH*T!!!

I bet The Rock felt like a god when he came out and everyone went mental

I'm still on a high after seeing him back in WWE. Fuck Sting, we have The Rock back!

BTW, on the details of Rock's return

I think he looked great. Seemed to have put a little weight back on since his last pre-taped promo, and had a good shape as a result. I also really liked the new version of his entrance music.

Morrison- yes he looked really good last night; even if the eye makeup made it look like he was wearing blusher!

And is Dolph Ziggler now the WHC?

It seems he is WHC, but we'll see for sure at Smackdown. Maybe Teddy will come back and stop the nonsense before Ziggler is awarded the title. Just a thought, but I don't know for sure.

The Rock looks in fantastic shape. His entrance music sounds better than ever, and I'm so damn stoked that he's back!

He's had many interpetations of that theme, and weirdly enough, a few have even gone unused. (A remix can be heard on one of the WWE music albums where the beat is way over-compressed and loud.)

But this new version from last night is great. It seems to have more percussion added to give it an almost drum machine-esque techno beat while the rest of the theme is still the same with an extra layer of guitars to give it that "yet another layer to his career" feeling.

If you track the evolution of the same theme he's had since the NoD, each new version seems to be adding another layer, as if to say that each time that Rock regroups and returns, and becomes refocused again, in each stage of his career, the theme adds another layer onto it, almost as if to say that The Rock assimilates more experience and complexity each time.

I like that. It's subtle yet effective over a long period of years.

Chris Jericho's WWE Theme (discounting the briefly used Saliva version) also seems to have that same effect of it adding layers onto itself as the years go by.

I liked the bit where Rock says "There's still someone else that The Rock needs to see" and someone in the crowd shouts out, "The Brooklyn Brawler!" hahaha

I believe I'm right in saying that Rocky's first (untelevised) WWE match was against the Brawler.