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 during Friday’s episode of Smackdown, when he went face-to-face with Reigns as the show went off the air.
That interaction along with the promos by Reigns and Rhodes that precluded his return signaled a clear message that WWE is planning to have the legend- turned-Hollywood superstar challenge Reigns for the Universal Championship much to the dismay of fans around the globe.
Wrestling fans spent the day after The Rock’s appearance absolutely obliterating the company’s decision on social media, given Rhodes’ rivalry with Reigns has been long brewing, and that displeasure showed itself again as the WWE Live event in Knoxville got underway.
As a clip of The Rock’s SmackDown return played on the video board in the arena, massive waves of boos were heard when his entrance music sounded.
Fans at a WWE show in Knoxville booed loudly after a video of The Rock’s return was played
Fans are not happy with The Rock seemingly being set to face Roman Reigns at WrestleMania
After his Royal Rumble win fans hoped Cody Rhodes would ‘finish his story’ against Reigns
Rhodes has unquestionably become the biggest babyface [wrestling term for a good guy] in the company and seemed to be in prime position to dethrone Reigns and take the title to finally ‘finish the story’ that had been building for two years.
Though rather than give the fan base what they desperately wanted, WWE decided to change plans and set Rhodes up to challenge Heavyweight champion Seth Rollins, despite the fact he has already beat him in three previous high-profile matches.
Several reports have emerged since The Rock appeared on Smackdown to state that the company changed plans following CM Punk’s torn triceps that will force him to miss WrestleMania, while also attempting to take attention away from the dark cloud of Vince McMahon’s sex trafficking lawsuit hanging over the company.
Reports also mentioned that The Rock, who was recently named a member of the board of directors by WWE’s parent company TKO, used his newfound power to politic his way into the match despite not being a regular performer in the company for years.
The same video of The Rock’s return that fans booed in the arena had been posted to WWE’s YouTube channel and quickly became the most disliked video in the company’s history with more than 200,000 down votes.
