The Rock Reveals What He Was Doing During WWE Royal Rumble

Leading up to last Saturday's WWE Royal Rumble, there were rumors going around for months that Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson would make his return to WWE in a surprise confrontation with Undisputed WWE Universal Champion Roman Reigns. Though fans have praised the actual finale of the show, others were likely questioning why "The Great One" hadn't shown up to kickoff the road to WrestleMania. In a recent Instagram post, The Rock revealed that he was working on other sorts of business when the Rumble was taking place on Saturday night.

"Worked all Saturday night, hopped on the bird at 4 am and the eagle just landed to a chilly and blessed Sunday morning. I think I'll sleep next month. Gonna hit the gym and get my mental inventory going. Then I'm all yours TEXAS. Let's get to work," Johnson wrote, alongside a tag to the XFL. This echoes recent comments made by WWE Chief Content Officer Paul "Triple H" Levesque, where he pointed to The Rock's packed schedule as the reason "The People's Champ" wasn't in the mix this WrestleMania season. Still, Levesque didn't completely close the door on Johnson, and believes he'll be back someday. It appears that Reigns instead has a significant threat looming in the form of the 2023 Royal Rumble winner, Cody Rhodes. As of this writing, the two are likely to collide in the main event of WrestleMania 39 this April in a battle for the Undisputed WWE Universal Championship.

The Rock hasn't wrestled an official WWE match since WrestleMania 32, defeating Erick Rowan in six seconds. Before that, he had a full-length match at WrestleMania 29 against John Cena, losing to Cena in a passing of the torch moment.