The Rock Shares Video Of Return Entrance On WWE SmackDown: 'You Can Feel The Mana'
Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson made his return to "WWE SmackDown" last Friday; one week later, he has shared a behind-the-scenes video of the moment his music hit and the Colorado crowd went wild. The Rock posted the video to X, formerly known as Twitter, and said it was one of the loudest crowd reactions he had ever heard in his career. The Rock said you could feel the "mana" — spiritual power or energy — in the crowd and backstage before he made his entrance, strutting through gorilla position as a friend filmed him with an iPhone.
"These reactions get louder, crazier and more special every time the music hits. 14,000 of you erupted like it was 100,000," Rock wrote in the post.
Cool look from backstage when my music hits – I'm hyped, focused and locked in, but this stuff makes me smile every damn time I walk thru that curtain;)
You can feel the MANA here.
It's real.This crowd eruption is one of the loudest reactions I've ever experienced in my... pic.twitter.com/VjYk5xaWzF
— Dwayne Johnson (@TheRock) September 22, 2023
The movie star returned to the show named after his catchphrase alongside former "SmackDown" commentator Pat McAfee after appearing on the latter's ESPN program. The Rock addressed his scrapped WrestleMania plans with Roman Reigns on McAfee's show before appearing on "SmackDown" to deliver a People's Elbow to Austin Theory. He even crossed paths with former "Once In A Lifetime" rival John Cena backstage. The surprise return helped the show crack 2,500,000 viewers for just the sixth time in 2023. Though the Hollywood writer's strike that is keeping Cena with WWE for the foreseeable future rolls on, there are no reported plans for The Rock to make any more appearances as of this writing.