The Rock makes his triumphant return to the WWE...but why now?

Last night on WWE Monday Night Raw, Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson made his return to the squared circle after a seven year absence to announce that he'll be co-hosting this year's WrestleMania taking place on April 3rd! The wrestling news world had been blowin' up over the last few weeks with speculation about The Rock's possible return, with most assuming he'd be featured in a match of some sort. The Rock's not an idiot. He's got a movie career to nurture and getting spinebusted by some of today's less trained superstars probably wouldn't be the wisest course of action. 

Still, the only thing that really matters is the crowd reaction and The Rock's ability to energize and electrify. It even had me poppin' like a fanboy "mark" last night.  Listen for yourself...




Un friggin' believable.  There's no other way around it, The Rock is pure wrestling royalty, a celebrity of the highest order. But why is he coming back now when the WWE has been trying to bring him back for years? He's made sporadic appearances mostly through pre-taped segments over the years, but what got him to accept Vince McMahon's offer now? Those who speculate that it's just because of the spectacle of WrestleMania are only partially correct. The full reason is that The Rock has a movie to push, and the WWE crowd fits right into it's demographic. Yep, I'm talking about Fast Five, which hits theaters only a few weeks later on April 29th.  The film is the next installment of the Fast and the Furious franchise and pits the People's Champ up against Vin Diesel for the first time evah!!

So even though The Rock announce that he's got scores to settle with John Cena and WWE World Heavyweight Champion The Miz, he didn't say jack about actually wrestling them. I expect the next few weeks will have The Rock taking his shots where he can, ultimately ending up behind the announcer's booth at WrestleMania. It doesn't really matter what he does. He can host another pie eating contest(like back in 2004) or just sit in the back raising an occasional eyebrow. The crowd will love it, and those that don't? Well they can take their attitudes, shine 'em up real nice, turn 'em sideways and shove 'em straight up their candy asses!