• The Rock

  Birthdate:

  1972-05-02

  Birthplace:

  Hayward, California, USA

  Birthname:

  Dwayne Douglas Johnson

  Height:

  6 feet 5 inches

  Weight:

  275 lbs

  Debut:

  1996-03-10

  Championships Held:

  WWE Championship (x8), WCW Championship (x2), Intercontinental Championship (x2), World Tag Team Championship (x5)

  Finisher:

  Rock Bottom, People's Elbow

  Twitter:

  Notable Rivals:

  "Stone Cold" Steve Austin, Triple H, Chris Jericho, John Cena

  Instagram:

  Eye Color:

  Brown

  Hair Color:

  None

The Rock was back in the WWE spotlight before and after SmackDown this week. The Great One shared a 21-minute video on social media ahead of the show, claiming Cody Rhodes had agreed with him ahead of time to step aside so he and his cousin Roman Reigns could headline WrestleMania together. Rock also threw a threat against Seth Rollins in there for good measure, warning The Architect that since he's on the board, he can make Rollins' World Title go away whenever he sees fit.

The Night One Main Event

Fast forward a few hours and Rock was on SmackDown, opening the show with Reigns. The order of business was the challenge Rhodes threw out at Elimination Chamber. Rock turned down the chance to take on The American Nightmare one-on-one, issuing an alternative challenge in its place - he and Reigns vs. Rollins and Rhodes on night one of WrestleMania. Should Rollins and Rhodes win, The Bloodline is banned from ringside for the Reigns vs. Rhodes match the following night.

Related

WWE Smackdown Winners and Losers: Cody and Roman Play Their Hands

This week's SmackDown ended with a long promo segment that saw both Roman Reigns and Cody Rhodes show their respective hands.

A fantastic segment, even if it did run a little long, but those watching on Fox might have been getting a little frustrated by the end. The network insisted on repeatedly censoring the crowd's chants, even going as far as to black out a sign opposite the hard cam. Since the censors weren't in effect on other networks, fans quickly figured out the reason Fox kept hitting the mute button was so viewers couldn't hear those in-house chanting, "Die, Rocky, Die".

Fox's Censors

The sign was blacked out for the same reason since it read the same thing as everyone was chanting. A throwback to what fans would chant at The Rock during his heel run in the late 1990s, clearly times have changed since then and certain networks don't want that sort of thing being chanted on television. Interesting that those chants don't fly, but Rock referring to the fans as drug addicts of various descriptions airs unedited.

It feels a little much to me that a Die, Rocky, Die chant needs to be censored. Perhaps if the segment had aired during the second hour of the show, so after the watershed, Fox wouldn't have felt the need to be so strict. I've seen and heard worse on a wrestling show during the 8 pm hour. SmackDown will leave Fox later this year and move to the USA Network, while Raw will become a Netflix exclusive in 2025.