What’s the story?
Cage Side Seats reports that while WWE Legend The Rock is expected to make an appearance at WrestleMania 33, he will not be wrestling a match. It is likely that he could appear in a non-wrestling role similar to his past appearances at previous WrestleManias.
For those who don’t know:
The Rock has appeared at every WrestleMania since his return to the WWE in 2011. He’s made sporadic appearances on Raw and at WrestleMania ever since and has wrestled at three of those shows.
His last match on the grandest stage of them all took place at WrestleMania 32 when The Rock defeated Erick Rowan of The Wyatt Family after a quick Rock Bottom. After that, he joined forces with a returning John Cena to fend off the rest of The Wyatt Family.
The Rock’s other appearances at WrestleMania were in a non-wrestling role as he cut promos based on whoever he was in the ring with.
His last two WrestleMania matches prior to the one last year were against John Cena at WrestleManias 28 and 29.
The Heart of the Matter
The Rock not wrestling is likely a protective measure either made by The Rock himself or by one of the movie studios who may be employing him for a movie.
The Rock got injured at WrestleMania 29 in his rematch against John Cena for the WWE Championship and pushed back the filming of his movie “Hercules” due to him needing time for recovery from his hernia surgery.
What’s Next?
At this point, there’s no telling who The Rock will have a segment with or who he may come to the rescue of, so fans will simply have to wait until April 2nd, 2017 for The Rock to come out at the Camping World Stadium.
Also read: WWE News: WWE claims that The Rock's in ring career is far from over
Sportskeeda’s Take
The news of The Rock not wrestling isn’t much of a surprise as he hasn’t been in a real match since he lost to John Cena at WrestleMania 29. He did compete against Erick Rowan at WrestleMania last year, but the match was so brief that it may as well not have been an actual match.
Unlike last year, all of the WWE’s top guys are healthy, so there’s no need for an overabundance of part-timers to fill a non-existent void. WrestleMania 33 will already have The Undertaker, John Cena, Goldberg, and Brock Lesnar wrestling on the show so a match involving The Rock may be seen as overkill by the fans.
The Rock rarely disappoints when talking to the audience so expect an electrifying segment from the most electrifying man in all of sports and entertainment regardless.
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