The Rock cuts patriotic promo, teases major match in WWE return

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Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson returned to a WWE ring on Monday night on the first "Monday Night Raw" episode of 2024.

Rocky confronted Jinder Mahal in the ring during the special "Day 1" episode. Mahal has not fought on RAW or SmackDown since 2022, and since then, he has appeared in NXT and has the manager of the tag team, Indus Sheer. This time, he cut an anti-American promo before The Rock’s music hit and cut him off.

The crowd in San Diego absolutely popped for the eight-time WWE champion.

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"You are in trouble tonight," he told Mahal as soon as he stepped into the ring.

Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson is interviewed on the sideline in the second quarter of the game between the Colorado Buffaloes and the Colorado State Rams at Folsom Field in Boulder, Colorado, Sept. 16, 2023. (Ron Chenoy-USA TODAY Sports)

Mahal, in typical heel fashion, criticized The Rock for showing up and said he would be "disgusted" if he were The Rock and had to defend the crowd. The Rock retorted, saying he was "damn proud to be the people’s champion."

"And The Rock is damn proud to be an American," he said. "… You come out here and you run your mouth about the truth and why they boo you. Let The Rock tell you some truth – they don’t boo you because of how you look, they don’t boo you because of how you talk, they don’t boo you because you speak Punjabi, no … they boo you because you’re the biggest a--hole walking God’s green Earth.

"… The only thing that matters is you come out here, and you have the gall to actually say, ‘America is a joke.’ Well it ain’t a joke to The Rock, and it ain’t a joke to all these