Fifteen years ago, The Rock was one of the most famous stars in the wrestling world. Today, he's one of the most famous stars in the world, period. The Rock became a huge Hollywood force in the 2000s, and when he returned to WWE in 2011, he brought them a lot of publicity - as well as a lot of viewership from lapsed fans who couldn't wait to see "The People's Champion" again. Since then, The Rock has never been too far from a WWE ring. He's had five matches and made numerous Raw and Pay-Per-View appearances - including one at WrestleMania XXXI that seemed to be setting up a future bout with Triple H. While he hasn't competed since 2013, many feel WrestleMania XXXII will host The Rock's comeback to active competition. There are already rumors swirling that WWE has reached out to The Rock about working with the company before the end of 2015. Nobody knows how many appearances the company has in mind, but hopefully it's a lot - and hopefully, The Rock agrees. He's every bit as entertaining as he ever was and he brings an energy unlike anyone else in wrestling, past or present - and that translates to TV ratings. The Rock has a busier schedule than Batista, but he's always been loyal to wrestling - it's not that hard to imagine ten or twelve TV appearances for "The People's Champion" between now and WrestleMania in order to set up and hype a big match. If that does happen, perhaps Raw's future is brighter than it looks.
Scott Fried is a Slammy Award-winning* writer living and working in New York City. He has been following/writing about professional wrestling for many years and is a graduate of Lance Storm's Storm Wrestling Academy. Follow him on Twitter at https://twitter.com/scottfried.
*Best Crowd of the Year, 2013
