Possible reason why The Rock’s appearance on WWE RAW wasn’t announced in advance

As seen during the “Day 1” 2024 edition of WWE RAW, The Rock made an appearance and teased a match against the unified WWE Universal champion Roman Reigns. During Wrestling Observer Radio, Dave Meltzer of F4WOnline.com commented on why Rock’s appearance wasn’t announced in advance…

“He’s doing this for fun because he doesn’t have to do it. And he’s doing it for excitement. That type of thing. That’s why when he came back Monday, it wasn’t announced at a time like if they had announced that ahead of time. I mean, the rating would have been much higher, much higher than it was. He was doing it because in that case, he wanted that pop because of people in the building not knowing he was going to be there. And there he is. That’s what he wants. Every time he comes back, they never announce it ahead of time. They’ll do the little tease, but they won’t do so, but they won’t do the announcement.” (quote courtesy of WrestlingNews.co)

WWE did announce that Rock’s return segment brought in 171 million views across various social media platforms and here was his response…

“Amazing stuff. This is all thanks to the people. They break records, not me. I just try and look cool, not screw up and not cuss too much 😊🥃🙏🏾 #peopleschamp.”