When it comes to building excitement for WrestleMania, the WWE leaves no stone unturned. The grandest stage of them all gets the hype train blowing full steam ahead. This is exactly what the Kickoff event ahead of WrestleMania 40 did. Dwayne Johnson, Roman Reigns, Seth Rollins, and Cody Rhodes lit the stage up for an explosive finale. The ending segment confirmed who would be on the show’s main event and has now broken viewership records online.

The Dwayne Johnson heel turn raises the social media bar

Ahead of the Kickoff show, Johnson claimed that the event would be something everyone would remember forever. Now that the show has come and gone, the numbers do not lie. Across all social media platforms, the show’s final segment has gained massive views and comments and the interest in WrestleMania 40 has peaked at an all-time high despite being two months away.

According to reports, the segment drew over an estimated 110,000,000 views. This is across all of WWE’s social media platforms. This shows how unexpected the segment was and how fans reacted positively to it. After a week of booing Johnson for taking Rhodes’ spot at WrestleMania, this segment was all that was needed to get the fans hyped. While everyone predicted the stereotypical Johnson returning to teach Reigns a lesson, it now looks like Johnson is back in search of power.

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After Dwayne Johnson & Cody Rhodes’ Scuffle, WrestleMania 40 Main Event’s Most Likely Direction Revealed

Throughout the segment, it felt like Johnson was not The Rock we know and love. From insulting Rhodes’ supporters by calling them ‘Cody Crybabies’ to telling the audience he didn’t care if they liked the decision, he had a heel aura. This was amplified even more when he got in Rhodes’ face. The kind-hearted, always doing the right thing Johnson was out, and the Attitude Era Rock was back in. He even got in Triple H’s face and claimed that this kind of insult to his bloodline should never happen again.

On a related note, Triple H didn’t take kindly to Johnson fronting on him. The latest episode of SmackDown opened with Triple H addressing what went down last night. He wasted no time in calling out Johnson by claiming that people who didn’t have authority were trying to establish it. He even said he didn’t care where they sat at the table, parroting Johnson’s previous statement of not caring about what the fans thought back at the new heel.

Johnson’s heel turn and hunger for power can be chalked up to his seat on the board of directors at the TKO Holdings Group that oversees the WWE. This heel turn is maybe exactly what the WWE needed before Mania. What did you think about the segment?

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