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The Rock returned to WWE RAW on Monday night to celebrate his birthday in style. The Rock’s birthday bash featured multiple appearances throughout RAW by the Great One. Unfortunately for the WWE, more people were interested in the draft than seeing the return of Dwayne Johnson.

The first video comes from the opening of the show. The Rock opened up the show and referenced the death of Bin Laden as have a lot of WWE stars lately. The Rock was interrupted in his opening monologue by the anonymous G.M. Michael Cole was eventually summoned to the ring and you can all figure out what happened next.

The finish of The Rock Birthday Bash was really something special. Vince McMahon returned to television but not so much in the Mr. McMahon character as he was out of character. McMahon joined the celebration to pay tribute to The Rock. McMahon played a video tribute to The Rock and his career that was just fantastic.

The most newsworthy thing about the whole entire show is that it was pretty pure in the sense that there were no major angles that came out of The Rock and his birthday party. There was no cake to the face to either The Miz or John Cena, although Rock and Cena did have a brief confrontation where John Cena promised to keep the title through Wrestlemania making Cena vs. The Rock for WrestleMania 28 a WWE championship match.

I don’t want to get too much into that now but I don’t think Cena keeps the belt through WrestleMania. If Cena is still champion in January, the whole idea for the Royal Rumble is pretty much pointless. Cena is already locked up with The Rock, so the theme of winner gets a title match of his choice is out the window.

Overall this was a real home run by the WWE on television although the ratings didn’t get as big of a bump as the company would have hoped for. As a matter of a fact, the rating was actually down from last week’s RAW. The birthday bash RAW rating drew a 3.45 rating as opposed to the week before which generated a 3.47. As a matter of a fact the show actually lost viewers in the second hour of the program. I have to be honest and tell you that I am stunned by the ratings news. My hunch is that most fans who tuned in to see The Rock probably tuned out after his first promo figuring that would be it for the People’s Champ.

This has to be greatly disappointing and maybe even a little worrisome for the WWE since they have already put so much stock behind The Rock for WrestleMania 28. To be fair the country was arguably glued to the news Monday and the cable news programs for as much information as Osama Bin Laden’s death as possible. On the other hand, The Rock is starring in one of the biggest movie hits in months which should have evened out the playing field a bit.

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