A Shout-Out or a Cheeky Dig at AEW? Dwayne Johnson Namedrops ‘All In’ While Addressing His Surprise WWE Return

This week’s episode of SmackDown is the most talked about thing around the world. All credit goes to the surprise return of Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson. His entry after the TKO merger has restored the faith of fans in WWE. Fans showered their love and support as The People’s Champion entered the stadium. And in his usual way, Johnson took to social media to thank fans for showing him love and support at the venue that night. However, along with that, he did mention AEW in a subtle way. Was he taking a dig at AEW or was it just a shoutout?

The Rock namedrops AEW

The Rock took to Instagram to thank the crowd of Denver for cheering him on his return. Johnson mentioned how the crowd of 14,000 made his return special. He further went on to say what importance WWE holds for him and it is a sacred thing. The Hollywood star also reflected on how much his connection with the crowd matters to him. He said it is something that he can never take for granted. However, when he was thanking his team and WWE’s team, many are speculating that he took a dig at AEW’s recent biggest PPV event, All-In.

He thanked the backstage team at WWE and his team, along with Pat McAfee and Austin Theory. He said, “Thank you my guy @patmcafeeshow and the talented @austin_theory for the dance. WWE family backstage, Team Rock behind the scenes”. He then said, “Everyone who joins us whenever we go ALL IN.”. On the surface, it looks like he is thanking everyone who is with him who decides to give their best efforts.

It could also mean he is talking about his motto, which is to give his 100% to his work. But people are also speculating that it could either be a shoutout or a mild jab at Tony Khan’s promotion. The promotion’s recent mega event All-In was a spectacle. Fans are still talking about it not only because of the performances but also due to events involving CM Punk.

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But people are still wondering if he was mentioning AEW, what could be the reason for it?

Why did Dwayne Johnson mention AEW?

AEW’s All In was this year’s biggest spectacle of the promotion. It was hosted at Wembley Stadium in London. MJF and Adam Cole headlined it while many other prominent faces were present on the roster. The stadium has a seating capacity of 90,000. This meant that if all the seats were booked, the promotion could have been close to WWE’s  101,763 audience record set at WrestleMania 32. However, according to AEW’s report, the audience turnover was 81,035, which is a decent number compared to the seating capacity. This could be a reason why he mentioned All-In to congratulate Khan on the staggering numbers.

But there could be another possible for him to take a dig at AEW. When the people were asking for real numbers from the Brent Civic Centre, it was revealed that the actual turnover was 72,265. This is roughly around 89% of the turnover claimed by Tony Khan. Considering these facts, it could mean Johnson was talking about the audience number at All In.

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Was he giving a shoutout to you AEW or was it a subtle dig? Or was it just him reminding fans about his mantra? Let us know in the comments below what you think Johnson was trying to imply.