Eric Bischoff reveals what WWE were worried about in The Rock's return to SmackDown
It's been a year since WWE SmackDown moved to FOX, and it's fair to say that the Blue brand has been more entertaining than RAW, week in, week out. The debut show of SmackDown on FOX last October saw the return of The Rock to the WWE, who returned to the company for the first time in more than five years.
The Rock appeared in a segment with "The Man" Becky Lynch, as the duo mocked and ridiculed King Corbin, before attacking the former King of the Ring winner.
This episode of SmackDown was a special event for a variety of reasons, and WWE pulled out all the stops to put on a great show for the fans.
Then SmackDown Executive Director Eric Bischoff, revealed the mood backstage ahead of The Rock's segment and spoke about what they were worried about.
Eric Bischoff on what they were worried about ahead of The Rock's segment on SmackDown
Eric Bischoff, on a recent episode of his 83 weeks podcast, said that The Rock was given a specified time limit for his segment. He revealed that he and others backstage were worried that The Rock would go over his time limit:
"Now I’ve never produced Rock or work directly with him as a producer. I’ve only worked with him briefly for a blink of an eye as an on-camera talent, but everybody was concerned that Rock was going to take his 12-minute promo and turn it into a 30-minute promo which as we discussed on this show before just collapse all kinds of other plans and other promos and length of match, it could be a real disaster when that happens." (H/T WrestleZone)
Eric Bischoff said that The Rock finished his segment a minute or two before the allotted time, and that it was "business as usual" after that.
He also said that it was communicated to The Rock about the time he would have on the mic, but Bischoff argued that an enigmatic star like The Rock, who loves to entertain the audience and is passionate about it, could have gotten carried away and gone over his allotted time. But, that did not happen and it all went smoothly, according to plan.