Ex-WWE employee shares the shocking impact of The Rock's departure from weekly programming (Exclusive)
Wrestling veteran Vince Russo feels that fan interest in WWE has dipped after The Rock's departure.
Earlier this year, The People's Champ became a member of the Board of Directors for TKO. He also became heavily involved with weekly programming, making several appearances on RAW and SmackDown in the lead-up to WrestleMania. The business also saw an overall increase in interest as The Final Boss used social media to hype the main event of the biggest WrestleMania ever.
This week on Sportskeeda Wrestling's Legion of RAW, Russo felt when last week The Rock announced that he would be gone for a while, several fans stopped watching as well. He pointed out that his own subscription numbers dipped after the Hollywood star spoke about his departure.
"I said it last week, when Rock said, 'I'm going away for a while,' everyone left with him. I mean seriously. I did a whole show today on my Patreon. Bro, my sales, my subscriptions, my Twitter followers, my Twitch followers, everything went up the second The Rock walked in the door. The overall audience was up, huge. I saw increases across the board. And it just fell last week when he said last week, 'I'm gonna be gone for a while.' He might as well have said things were gonna go back to the way they were." [4:57 onwards]
During the intense promo segment last week, The Rock spoke about his love for the business and mentioned that he could not stay away from it for too long. He vowed that he would soon return.
On SmackDown, the Undisputed WWE Champion Cody Rhodes also addressed The Final Boss, stating that he would be ready whenever the 51-year-old was back and wanted a shot at his title.
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