By Andrew Zarian for F4Wonline.com
Sunday's WWE Survivor Series was originally supposed to feature Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson. And for anyone watching last night, it was blatantly obvious that was the plan.
In July, I was told that the Brooklyn, New York, pay-per-view would be centered around Johnson. Between heavily promoting his new Red Notice movie on Netflix, the 25th anniversary of his WWE debut that took place in New York City, NBC’s renewal of Young Rock, and the second season of the Ruthless Aggression documentary series, the timing was perfect.
Yet another source informed me that there were hopes for Johnson to be on Monday's Raw, dependent on his schedule. I personally didn’t see this as happening.
In late-September, the same source told me that Johnson would not be on Survivor Series due to his filming schedule and needing to quarantine for travel. However, there was still a financial obligation to continue with the plan for the movie promotion without Johnson which is what we saw last night. The basic concept stayed the same, minus Johnson himself.
Although it was fun taking a trip down memory lane, it felt like WWE was throwing a surprise party for a guest of honor that never arrived.