Will The Rock Walk His Talk?

With Monday Night RAW fast approaching, and a guaranteed appearance of The Great One looming, three big questions are plaguing the minds of Professional Wrestling fans everywhere.

The first question is the obvious one: Will The Rock actually deliver on his promises-a-plenty? Saying "I am never, ever going away" is not only a huge promise to make, but it's actually as crystal clear as a freshly Windex'd window. There's no reading between lines in a statement like that, The Rock has simply stated that from here on out he will always be a part of the WWE.

Thus far, his presence has been felt primarily via satellite, through which The Most Electrifying Man In All Of Entertainment loses about 10,000 volts. Fans have taken to the rooftops crying "Fraud!" among other things, but the bottom line is that The People's Champ will be live on RAW this Monday, WrestleMania on Sunday, and Monday Night RAW after that. Two weeks, three electrifying appearances that I think will answer all of the pending questions and uncertainties surrounding The Rock.

At this point in time, I can't realistically see The Rock not laying a hand on John Cena. And if The Rock ends up laying the Smackdown on Cena, how could that not lead to at LEAST one match? Which brings me to my next question:

Can The Rock still go? Seven years is a long time to be away from the ring, and I would imagine Rocky's got a few inches of rust on him right now. He obviously won't be wrestling any dark matches, house shows or anything like that before jumping right into his first headlining match. So you've got to think: If The Rock is not intending on wrestling more than one match, will he wrestle at all?

Shawn Michaels was gone for four years, and when he returned to fight Triple H at SummerSlam 2002, he intended it to be a one-time-only match. He details in his book how he specifically requested a Street Fight, since that is one of the easiest and least technical matches to wrestle, since he had so much ring rust. Just to put in to perspective what four years away from the ring can do to a legend like HBK.

Would The Rock really want to risk wrestling one single match with seven years of ring-rust on him, and having his final WWE match be a shit show? There's only one way to get, and keep, the ring rust off and that's to wrestle on a regular basis. So at this point, I'd say it's either ten matches or none for Rocky. I think we all share the same preference.

While questions and controversy continue to swirl around The Rock, the only thing we can do is wait and see. We may never get answers to these questions at all. The Rock may just disappear one day, and leave us forever wondering when he'll be back. And it may be seven days, seven years, or... never. But I'm confident that the next two weeks will be very telling of The Rock's intentions, what we can realistically expect from him, and will answer perhaps the Greatest question of all: Are we truly entering into The People's Era?