Former NXT champ thought The Rock would be at WrestleMania 39

Even though the much-anticipated clash didn't come to fruition, Reigns has had no issues asserting his dominance in the WWE as he's now a little over half a year closer to beating Bruno Sammartino's second championship reign.

While the talks of The Rocks' return to the WWE died down for a couple of months, there's been plenty of speculation in recent weeks that he could be making an appearance soon. Things further intensified after one of WWE's most recent NXT call-ups, Grayson Waller, took it upon himself to call out the WWE legend earlier this month. Waller has since issued an "open invitation" for The Rock to appear on The Grayson Waller Effect, to which the People's Champion has yet to issue an official response.

Further fueling the rumors is Dave Meltzer of Wrestling Observer Radio, who suggested that if The Rock were to return, it would be for a packed crowd at Detroit's Ford Field for SummerSlam. After all, Waller has made it a point to disrespect The Rock at every opportunity, attempting to mimic The Rock's signature People's Elbow move and calling him out on Twitter.

If there's one thing that The Rock loves to do, it's putting jabronis in their place, and he could certainly do that to Waller at SummerSlam in August.

WWE's history shows that it is not afraid to pull out big surprises at SummerSlam. In 2020, we saw the return of Reigns as a heel, and a year later, Brock Lesnar appeared to confront The Tribal Chief. If history is anything to go by, we might see a few more surprises at this year's SummerSlam. From Bray Wyatt to Randy Orton, The Undertaker and maybe even John Cena, there's a long list of both active and inactive WWE superstars who could drop by in Detroit to say what's up to the thousands of WWE fans all over the world.

Interestingly, The Rock's storyline is not just confined to Reigns. In fact, there are whispers about a confrontation with The Bloodline. With the heavy emphasis on the Anoa'i family throughout the storyline, The Great One's absence has stood out.

It's not hard to envision a promo where The Rock would call out Reigns for breaking up The Bloodline, which wouldn't be too unlike what The Rock did to Farooq and the Nation of Domination.

While a full-blown Rock run might be off the table for now, a one-off passing-of-the-torch moment between him, Reigns, or Uso at SummerSlam could be a tantalizing prospect. As the wrestling world gears up for one of its biggest events, the excitement surrounding The Rock's potential return is palpable. Only time will tell if the People's Champ will electrify the WWE universe once again.