The Rock's Overrun On SmackDown Affected Several Segments

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  The Rock

  Birthdate:

  1972-05-02

  Birthplace:

  Hayward, California, USA

  Birthname:

  Dwayne Douglas Johnson

  Height:

  6 feet 5 inches

  Weight:

  275 lbs

  Debut:

  1996-03-10

  Championships Held:

  WWE Championship (x8), WCW Championship (x2), Intercontinental Championship (x2), World Tag Team Championship (x5)

  Finisher:

  Rock Bottom, People's Elbow

  Twitter:

  Notable Rivals:

  "Stone Cold" Steve Austin, Triple H, Chris Jericho, John Cena

  Instagram:

  Eye Color:

  Brown

  Hair Color:

  None

Highlights

• The Rock's segments are running over, affecting other matches. Naomi vs. Tiffany Stratton suffered due to time constraints.
• The Rock spent almost 50 minutes talking on SmackDown and social media. He needs to be mindful of time for other stars.
• The trend of The Rock's segments going long may continue. WWE must balance his star power with other performers' time.

The Rock spent the first 30 minutes of Friday's SmackDown setting up a challenge alongside Roman Reigns to take on Cody Rhodes and Seth Rollins on Night One of WrestleMania 40. As a result, some segments were affected and entrances shortened. This has led to concerns about how often The Rock is doing this on weekly programming and what it might mean for other Superstars as they try to build their own programs heading into the Showcase of the Immortals.

This is now the third time The Rock has run well over his allotted time for a segment. Granted, it is The Rock, his program is the big ticket at WrestleMania 40 and he pops huge ratings, but the domino effect for other stars is obvious. Specifically, the match that was advertised and followed The Rock and Reigns was Tiffany Stratton versus Naomi. Naomi's entrance wasn't even shown on television and the match was shortened by close to 10 minutes.

In reality, if you total the amount of time The Rock spent on SmackDown talking through his promo, and add it to the 21-minute promo he posted on social media, he spent nearly 50 minutes talking. While WWE knows his programs are money makers and important to the show, that's a lot of time for The Rock to get a point across. He could have easily cut just as effective a promo in 5 fewer minutes, giving the two women more time for their match.

In another bout, Bron Breakker squashed his opponent in seven seconds. It was likely this match was booked to be a squash, and Breakker might be getting the Goldberg treatment, but one spear and a pin might be a bit short of what WWE had in mind.

WWE Has Huge Plans For The Rock And Roman Reigns After WrestleMania 40

This Could Keep Happening With The Rock

The Rock is scheduled for multiple SmackDowns in a row. He'll be there next week and the week after. It will be intriguing to see if WWE books other matches and segments prior to putting The Rock in his segment. When he's at the end of the show, he's got little choice but to adhere to the timeline or he'll get cut off by the network.

The Rock is a top star, a board member, and an icon. Everyone backstage understands his drawing power. That doesn't mean frustrations won't grow if he keeps cutting into the time allotted, forcing other performers to repeatedly take a back seat.