WWE forced to cut to black screen during SmackDown due to fan incident involving The Rock
WWE were forced to cut to a black screen during the Smackdown broadcast while The Rock was in the ring.
The People's Champion recently joined the TKO board which houses both UFC and the WWE and made a shock return to wrestling.
He was initially pencilled in for a blockbuster WrestleMania main event with undisputed WWE universal champion Roman Reigns but is now aligned with his real-life relative following a chaotic Las Vegas press conference where Royal Rumble winner Cody Rhodes interrupted and challenged the Tribal Chief.
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On Friday Rock, now reverting to his bad guy persona, challenged Rhodes and WWE world champ Seth Rollins to a tag-team match at the show of shows.
But his segment featured multiple cuts to a black screen while he and the rest of the Bloodline were in the ring.
And according to PWInsider, this is because a sign which read, "DIE ROCKY DIE" was visible in the crowd throughout.
The sign was in direct view of the hard camera and so FOX, who show Smackdown weekly, made the decision to censor.
It's the second time in a week that is happened on a WWE broadcast. At the Elimination Chamber in Perth, Australia, fans appeared to perform gestures to Dominik Mysterio and the screen quickly went black.
"Die Rocky Die" was what fans chanted at the Rock and wrote on signs in his early days in WWE as Rocky Maivia.
The backlash led to him completely changing his act, turning on the fans and becoming the biggest star in the business.
The Rock's segment on Smackdown lasted 30 minutes in total and saw him run down the fans and Rhodes, as well as make the challenge for night one of WrestleMania.
The Hollywood star proposed that if Rhodes and Rollins win, the Bloodline would be banned from getting involved in night two's main event.
Topics: WWE, WWE Smackdown, The Rock, Roman Reigns
Josh Lawless