For the first time in eight years, Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson competed in a match at WrestleMania.

Suddenly, after spending years in Hollywood, in XFL board rooms, and hocking pretty much anything he could get his name on, the “People's Champion” would be back in a WWE ring, facing off in one of the most highly anticipated tag team matches of all time. But how would he look? Would the 51-year-old fit in seamlessly with three men in their 30s? Or would his ring rust be on full display for the 70,000 fans in Philadelphia?

Frankly, it was a little bit of both.

After nearly 20 minutes of introductions, including an expansive, multi-segment promo package breaking down the bout, the four men stood in the middle of the ring and took in the moment, a “This is Awesome” moment if fans have ever seen one.

Starting things off slow, with each maneuver feeling like a big deal, the match slowly but surely broke down into the sort of “Stone Cold” Steve Austin vs Kevin Owens brawl fans got to see shortly after Rhodes' return to the WWE Universe, with all four men hitting each other with unprotected offense and a few trash cans before making their way, slowly but surely, back to the ring.

…except for Rollins, whose knee took a brutal bang from Roman Reigns on the ring apron, and sold a knee injury for the rest of the match. With the conceit of the contest set, Rock and Reigns went off on Rollins' weak spot, hitting him with every move imaginable while Rhodes waited to be tagged in.

This was sort of the theme of the match, sometimes tags mattered, sometimes they didn't. Sometimes the referee was active, other times he was told if he started counting, he'd be fired. But for fans who bought into the story, they got to see a little bit of everything they could have hoped for, as The Rock ate all sorts of offensive maneuvers and dished out even more over the nearly hour-long match.

But how, you may ask, did the match end? Well, that's a rather complicated question, as WWE tried to pack four months of storytelling into a single main event.

Cody Rhodes got one final letdown at WrestleMania 40 from The Rock.

So with Seth Rollins' knee the clear target of The Bloodline's attacks, he and Cody Rhodes attempted to get their offense going before the war of attrition took its course on “The Visionary,” with the duo spamming super kicks, hitting Pedigrees, and landing multiple pin near-falls, but in the end, it wasn't enough; after failing to capitalize on a Reigns-to-Rock miscommunication spear, The Bloodline took over the match for good, with Rock hitting Rhodes with a Rock Bottom before finishing off the match with a People's Elbow for the win.

And then… nothing. Rollins didn't turn on Rhodes, Rock didn't turn on Roman, and the lasting image of the night will forever be Cody sitting sad in the ring with Rock and Reigns holding up their championship belts.

So what was the point of this entire showdown? Was it to dish Rhodes one final loss before he gets his ultimate victory on Night 2 of WrestleMania 40? Or to show that Bloodline Rules, which the match was basically wrestled under, as Michael Cole pointed out on commentary, is no joke, making the main event of Night 2 of WrestleMania 40 all the more daunting? Were the very minor cracks shown between Reigns and Rock a hint at things to come moving forward, with the potential for things to grow worse and worse on Night 2 until Johnson decides to help out Rhodes in order to end the reign of Roman?

For better or worse, WWE didn't have a blank slate to work with in the main event of WrestleMania 40; The Rock was clearly limited in his in-ring abilities, as most of the offense he received was, shall we say, of house show quality instead of something out of Josh Barnett's Bloodsport. Still, putting a majority of the match outside of the ring is a good way to get in some offense without having to sell much more than punches, and left Rocky looking a whole lot better than if he was asked to wrestle a technical spectacle against Rollins like his bout against Logan Paul last year in Los Angeles. If the goal of the match was to make The Rock look like a star and to make Rhodes look like he has the toughest road ahead of him, then ultimately, Triple H and WWE checked both boxes.