Dwayne 'The Rock' Johnson Surprise Appearance at WWE's Bad ...

Dwayne Johnson wanted to shed his wrestling nickname when he became an actor, but Saturday night he was absolutely The Rock as he made a thunderous return to the ring!

Here's how it went down ... Roman Reigns and Cody Rhodes were celebrating their victory against Solo Sikoa and Jacob Fatu at the State Farm Arena in Georgia, when The Rock's theme song began reverberating through the arena and the crowd went wild.

As Cody held the belt over his head, The Rock appeared with his own hardware -- the People's Champion belt -- and gave Cody a blank stare as he counted down from 3 with his fingers.

Then he took the mic after the event -- "The Rock is feeling a lot of things about what he just witnessed. There's been a bunch of bulls*** that's been going on in the past six months. You want to know what The Final Boss was feeling about all that? The Final Boss will tell you, but The Final Boss will tell you when The Final Boss is ready to tell you."

It's no secret in the WWE world ... The Rock and Cody have bad blood, which was the name of Saturday's event, so it all makes sense. Get ready for something big at Wrestlemania 41.