Marc the Smark
05-02-2004, 02:32 AM
Now just to let everyone know, I did not write this, but see what you think...
(It's long, but well written, and could create an interesting discussion.)
The Rock undoubtedly has IT. He has the body (6’5, 225lbs). He has the charisma. He brings an unparalleled energy into the squared circle. As a 3rd generation superstar, he was born into the business. He started out as Rocky Maivia and pushed as the supreme babyface. What did he get? “Die Rocky Die” chants. After becoming “The Rock”, he has accomplished what few can even fathom. He is a 7 time WWE champion, 2 time Intercontinental champion and a 4 time tag-team champion with 3 different partners (twice with Mankind in the Rock’n Sock Connection and one reign with Jericho and Undertaker. He won the 2000 Royal Rumble and has Main-Evented FIVE Wrestlemanias. (He was in the title match at WM15-16-17 and was in THE match with Hogan at 18. Austin/Rock was the biggest draw at WM19). There are few, if any, things he has yet to accomplish in the wrestling business.
Because of all that, we have to ask ourselves: Is the Rock the greatest ever? I think he must be considered in the Top 5, possibly in the Top 3. There are some things that no one wrestler in the history of this industry has accomplished that Rock has.
He is the only successful wrestler/actor. Hulk Hogan and Stone Cold Steve Austin, WWF’s top faces at the time, bombed. Rock is now a celebrity. This has upset a lot of people. They feel betrayed by the Rock, as if he turned his back on them. I say that is false on a lot of levels. Let’s not compare the Rock to Chyna who thought she could be a superstar without the publicity machine that is the WWE. Chyna, after leaving and burning any possible bridge back, was initially in a few magazines, but is now all but forgotten. Rock, on the other hand, has done everything right. After getting Vince McMahon’s approval, he went to Hollywood and conquered it. He has starred in his own movie, therefore getting mainstream appeal to the WWE which seems to be lost upon the IWC community. We have to remember that the Rock hasn’t ONLY filmed the Scorpion King, but hosted SNL as well. This may not seem as a big deal, but SNL is an extremely popular show and surely generated interest amongst the “hip” crowd. The Rock has come back every time the WWE has asked him to. He is loyal to the company that give him his shot and that has made him famous. Should he be attacked for doing what any man would have done? Absolutely not. The Rock wants to do both, so he does it. Power to him. No one understands what the Rock goes through as he’s the only one with enough talent to pull this off correctly. Considering that acting pays more, is safer and he gets to see his family more, it’s a wonder why he does any wrestling at all. Why does he still do it then? Because he loves the business. He will come back and re-inspire us. In 2003, when was wrestling at its best? When Rock was there. RAW from WM to Backlash was great. After the loss to Goldberg, there was a void missing….no one was able to fill it. As wrestling fans, we all want Rock to appear on the shows. However, as human beings, we must respect the man’s choice. If given the same choice as him, I would take acting in an heartbeat.
Now, onto more wrasslin. I have seen the greatest matches of the greatest wrestlers in the Big 3, seen the Rock since he’s big push at Survivor Series 1998 and I have arrived at one conclusion about the Rock: No man has brought more energy to a WWE ring. Say what you want about his wrestling ability, but this man knows the in-works of a wrestling match. Of course, no one will confuse him with the Steamboats, Flairs and Harts of the world, but none of those men brought the same aura as he did to the ring. When he saw those men wrestle, we knew we’d see a good match, no matter the opponent. With Rocky, you know you’re getting a good match, but for not for the same reasons. You were in awe of Bret’s masterful psychology (excluding WM12), but you also love the Rock’s enthusiasm. Rock makes everyone look golden. He has the ability to make you look like a main-eventer despite being a mid-carder. He’s the Ric Flair of our generation without the excellent mat skills.
Quite a few people complain about his lack of mat prowess. I cringe every time he butchers the sharpshooter. In fact, I wonder if Vince asked him to use it on a regular basis after seeing Rock apply once to mock Bret. He doesn’t even sell very well. Example: Benoit is working on Rock’s ribs. Rocky, at least, holds his ribs as he and Benoit exchange blows. Benoit missed a closeline and Rocky hits a Belly to Belly. That’s not selling well as hitting a belly-to-belly depends on core (which is back-stomach) strength which Benoit has pounded the entire match. To make matters worse, Rock gets up doing his flip thing to show that he’s still in the match. Again, that completely disregards everything that Benoit has done in the match. Rocky may be a great bumper, but he can’t sell at all. However, this creates SUPER ROCK. Rocky loses to everyone, but it takes every finisher and the kitchen sink to put him down for the three count. This leads to one thing that he has done better than any Main-Eventer in history: put people over.
Rock became a Main-Eventer in November 1998. We’re in mid-2003. In 5 years, he’s put over virtually every new Main-Eventer. What’s the first big feud he was in? With Mankind. Foley finally won a championship. No one believed Foley was championship material after that point, yet Rocky gave him the belt. HBK and Austin never would have done that (HBK doesn’t lose the belt, he vacates it or Austin would have had the entire locker room hit him with chairs). Rocky/Mankind then had a feud that established him as a Main-Eventer after the brutal “I Quit’ match at the RR, Halftime heat match and the Ladder Match on RAW. After losing to Austin at back-to-back PPVs, he was cut loose by the Corporation, then lost to Taker in his first title match since turning face at KOTR99. Another loss followed at the hands of HHH (who was getting an equally big push as a heel) in a strap match at Fully Loaded. Rocky kept on losing the big matches (which is a recurring theme in his career), yet he was the #2 face in the company behind Austin. That’s a testament to Rocky’s ability. He then drew the bad card. He was forced into a program with Billy Gunn in the effort to put the guy over. At Summerslam, as the #2 match on the card, Gunn dropped the ball and the match bombed. He then got a quick mini-feud with Chris Jericho who made his debut on RAW interrupting a Rock promo. Rocky beat Jericho on a RAW match later that month, but Jericho seemed important (however, he was stuck with feuds with Shamrock, X-Pac and Road Dogg). Then, the Rock’n Sock Connection came about. In my opinion, that made Rocky HUGE. “Rock, This is your life” is the highest rated segment in RAW history. After tag-team reigns, he finally broke away from it and was part of Survivor Series 99 in the surprise night where Austin got injured and would be out for 10 months and the Big Show won the WWF championship. Rock became the #1 Face in the company. He carried it very well. I’ll stop the history lesson right now since the majority of you, most likely, remember 2000 to present. Here’s a quick list of people he has put over
- Kurt Angle. No Mercy 2000
- Chris Jericho. No Mercy 2001 -Vengeance 2001- Royal Rumble 2002 –
- Brock Lesnar. Summerslam 2002
Those are three of the biggest names in the sport. What other new Main-Eventer is there? None. Why? Only Rock puts people over. Heck, even Hurricane(Shane Helms) has beaten Rock. It’s incredible when you consider the next point: He never wins the big matches.
What’s the biggest PPV? WrestleMania. He lost in the Main-Events of WM15-16-17. That’s downright horrible. He finally got rid of that stigma by beating Hogan and Austin at WM18-19 respectively, but, for awhile, he had that WM choker status. Since January 1999, he is 15-17 in Main-Events (and #1 contender matches). That’s low considering he’s the company’s biggest draw. That doesn’t even count all the RAW/SD! losses he has (Benoit-Hurricane-Booker T). You’re probably asking yourselves how Rock is as over as he does without getting the rub from the bookers. That brings us to our next point: he’s GOD on the microphone.
As Billy Gunn found out the hard way, you better be able to but killer promos or downright incredible in the ring to be able to feud with Rocky (which is why Benoit did ok in his mini-feud with Rock). Rock completely killed any heat Gunn had with the “Hi God, my name is Billy” promo. As fans, we all loved that promo as it was hilarious and it destroyed any momentum Gunn had after winning the now defunct King of the Ring therefore ending his push.
I think we all agree that Rock made a name for himself due to his earlier work in the NOD and then Corporate Rock cutting killer promos. Since I found Corporate Rock more entertaining, I’ll develop on that. Rocky, after that surprising win at Survivor Series, started, in my opinion, to really take off promo wise. He brought that cocky heel to a whole new level. His insults, at the time, were fresh and the fans loved every minute of it. The problem was that he was a heel and heels can’t be cheered. Rocky tried to make the fans stop cheering with “This ain’t sing-a-long with the Rock”, but that didn’t work. It’s also worthy to point that Rock was cutting better promos than fellow stable members Vince McMahon and Shane McMahon. I firmly believe that to get Rocky over as a heel they had to do something…enter Mick Foley. Mankind was what Rock needed. A face with a big following that could get Rock over as a heel. Although Nitro spoiled the ending for us (thank you Mr.Bischoff), Rocky lost the title to Mankind in one of the most emotional Raw is history. At the Royal Rumble in an “I Quit”, Rocky finally became a heel. He unleashed a fury of rage and anger that was sometimes hard to look at as Foley took chair shot after chair shot after chair shot. Fans loved Rocky for his promos, but they couldn’t respect him for what he did to their hero Foley. Rocky then cut some serious promos again which made him a true ME heel. Why is all this so important? Because for Austin/Rock to be a success, they needed Rock to be just that…a credible threat.
Now, there are two promos I want to talk about. To begin with, arguably the biggest debut in the history of wrestling, Jericho’s debut on RAW. Jericho was well-known in WCW for his ability to cut great promos and upon his entry to the WWF, he didn’t disappoint. What started off as cheers quickly turned to jeers as Jericho displayed his natural heel ability. The self-proclaimed millennium man then got interrupted by the People’s Champion…Then something strange happened: Rock had, for the first time, a legit opponent on the microphone. Every time Rocky hit something Jericho was right on cue. Of course, Rock looked better at the end, but Jericho might have been the first opponent that wasn’t made a complete fool out of (yes, I’m aware of his feud with Austin…believe it or not, I felt Austin looked good against McMahon, but bad against Rock). The second promo is the famous “I am not a joke” promo that Chris Jericho cut on the SD! before the Royal Rumble. Why is this an important part? For the first time in his entire career, Rock was speechless. Jericho had just cut the best promo of his life and the great Rocky couldn’t do anything. I feel it’s important because Rock finally showed some vulnerability in the area that he had been dominating for the past two years. Obviously, Rock did say something to recapture his composure. After that, I feel that Rock’s promos have slightly changed. They may still be very arrogant, but that invincibility factor isn’t there (see the Raw after No Way Out against Hogan)…
Now, let’s talk about the most important aspect of wrestling…the matches. There are three major matches, in my opinion, that define Rock’s career “I Quit” with Mankind, WM17 with Stone Cold Steve Austin and No Mercy 2001 with Chris Jericho. They all represent different “phases” of wrestling. I’ve already discussed Rock’s match with Foley, so there’s no point in reliving it. However, just keep in mind that it was, obviously, brutal, and was, in my opinion, his best gimmick match surpassing the Iron Man and Ladder matches with HHH. His match with Austin at WM17 is probably the best of the three wrestlemania matches. That match is sports entertainment wrestling at its finest: Lots of brawling and the always fun rest-spot-rest-spot. However, the psychology was top-notch. I always knew Austin was capable of this (thanks to his encounters with Bret Hart), but Rock had never really been at that level. Although I always appreciated Rock’s energy in the ring I never believed that he could kick it up another level and produce a MOTY candidate. I was wrong and I am thankful for that. Although I still don’t like the finish of that match, I can’t deny its greatness. Now I will discuss what I believe is Rock’s greatest match ever: No Mercy2001 with Chris Jericho. It had everything you could want: good psychology, quality wrestling, a storyline that played into the match (could Jericho pin the Rock and dispel the choker status). Jericho and Rock played off each other perfectly as each man showed off their strengths and tried their best to hide their weaknesses. The finish wasn’t clean and I thought it was acceptable as Rocky (since his Main-Event face turn) has always been the ultimate babyface as no one could pin him clean at the time. However, fans didn’t care as Jericho was a face at the time and they finally got a chance to see him win the belt that had eluded him so far in his career. I wish Jericho/Rock wrestled more often…
To finish this, we must remember that asking if someone is the greatest ever is extremely difficult as circumstances inhibit wrestlers from achieving things they so rightly deserved (Ted Dibiase comes to mind). However, Rock should be included in that list thanks to all he has done in such a short period of time. His natural talent and charisma carried him to heights that possibly no one has achieved. It’s a shame certain wrestling fans dislike him for choosing film to wrestling as they might be missing out on the biggest thing our sport has ever seen…
(It's long, but well written, and could create an interesting discussion.)
The Rock undoubtedly has IT. He has the body (6’5, 225lbs). He has the charisma. He brings an unparalleled energy into the squared circle. As a 3rd generation superstar, he was born into the business. He started out as Rocky Maivia and pushed as the supreme babyface. What did he get? “Die Rocky Die” chants. After becoming “The Rock”, he has accomplished what few can even fathom. He is a 7 time WWE champion, 2 time Intercontinental champion and a 4 time tag-team champion with 3 different partners (twice with Mankind in the Rock’n Sock Connection and one reign with Jericho and Undertaker. He won the 2000 Royal Rumble and has Main-Evented FIVE Wrestlemanias. (He was in the title match at WM15-16-17 and was in THE match with Hogan at 18. Austin/Rock was the biggest draw at WM19). There are few, if any, things he has yet to accomplish in the wrestling business.
Because of all that, we have to ask ourselves: Is the Rock the greatest ever? I think he must be considered in the Top 5, possibly in the Top 3. There are some things that no one wrestler in the history of this industry has accomplished that Rock has.
He is the only successful wrestler/actor. Hulk Hogan and Stone Cold Steve Austin, WWF’s top faces at the time, bombed. Rock is now a celebrity. This has upset a lot of people. They feel betrayed by the Rock, as if he turned his back on them. I say that is false on a lot of levels. Let’s not compare the Rock to Chyna who thought she could be a superstar without the publicity machine that is the WWE. Chyna, after leaving and burning any possible bridge back, was initially in a few magazines, but is now all but forgotten. Rock, on the other hand, has done everything right. After getting Vince McMahon’s approval, he went to Hollywood and conquered it. He has starred in his own movie, therefore getting mainstream appeal to the WWE which seems to be lost upon the IWC community. We have to remember that the Rock hasn’t ONLY filmed the Scorpion King, but hosted SNL as well. This may not seem as a big deal, but SNL is an extremely popular show and surely generated interest amongst the “hip” crowd. The Rock has come back every time the WWE has asked him to. He is loyal to the company that give him his shot and that has made him famous. Should he be attacked for doing what any man would have done? Absolutely not. The Rock wants to do both, so he does it. Power to him. No one understands what the Rock goes through as he’s the only one with enough talent to pull this off correctly. Considering that acting pays more, is safer and he gets to see his family more, it’s a wonder why he does any wrestling at all. Why does he still do it then? Because he loves the business. He will come back and re-inspire us. In 2003, when was wrestling at its best? When Rock was there. RAW from WM to Backlash was great. After the loss to Goldberg, there was a void missing….no one was able to fill it. As wrestling fans, we all want Rock to appear on the shows. However, as human beings, we must respect the man’s choice. If given the same choice as him, I would take acting in an heartbeat.
Now, onto more wrasslin. I have seen the greatest matches of the greatest wrestlers in the Big 3, seen the Rock since he’s big push at Survivor Series 1998 and I have arrived at one conclusion about the Rock: No man has brought more energy to a WWE ring. Say what you want about his wrestling ability, but this man knows the in-works of a wrestling match. Of course, no one will confuse him with the Steamboats, Flairs and Harts of the world, but none of those men brought the same aura as he did to the ring. When he saw those men wrestle, we knew we’d see a good match, no matter the opponent. With Rocky, you know you’re getting a good match, but for not for the same reasons. You were in awe of Bret’s masterful psychology (excluding WM12), but you also love the Rock’s enthusiasm. Rock makes everyone look golden. He has the ability to make you look like a main-eventer despite being a mid-carder. He’s the Ric Flair of our generation without the excellent mat skills.
Quite a few people complain about his lack of mat prowess. I cringe every time he butchers the sharpshooter. In fact, I wonder if Vince asked him to use it on a regular basis after seeing Rock apply once to mock Bret. He doesn’t even sell very well. Example: Benoit is working on Rock’s ribs. Rocky, at least, holds his ribs as he and Benoit exchange blows. Benoit missed a closeline and Rocky hits a Belly to Belly. That’s not selling well as hitting a belly-to-belly depends on core (which is back-stomach) strength which Benoit has pounded the entire match. To make matters worse, Rock gets up doing his flip thing to show that he’s still in the match. Again, that completely disregards everything that Benoit has done in the match. Rocky may be a great bumper, but he can’t sell at all. However, this creates SUPER ROCK. Rocky loses to everyone, but it takes every finisher and the kitchen sink to put him down for the three count. This leads to one thing that he has done better than any Main-Eventer in history: put people over.
Rock became a Main-Eventer in November 1998. We’re in mid-2003. In 5 years, he’s put over virtually every new Main-Eventer. What’s the first big feud he was in? With Mankind. Foley finally won a championship. No one believed Foley was championship material after that point, yet Rocky gave him the belt. HBK and Austin never would have done that (HBK doesn’t lose the belt, he vacates it or Austin would have had the entire locker room hit him with chairs). Rocky/Mankind then had a feud that established him as a Main-Eventer after the brutal “I Quit’ match at the RR, Halftime heat match and the Ladder Match on RAW. After losing to Austin at back-to-back PPVs, he was cut loose by the Corporation, then lost to Taker in his first title match since turning face at KOTR99. Another loss followed at the hands of HHH (who was getting an equally big push as a heel) in a strap match at Fully Loaded. Rocky kept on losing the big matches (which is a recurring theme in his career), yet he was the #2 face in the company behind Austin. That’s a testament to Rocky’s ability. He then drew the bad card. He was forced into a program with Billy Gunn in the effort to put the guy over. At Summerslam, as the #2 match on the card, Gunn dropped the ball and the match bombed. He then got a quick mini-feud with Chris Jericho who made his debut on RAW interrupting a Rock promo. Rocky beat Jericho on a RAW match later that month, but Jericho seemed important (however, he was stuck with feuds with Shamrock, X-Pac and Road Dogg). Then, the Rock’n Sock Connection came about. In my opinion, that made Rocky HUGE. “Rock, This is your life” is the highest rated segment in RAW history. After tag-team reigns, he finally broke away from it and was part of Survivor Series 99 in the surprise night where Austin got injured and would be out for 10 months and the Big Show won the WWF championship. Rock became the #1 Face in the company. He carried it very well. I’ll stop the history lesson right now since the majority of you, most likely, remember 2000 to present. Here’s a quick list of people he has put over
- Kurt Angle. No Mercy 2000
- Chris Jericho. No Mercy 2001 -Vengeance 2001- Royal Rumble 2002 –
- Brock Lesnar. Summerslam 2002
Those are three of the biggest names in the sport. What other new Main-Eventer is there? None. Why? Only Rock puts people over. Heck, even Hurricane(Shane Helms) has beaten Rock. It’s incredible when you consider the next point: He never wins the big matches.
What’s the biggest PPV? WrestleMania. He lost in the Main-Events of WM15-16-17. That’s downright horrible. He finally got rid of that stigma by beating Hogan and Austin at WM18-19 respectively, but, for awhile, he had that WM choker status. Since January 1999, he is 15-17 in Main-Events (and #1 contender matches). That’s low considering he’s the company’s biggest draw. That doesn’t even count all the RAW/SD! losses he has (Benoit-Hurricane-Booker T). You’re probably asking yourselves how Rock is as over as he does without getting the rub from the bookers. That brings us to our next point: he’s GOD on the microphone.
As Billy Gunn found out the hard way, you better be able to but killer promos or downright incredible in the ring to be able to feud with Rocky (which is why Benoit did ok in his mini-feud with Rock). Rock completely killed any heat Gunn had with the “Hi God, my name is Billy” promo. As fans, we all loved that promo as it was hilarious and it destroyed any momentum Gunn had after winning the now defunct King of the Ring therefore ending his push.
I think we all agree that Rock made a name for himself due to his earlier work in the NOD and then Corporate Rock cutting killer promos. Since I found Corporate Rock more entertaining, I’ll develop on that. Rocky, after that surprising win at Survivor Series, started, in my opinion, to really take off promo wise. He brought that cocky heel to a whole new level. His insults, at the time, were fresh and the fans loved every minute of it. The problem was that he was a heel and heels can’t be cheered. Rocky tried to make the fans stop cheering with “This ain’t sing-a-long with the Rock”, but that didn’t work. It’s also worthy to point that Rock was cutting better promos than fellow stable members Vince McMahon and Shane McMahon. I firmly believe that to get Rocky over as a heel they had to do something…enter Mick Foley. Mankind was what Rock needed. A face with a big following that could get Rock over as a heel. Although Nitro spoiled the ending for us (thank you Mr.Bischoff), Rocky lost the title to Mankind in one of the most emotional Raw is history. At the Royal Rumble in an “I Quit”, Rocky finally became a heel. He unleashed a fury of rage and anger that was sometimes hard to look at as Foley took chair shot after chair shot after chair shot. Fans loved Rocky for his promos, but they couldn’t respect him for what he did to their hero Foley. Rocky then cut some serious promos again which made him a true ME heel. Why is all this so important? Because for Austin/Rock to be a success, they needed Rock to be just that…a credible threat.
Now, there are two promos I want to talk about. To begin with, arguably the biggest debut in the history of wrestling, Jericho’s debut on RAW. Jericho was well-known in WCW for his ability to cut great promos and upon his entry to the WWF, he didn’t disappoint. What started off as cheers quickly turned to jeers as Jericho displayed his natural heel ability. The self-proclaimed millennium man then got interrupted by the People’s Champion…Then something strange happened: Rock had, for the first time, a legit opponent on the microphone. Every time Rocky hit something Jericho was right on cue. Of course, Rock looked better at the end, but Jericho might have been the first opponent that wasn’t made a complete fool out of (yes, I’m aware of his feud with Austin…believe it or not, I felt Austin looked good against McMahon, but bad against Rock). The second promo is the famous “I am not a joke” promo that Chris Jericho cut on the SD! before the Royal Rumble. Why is this an important part? For the first time in his entire career, Rock was speechless. Jericho had just cut the best promo of his life and the great Rocky couldn’t do anything. I feel it’s important because Rock finally showed some vulnerability in the area that he had been dominating for the past two years. Obviously, Rock did say something to recapture his composure. After that, I feel that Rock’s promos have slightly changed. They may still be very arrogant, but that invincibility factor isn’t there (see the Raw after No Way Out against Hogan)…
Now, let’s talk about the most important aspect of wrestling…the matches. There are three major matches, in my opinion, that define Rock’s career “I Quit” with Mankind, WM17 with Stone Cold Steve Austin and No Mercy 2001 with Chris Jericho. They all represent different “phases” of wrestling. I’ve already discussed Rock’s match with Foley, so there’s no point in reliving it. However, just keep in mind that it was, obviously, brutal, and was, in my opinion, his best gimmick match surpassing the Iron Man and Ladder matches with HHH. His match with Austin at WM17 is probably the best of the three wrestlemania matches. That match is sports entertainment wrestling at its finest: Lots of brawling and the always fun rest-spot-rest-spot. However, the psychology was top-notch. I always knew Austin was capable of this (thanks to his encounters with Bret Hart), but Rock had never really been at that level. Although I always appreciated Rock’s energy in the ring I never believed that he could kick it up another level and produce a MOTY candidate. I was wrong and I am thankful for that. Although I still don’t like the finish of that match, I can’t deny its greatness. Now I will discuss what I believe is Rock’s greatest match ever: No Mercy2001 with Chris Jericho. It had everything you could want: good psychology, quality wrestling, a storyline that played into the match (could Jericho pin the Rock and dispel the choker status). Jericho and Rock played off each other perfectly as each man showed off their strengths and tried their best to hide their weaknesses. The finish wasn’t clean and I thought it was acceptable as Rocky (since his Main-Event face turn) has always been the ultimate babyface as no one could pin him clean at the time. However, fans didn’t care as Jericho was a face at the time and they finally got a chance to see him win the belt that had eluded him so far in his career. I wish Jericho/Rock wrestled more often…
To finish this, we must remember that asking if someone is the greatest ever is extremely difficult as circumstances inhibit wrestlers from achieving things they so rightly deserved (Ted Dibiase comes to mind). However, Rock should be included in that list thanks to all he has done in such a short period of time. His natural talent and charisma carried him to heights that possibly no one has achieved. It’s a shame certain wrestling fans dislike him for choosing film to wrestling as they might be missing out on the biggest thing our sport has ever seen…