QUESTION - If everyone "acted" heelish (and let the fans react however they wanted)..

[Heyman]

Originally Posted by Know Your Role

At Summerslam 02', The Rock got flat out booed against Brock Lesnar. Earlier that year when The Rock fought Angle and Taker in a triple threat match for the Undisputed heavyweight title, the crowd was pro-Angle. The Rock almost generated as much heat as Undertaker.

At Wrestlemania 18 earlier that year, almost everyone cheered Hogan against The Rock.

The Rock's decrease in popularity may have been accelerated by other factors as well (i.e. the fans realizing that The Rock would never be a full-time wrestler again). However - the main thing that The Rock did WRONG in 2002, was he started kissing the fans' ass........a CARDINAL sin (he was actually doing this in mid/late 2001, but the fans still loved The Rock based on his past reputation).

The absolute "Rock Bottom" for The Rock (as a face), was during the Awards Night (greatest in the last decade?). This might have been in early 2003 however. The Rock cut a promo from Hollywood, and used material on Stephanie McMahon that was "original" in 2001. During that promo, The Rock received almost ZERO crowd reaction and got a few boo's.


So - to answer you 'WTF' smilie, I believe that The Rock had clearly become stale for all of the above reasons.

[KYR]

Originally Posted by Heyman At Summerslam 02', The Rock got flat out booed against Brock Lesnar. Earlier that year when The Rock fought Angle and Taker in a triple threat match for the Undisputed heavyweight title, the crowd was pro-Angle. The Rock almost generated as much heat as Undertaker. At Wrestlemania 18 earlier that year, almost everyone cheered Hogan against The Rock. The Rock's decrease in popularity may have been accelerated by other factors as well (i.e. the fans realizing that The Rock would never be a full-time wrestler again). However - the main thing that The Rock did WRONG in 2002, was he started kissing the fans' ass........a CARDINAL sin (he was actually doing this in mid/late 2001, but the fans still loved The Rock based on his past reputation). The absolute "Rock Bottom" for The Rock (as a face), was during the Awards Night (greatest in the last decade?). This might have been in early 2003 however. The Rock cut a promo from Hollywood, and used material on Stephanie McMahon that was "original" in 2001. During that promo, The Rock received almost ZERO crowd reaction and got a few boo's. So - to answer you 'WTF' smilie, I believe that The Rock had clearly become stale for all of the above reasons.

Funnily enough I agree with you.

If you were to ask me who my favourite was, Face-Rock or Heel-Rock, it's a no-brainer. Heel-Rock, without a doubt was the most entertaining of all characters in the modern era (my opinion).

When Hollywood called he turned face for a while trying to win back support from the fan base who thought that he "sold out". While this would have been Vince's call, I always felt Rocky was uncomfortable with it - he knew it looked like he was sucking up.

When he then "turned" on the fans and became a heel again, he was once again entertaining - it was around this time he made the famous promos with the Hamburgler - oops sorry, the Hurricane, and even put him over on RAW. That, for me defined him as a person. I doubt Hogan would have ever agreed to have lost to a lower card wrestler in that way. The fans knew it and the fans appreciated it, and as a heel, his popularity soared again.