Columns
Morning Glory #21: The
Rocky Truth
There has been much rejoicing on the Oratory
Forums in the past few days, after it was revealed that The Rock was returning to RAW
for the next few shows. It seems that The Rock can do no wrong when it comes to wrestling
fans, smarts and marks alike. He’s certainly one of the most talented wrestlers in
the history of the sport. On the mic, nobody can touch him (though Kurt Angle and Chris
Jericho come close). In the ring, though he’s no Chris Benoit, The Rock can put on a
great match, and usually does so, most of the time. And what’s more, even though
he’s undoubtedly the biggest star that the sport has produced since the
‘80’s heyday of Hulk Hogan, he seems to have grown no ego through it. You never
hear the stories of The Rock refusing to job for certain wrestlers, demanding longer title
reigns, or more mic time. The Rock is clearly one of the most company-centered wrestlers
that the WWE has – even if he is no longer a fully active competitor, due to his
Hollywood commitments. So, you ask, why the hell am I about to attack the way he was used
by the WWE during his last brief run?
It’s easy. During his last three month run in the WWE, The Rock was incredibly
entertaining. He practically dragged RAW up from the pits that it was laying in, and made
it entertaining again. But despite all the hard work, The Rock left us with nothing after
he returned to Hollywood. He’d been entertaining, but he could’ve done so much
more. You must remember that this is not a pop at The Rock himself. Dwayne Johnson, ever
the company man, feuds with who he is told to feud with, jobs to who he is told to job to.
And it so happened, that during his last run, The Rock was programmed with the wrong
people, jobbed to the wrong people. People who didn’t need the rub that a feud with
the Great One brings. People who didn’t deserve the elevation that a job from the
People’s Champion gives. Where the WWE could’ve created two, possibly three new
stars during the three months that Rocky was available, they did not bother. Instead, The
Rock’s talent was pissed away.
It doesn’t have to be like that – witness Rock’s brief run in the Summer of
2002. The Rock returned from Hollywood, for a short three months, in which he captured the
WWE Title. At this point, the up and coming heel Brock Lesnar, a man who interested very
few people, and rarely elicited even a midcard heel reaction, was positioned as the
number-one contender to The Rock’s title. After a solid month of feuding with Rocky,
followed by a clean job from the Great One at Summerlam, Brock Lesnar had become the
hottest heel in the WWE. While it can be argued that it was the two-month with The
Undertaker that put Lesnar really over the top as a major star, there can be no doubt that
his victory over The Rock was what started the ball rolling. In the beginning of 2003,
however, it was obviously not the WWE’s intention to make another Brock Lesnar using
the rub that Rocky could offer.
The Rock returned to WWE TV at the beginning of February, on the show he had been drafted
to, Smackdown. Although he had left WWE TV in August as a face, it was clear when he
returned that the fans were less than endeared with him. They hounded him with
‘Sellout’ taunts throughout his brief appearances in the Winter of 2002, angered
by his constant trips to Hollywood, so by the time he made his proper return, it was clear
that he was to be pushed as a heel. Rock’s heel work upon return was golden. He had
the crowd eating out of the palm of his hand, and was clearly the #1 heel on Smackdown. So
did the WWE programme him with an up-and-coming face? No. They decided to main event
February’s No Way Out PPV with a re-run of the match that had been so successful at
Wrestlemania X8, almost a year beforehand. Rock vs Hogan, Part II. The match, of course,
was an abortion. With a lot less hype (and fan interest) than the original Rock/Hogan
clash, it didn’t have the ‘special’ feel, and became even more tarnished
when Vince McMahon interjected himself into the finish, ‘screwing’ Hogan, and
making the match simply a tool in the McMahon/Hogan feud.
The Rock’s heel skills on Smackdown had been wasted away on a feud between two middle
aged men, that very few people actually wanted to see. But it didn’t really matter
that much – The Rock soon jumped to RAW, just in time to set up a huge feud for the
upcoming Wrestlemania XIX PPV. The Rock’s first night on RAW was undoubtedly stellar.
While he didn’t actually set up a feud for himself going into Wrestlemania, he helped
to set up another, as he put Booker T over cleanly in the Battle Royal to decide a
Number-One Contender to the World Title held by HHH. Booker had benefited from the rub
offered by The Rock – but would anyone else? Two more lower card stars would
eventually benefit – one of which I’ll talk about in a while. Firstly though, I
will give The Rock, and the WWE, credit for giving Christian a much-needed rub. While his
push didn’t automatically begin after The Rock’s peptalk about Christian being
the ‘New People’s Champion’, the association helped him greatly, and
eventually he would ride the push to the Intercontinental Title.
The Rock’s designated feud turned out to be a re-hash of his famous feud with
‘Stone Cold’ Steve Austin. The feud that had been the WWE’s major
moneyspinner during the latter years of the Attitude Era. The feud, and subsequent match
that had main evented two Wrestlemanias, one of which was arguably the biggest and best of
all time. However, 2003’s version of Rock-Austin came nowhere near to living up to
the standards set by its predecessors. Austin, fresh from returning from his own hiatus,
was a shell of the man he used to be, both in the ring and in character. While he received
a large pop for his actual return, in the subsequent weeks the crowd seemed apathetic
towards him, and his feud with The Rock did no good in helping that. The angles they
pulled off on RAW (Austin wrecking Rock’s guitar, etc) were throwbacks to the late
90’s, and just didn’t offer the fans what they wanted. The Wrestlemania match
itself was also a horrible disappointment, as it failed to reach the incredibly high
standard the two men set at Wrestlemania XVII.
As I suggested in my column ’Morning
Glory #13 :Marquee Matches My Arse!’, both Rock and Austin could have been better
used at Wrestlemania XIX, specifically by putting over two up and coming higher midcarders
who actually needed the rub. In this column, I suggested Chris Benoit and Rob Van Dam, but
to be honest, it could’ve been anyone. Eddie Guerrero, Rhyno, John Cena, it
wouldn’t have mattered. The WWE felt they needed the draw that a Rock-Austin match
provided. While they may have been right in believing that the two men draw, what they
failed to realize is that they would’ve drawn regardless of their opponent on the
card – and may have drawn more, because the fans wouldn’t have had to put up
with a rehash feud. Rock-Austin, to me, and to many, many others was a disappointment. I
was just glad it didn’t actually main event Wrestlemania. Again, Rock’s rub had
been wasted on a former star – a man who didn’t need it.
Some will argue, however, that during the Austin feud, The Rock DID give a huge rub
to a lower card personality. They’d be right. Because while the Austin feud was going
on, Rock was working in backstage segments, and finally a match with the lower midcarder
Shane ‘Hurricane’ Helms. Don’t get me wrong – Shane Helms is a great
wrestler, one of the best all-rounders on the WWE roster. He has an exciting moveset, can
sell well, and gets the crowd involved in his matches. However, he has a HUGE minus
against him right now, and that is the early 90’s throwback, joke of a gimmick,
‘The Hurricane’. Helms plays a ‘superhero’, and while the gimmick is
often funny to watch, and also entertaining, in a comedic way, while Helms is saddled with
it, he will never reach the main event. I can guarantee that while Helms is under the
‘Hurricane’ gimmick, he will never be a draw in the wrestling business, and he
will never sell a ticket. I like Helms as a wrestler, but this is just a fact. Rock gave
Helms a huge rub, which helped him a lot – but in the long run, because it was given
to nothing more than a comedy act, again, the rub was wasted.
Which brings us to the final feud that The Rock had during his last WWE run. The feud that
people had supposedly anticipated for years. The Rock vs Goldberg. Although this feud
WASN’T the anticipated one (everyone wanted Austin-Goldberg) if done the right way,
The Rock vs Goldberg could’ve been entertaining. The Rock was built strongly at
Wrestlemania with a clean win over Austin, and when Goldberg debuted on the RAW after that
PPV, with a spear to The Rock, things appeared to be heading in the right direction.
However, the WWE badly misjudged something. They thought that, even after years of
desecrating the memory of WCW, and before that, poking fun at the company at every given
chance (Gillberg anyone?), their fans would accept Goldberg as the big babyface saviour.
They were wrong. The WWE may have thought that Goldberg did not need the rub from The
Rock, but for all intents and purposes, he needed it more than anyone.
The best way to play the feud would’ve been for Goldberg to run through some
midcarders, while Rock ran scared, before finally being cornered at the Backlash PPV. The
WWE inexplicably decided that Rock needed to be built strongly in order for Goldberg to
make the best of the match, and made Rock look superior to Goldberg on nearly every show
leading into the event, all the while Rock playing a ‘cool heel’ who didn’t
seem to take Goldberg as a real threat anyhow. I won’t blame The Rock for this –
the WWE booked him into the role, in a huge mistake. The ‘cool heel’ appeal of
The Rock, coupled with the facts that A) He looked superior to his opponent leading into
the PPV and  Rock is WWE, Goldberg is
‘WCW’, meant that when the match came, Rock was cheered, and Goldberg was booed
viciously. Goldberg has never really recovered from this horrible first feud, and the WWE
have already accused him of being a ‘faliure’. Rock left after this match, and
has only returned once since, in a comedy segment with Christian.
And so we arrive back to now, as we stand ready and waiting for The Rock’s imminent
RAW return, for one more brief run. From the buzz in the Forums, people are anticipating
this with a smile on their face. They are ready to welcome their hero back with open arms.
Rock will be entertaining upon his return, no doubt about it – but the question is,
will the WWE use him correctly this time? Or will they once again piss his rub away on
pointless ‘dream matches’ which do nothing for anyone, or on midcarders who will
never amount to a thing until they ditch a stupid gimmick? Will The Rock offer Rob Van
Dam, or Christian, a helping hand up the card? Or will the WWE simply hand him to the
usual suspects – Goldberg, HHH, Austin – or maybe even someone like Val Venis? I
guess we’ll find out soon enough – but one thing is for certain – judging
on The Rock’s last WWE run, things don’t look good.
Peace,
Scott Newman: scott.newman@ntlworld.com
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