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| It's like he's not even trying Photo Credit: WWE.com |
In the ring.
All these pre-recorded promos they're playing on the TitanTron? They're utter bullshit. Okay, I take part of it back. They're not bullshit in and of themselves. The Rock still has "brought it" on those pre-taped promos, but only in a sense that they'd play out really well for the most part on Youtube or WWE.com. However, in front of a live audience? No, not at all. Coupled with the fact that last night's promo was BY FAR his weakest offering ever since he came back in February, the whole main event angle for Survivor Series (not kidding myself, del Rio/Punk may be for the title, but much like at WrestleMania next year, it's not going to be the main thrust) right now is tied up in a story that might be worth telling but isn't being executed satisfactorily right now.
As much as some people want to blame last night's crowd on it being Atlanta and never a great city for crowds in general (which I call bullshit on, because Atlanta wasn't the home base for a successful region and then a national promotion out of convenience alone), a crowd can't be expected to get up for everything if they're not being given top grade material. WWE didn't give that crowd a great start to the show. The attention of the crowd was not placed at the natural center of the arena, it was placed at a point where many fans had to turn around and strain to watch. That's not a trivial factor. Also, Rocky is one of the best guys ever at playing a crowd and structuring a well-paced promo so as to maximize interplay, and boom, that weapon is taken out of his arsenal. OF COURSE it's going to fall flat with those constraints at play.
The question then becomes why WWE isn't doing more to bring The Rock into the arenas when he has to respond to people. He's a big important movie star, that much is known, but let's not act like WWE HAS to bring The Rock in because he's the only possible guy who could make their product vibrant again. They're bringing him in because they fucked up in building new stars, and now, they're panicking. So they're at the whims of a guy who gets paid better money at a lower risk to shoot the GI Joe sequel or dress up in a tutu and prance around in Disney movies while brazenly implying that John Cena is gay for his colorful attire (not an indictment of Rock being gay as being bad, more an indictment of Rock as being a fucking hypocrite in this scenario and maybe him backing off the homophobic slurs because being gay is okay, even if John Cena was gay at all).
That being said, if Rock was really that dedicated to putting on a great feud and telling a great story, then maybe he should do more to make time to be there on RAW once a week and be there, in the ring, doing what he does best. Doing it via satellite is a cheap imitation and limits his efficacy, but live? Yeah, live, not many people are better at handling the stick and playing the crowd. It's too easy to blame all this on WWE, because it's not like Rock is someone like Alan Tudyk or Bryan Cox or some other "that guy" actor. He's a leading man starring in high grossing flicks, and that means he has to have some autonomy.
So, he can go out there and preach about how much he loves WWE and the WWE Universe and all his millions and millions of fans worldwide, but his actions are speaking way louder. If he loved us, then he wouldn't phone in pre-taped appearances. He'd show up live. If he was too busy, well, we might understand if his appearances were limited. I don't know about you though, because I feel like I'd rather see him at his best or not see him at all at this point. There are guys on the roster who do their thing way too good and who put way too much effort into presenting that than to have The Rock come off as a Hollywood phony.
And again, I say this because I like Rocky. I'm still genuinely excited to see him wrestle at Survivor Series, story be damned. That's what makes shit like last night that much more intolerable.
