"Do you smell what The Rock is cookin'?" That was the question posed for the better part of a decade by one of the great wrestlers and entertainers of our time to WWF/E fans. Many of them, myself included, ate it up. Others hated on him for God knows what reason. Whatever side of the fence you're on though, you can't deny that the WWE feels emptier without him.Yes, Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson was a larger-than-life presence every time he stepped into the arena and headed down to the squared circle. That presence will eventually make at least a one-night return, as Rock has said he will eventually host an episode of RAW. The void will be filled for one night, he'll probably cut an amazing promo like he did on the Smackdown 10th Anniversary special. He'll call someone a jabroni. He'll interact with Triple H no doubt, perhaps The Miz, Chris Jericho and the Big Show. He may or may not wrestle, but they'll probably give him the opportunity to drop the People's Elbow or shoot a Rock Bottom.
But what if he were to show up at next week's RAW like he was still an employee of the WWE because he has been one for all this time? It's a what-if scenario, folks. What if the Rock didn't go on to make movies and stayed as a full-time wrestler, or even as a part-time wrestler, part-time actor? How would the course of history have changed? The short answer:
The Rock would already be considered as the best professional wrestler of all-time.
Don't do a double-take. I'm dead serious. Rocky was already on his way to getting there before he discovered that Hollywood studios would pay him ungodly amounts of money to put his body through far less strain than he was already undergoing on a yearly basis. I contend that it would be far more asinine to think that Rocky wouldn't be the most revered and respected pro wrestler of all time if he were appearing regularly on a continual basis than the opposite. Let's look at the reasons:
He's one of the best, if not the best, promo man of all-time
Quick, name ten guys better on the stick than The Rock. If you can, I'm either calling bullshit or questioning how much of The Rock you've ever seen. Very few are in his stratusphere. Mick Foley, Hulk Hogan and Jim Cornette are three that I think are solidly in his class. Anyone else and we start to debate. I mean, this isn't to demean anyone else who's legitimately great on the microphone. I have no doubts that Ted DiBiase, Ric Flair, Randy Savage, Vince McMahon, Shane Douglas and others were excellent when they were cutting promos. Still, it's a testament to how awesome Rock was rather than how middling the other guys were (or in this case, weren't)
Tone and pitch came perfectly to him. He knew how to talk, how to speak in a way where he'd get the crowd so riled up, even if he were just reading ingredients off the back of a bottle of Pepsi Throwback. Most of the time though, he had something of substance to say. He was the best shit-talker in wrestling history. There was none other. His quick wit offered him ready jabs at targets from The Big Show to the Hurricane.
And he was versatile. He could get a crowd to hate him as easily as he could get them to love him. This made him programmable against anyone. He was smart about it too. He could sense when the crowd was turning on him and supporting the other guy. It didn't matter if he was pandering to the crowd or telling them to stop playing sing-along, Rock was the best heel or face promo the WWF/E ever had.
He was one of the best, if not the best wrestler on the roster in his time there
This is where I expect to hear the most complaining. "Oh, Rocky only had five moves." "Oh, the People's Elbow was stupid." "Oh, Rock oversold." "Oh, Rock's Sharpshooter sucked." To that I say IT DOESN'T MATTER WHAT YOU THINK SUCKS ABOUT THE ROCK! Seriously, it doesn't. Most criticisms of The Rock are baseless and ignore what make a wrestling match great. First, let's start off with the moveset.
The most frequent complaint amongst the AOL Chatroom crowd was that because Rock only had a few moves he'd do on a regular basis instead of the millions and millions of moves that Steve Aus... no, wait, Austin did fewer wrestling moves and was all punchy-kicky for his tenure in the WWF. Oh yeah, Bret Hart had a lot of... no, actually he didn't. In fact, the term "Five Moves of Doom" originated to describe Hart's offense. To find a guy who did more than the moves that Rocky did on a regular basis would be to look at the WCW cruiserweights or at ECW. Clearly, the people who criticized Rock for that transgression either were ignorant to that fact or they willfully ignored it for their own agenda. The fact is that the WWF then had never been about how many moves you could stuff into a match. Even recently, as the perception of the promotion has changed, no one really does more than five or so moves during a match. The rest are punches, kicks and standard whip-and-resthold fare.
Where Rock excelled was storytelling in the ring. He could be an arrogant jerk and trash talk his opponent while he was down, which he often did in his NoD heel days as the brash, neophyte blue-chip rebel. He always put over his opponents' offense, whether it was a giant like Kane or someone smaller like Jericho. He was also very, very shrewd. Just as he could do heel or face just as well on the mic, he was very astute as to the crowds reaction to him. The best example of this was at WrestleMania 18 against Hulk Hogan. Hogan was a broken down old coot, but Rocky, in addition to having to carry the ring work in the match, sensed that the Toronto crowd was starting to root for the Hulkster. Along with the amazing job of carrying he did, what made the match so great despite Hogan's deficiencies was the way Rocky played the crowd and made them turn on him even more. I don't care if the only move that Rocky did in that match was the fucking Bronco Buster. Things like that made Rocky a stellar, stellar wrestler.
And don't give me any bullshit about his "overselling". You know who else sold and continues to sell pretty dramatically? Shawn Michaels. Yep, Shawn Michaels, a guy whom people today still fall over each other to verbally fellate for his ring skills is the king of the oversell (or at the very least the prince of it... Hogan was notorious for his dramatics as well). When I see stuff like that, and then compare matches between Rocky and HBK, it makes me wonder why people even try to claim objectivity.
And yes, while the People's Elbow was a lame move, was it any lamer than Hulking up? Or the Undertaker's patented no-sell sit up after getting hit with everything but the kitchen sink? Michaels suddenly being okay enough to kip up and deliver Sweet Chin Music after taking a shitload of damage? No, it's not. If anything, the Elbow was a perfect compliment to his character, a move that only a guy as cocky and delusional as he was would use. Yeah, it spawned other unbelievable crap, but you can't help WHAT GOT OVER. The Elbow was OVER. The Worm was OVER. The Five Knuckle Shuffle is OVER.
Quibbling about silly technicalities really confuses the issue, that The Rock more than anybody else GOT the WWF/E style. He knew how to work a nuanced match with guys that were capable of it like Angle or Austin, guys that needed their hands held bad like Goldberg and senior citizen Hogan and everyone in between. He knew how to pace a match, he knew when and where the big spots needed to be pulled out. AS was mentioned before, he was maybe the most crowd-savvy wrestler ever. Rock's in-ring intelligence coupled with his natural athletic ability put him as the best wrestler in the company by the time 2001 rolled around. He was better than He Who Shall Not Be Named (by a large margin). He was better than Jericho. Better than Trips. Better than Angle. Better than Undertaker. The only person who came close to him was Eddie Guerrero, and even then, it was Rocky decisively. Anyone else who'll tell you otherwise is a hater.
He was willing to put anyone over
The mark of a great wrestler isn't how many times he wins, but how good he looks. Rock understood that and he also understood that his heat was Teflon. He could job to anyone, give anyone a rub and the next week, he'd still be nuclear over. He knew his spot was protected, so he helped build stars in an attempt to keep the company's main event (read: money-making) stream viable and healthy. He was a team player. Now, you could argue that he could afford to be a team player, but how many times do you see a guy who has it all in terms of card position and overness who doesn't give the rub out, or who only gives it to his friends? I mean, forget the guiltiest party in this decade, look at Hulk Hogan. The biggest draw in wrestling history until Austin came around, and he weaseled his way out of putting over a strong babyface successor to him at almost every turn except with the Warrior, a guy whose mental instability had to be known throughout the locker room by the time he got to the top. Look at how many times he got cronies of his put into high positions on the card. The guy had it all, and he wouldn't share, so you can't really say that anyone in Rock's position would have done the things Rocky did.
Because he did it, he was able to help get Brock Lesnar, the Hurricane, Triple H, Mick Foley, Big Show, Kane and a few other guys get over whatever humps they were trying to get over. I mean, that's admirable, and a guy who can get both himself and everyone else over is a credit to the business.
Considering all of the above, The Rock would have dusted everyone had he stuck around in the GoAT debate
Right now, even with his limited time in the business, The Rock can be considered an all-timer, a strong candidate to be considered the greatest of all-time. He was in a ton of memorable matches. He drew money. He had killer feuds. His talents were undeniable. So with less than 10 years of service under his belt, he is in the conversation at the head of the pack. With a whole career... would he be a lock for the greatest ever? No doubt.
You can argue all you want, but longevity has a huge role in how anything is ranked. To cite Hogan again, the guy was excellent, but he was also excellent for the better part of two decades out of a career that's spanned close to four so far. Flair is another one that had peak and time. But did they have a peak as high as Rocky's (one that would have shone through even brighter had he not been subjected to Vince Russo's mockery of wrestling booking between the years of 1997 and 1999)? I don't think so. Flair was a comparable wrestler, but Rock was a way better talker. Hogan was as good an interview, but Rock was a tremendously better wrestler (even if you take into account that Hogan himself was underrated in the ring).
Alas, this is all an exercise in what might have been. Every time another movie like The Tooth Fairy comes out, the absence of the Great One stings even more than it did before. The Rock was one of a kind, and we're never gonna see another as good as he was ever again. When he hosts RAW, cherish it, because it'll be the last glimpse of Rock as a wrestler that we'll most likely ever see.
