#2 - THE ROCK
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Total Points: 473 Points
Total Votes: 25
Highest Placement: 1 (4 Votes)[/center]
Bio: Along with his father and grandfather, several members of Johnson's family are current and former professional wrestlers, including his uncles , the Wild Samoans (Afa and Sika Anoai), and cousins such as former WWF Champion Yokozuna, former WWF Tag Team Champion Rikishi and current wrestler Umaga (formerly known as Jamal). When he declared his intention to join the family business, his father resisted, but agreed to train his son himself, warning him that he would not go easy on him.[2] With help from former WWF executive and veteran wrestler Pat Patterson, Johnson secured a tryout with the WWF. Impressed by his talent and charisma, he was signed to a WWF deal after a short stint for "seasoning" in Jerry Lawler's USWA, where he wrestled under the ring names of Flex Kavana and Pidlaoan Rock.
Johnson first wrestled in the WWF as Rocky Maivia, a combination of his father and grandfather's ring names. The WWF played up his connection to his father and grandfather, calling him the first third-generation superstar to wrestle for the company. He made his wrestling debut for the WWF at the 1996 Survivor Series, becoming the sole survivor on his team. Johnson was first portrayed as a clean-cut babyface, and gained early success, winning the prestigious Intercontinental Championship after only three months. He was the first Intercontinental champion of Samoan descent. However, wrestling had changed since Hulk Hogan's heyday in the mid 80s, and fans quickly grew sick of the two-dimensional good guy character, thanks in part to the exploded popularity of Stone Cold Steve Austin. Despite often being loudly booed and jeered with chants of "Die Rocky Die!" and "Rocky Sucks" from the crowd, Johnson was forced to go to the ring and smile, as if the crowd was cheering (like they were "supposed to"). After losing the Intercontinental title to Owen Hart and returning from an injury, Johnson was allowed to turn heel and joined the Nation of Domination (a group that tried to dominate everything), spewing venom at the fans for turning on him, influenced by Johnson's real-life feelings toward the WWF audience. Now allowed to be more or less himself (Johnson has often said in interviews that The Rock is merely Dwayne Johnson with "the volume turned way up"), Rocky Maivia became The Rock.
Rocky Maivia, now known as The Rock, was a charismatic bully, eventually driving out the Nation's leader Faarooq. He spent the end of 1997 and the beginning of 1998 feuding with both Stone Cold Steve Austin and Ken Shamrock. At In Your House: Degeneration X, Austin, then reigning Intercontinental Champion, defeated the Rock in less than six minutes to retain the title. The following night, Austin was ordered by Vince McMahon to defend the title in a rematch. Austin refused to do so, and simply handed the title to The Rock before stunning him with the Stone Cold Stunner. At WrestleMania XIV, Gennifer Flowers was made a special guest interviewer, interviewing The Rock. The Rock was posed a question about how he would conduct affairs as the President of the United States. He responded by stating to her that the title “Ruler” would sound better than “President” and he would transform the White House into a Palatial Palace.
The Rock became wildly popular, establishing several much-quoted catchphrases including "If you smell what The Rock is cookin'", "Lay the Smackdown", "Take that (object) shine it up real nice, turn that sum-complain and/or rude female sideways, and stick it straight up your candy ass!", "It doesn't matter what you think!" (immediately after asking for the intervewier's opinion), "It doesnt matter what your name is!" (immediately after asking for the persons name), "Know your role, and shut your mouth!", "Don't give me all that monkey crap!, "Who is this roody pooh", ", "Jabroni" and "Just bring it!" (After which titles #2 through #4 of the five Sony PlayStation SmackDown! video games have been subtitled (WWF SmackDown! 2: Know Your Role, WWF SmackDown! Just Bring It, and WWE SmackDown! Shut Your Mouth). In essence, it was a reversal of his Rocky Maivia character, where he was cheered instead of being booed as he was "supposed to be". The Rock also became famous for referring to himself in the third person, starting many sentences with "The Rock says...", "Finally...The Rock has come back to..(city name)", and occasionally following up statements with "... or so The Rock has heard."
Johnson's popularity as The Rock propelled him to the WWF Championship at the 1998 Survivor Series at age 26. At the time, he was the youngest WWF Champion in history however Brock Lesnar later became the youngest at 25, then Randy Orton later became the youngest world champion in the WWE at 24), turning heel again and siding with Vince McMahon and Shane McMahon as the crown jewel of their "Corporation" stable. The Rock began to feud with Mankind over the WWF Championship in which the title changed back and forth between the two, first during the main event of the January 4, 1999 episode of RAW, when Mankind pinned The Rock with the help of Stone Cold Steve Austin.
The Rock once again captured the WWF Title in a bloody "I Quit" match at the 1999 Royal Rumble that saw The Rock hit Mankind in the head with a chair ten or eleven times as opposed to the agreed upon three times, knocking him unconscious and using a tape recording of Mankind saying "I quit" to trick the referee. This latest reign did not last long, however. In a match that counter-programmed the Super Bowl halftime show on January 31, 1999, Mankind pinned The Rock using a forklift in a Empty Arena Match which saw the competitors use everything from bags of popcorn to fruit to punish each other. This feud lasted until the February 15, 1999 edition of RAW, where The Rock regained the WWF Title in a Ladder Match after The Big Show chokeslammed Mankind off a ladder.
With Mankind out of the way, The Rock had to defend his World Wrestling Federation Championship at WrestleMania XV, against Stone Cold Steve Austin. The Rock lost the WWF Title to Austin at that event, and continued his feud with Austin until May 1999. WWF fans began to cheer The Rock despite being a bad guy, due to his comedic interviews and segments which mocked wrestlers and announcers. Johnson eventually made his second face turn after he betrayed Vince McMahon and established a feud with the, then heel, Undertaker and the Corporate Ministry, and would sometimes find himself fighting alongside Stone Cold Steve Austin. His feud with the Undertaker ended with a defeat at the King of the Ring.
The Rock, now a face, feuded with Mr. Ass over the summer of 1999, including an infamous "Kiss My Ass" match at that year's SummerSlam. In the fall, the Rock found himself in several WWF Championship opportunities, both in singles and tag. He teamed with now former enemy Mankind to create the "Rock 'n' Sock Connection" and won the WWF Tag Team Titles. Aside from the championships, the team was regarded as one of the most entertaining teams in recent memory, where Mankind would imitate The Rock, while The Rock would mostly ignore Mankind. The team was also involved in a segment which occurred on RAW called "This Is Your Life", in which Mankind brought out people from The Rock's past, such as his high school girlfriend and gym teacher. The segment is to this day the single highest rated segment in terms of viewership in RAW history. As a singles competitor, The Rock participated in a six-pack challenge match at WWF Unforgiven 1999.
In January 2000, The Rock entered in the WWF's annual Royal Rumble match and lasted until he and the Big Show were the final two men. In a scripted move, the Big Show was going to seemingly dump the Rock over the top rope in a running powerslam-like position, and when they got to the apron, the Rock reversed it on the Big Show, sending the BigShow to the outside floor and then coming back up with the rest of his body. Those watching the event on PPV did not see The Rock's feet hit the floor. The Big Show attempted to prove to the audience and to others, like Triple H, that the Rock's feet, not his, touched the mat first. He did manage to prove it, by providing video footage showing that he was the rightful winner. The decision that The Rock had won the Rumble match could not be reversed, so a number one contendership match at No Way Out 2000 was held, which saw the Big Show come out on top after Shane McMahon interfered, knocking The Rock in the head with a steel chair as he attempted to finish off his opponent with the Rock Bottom. The Rock later defeated The Big Show on March 13, 2000 to regain the right to face the WWF Champion at WrestleMania 2000.
The Rock, The Big Show, Mick Foley and Triple H competed in a fatal four-way elimination match for the WWF Championship at WrestleMania 2000. Each competitor had a McMahon in their corner--for Triple H, his on-screen wife (and off-screen then girlfriend) Stephanie McMahon; for Mick Foley, the matriarch Linda McMahon; for The Rock, Vince McMahon; and in Big Show's corner, Shane McMahon. Triple H retained the title when Vince turned on The Rock, giving him two vicious chair shots, allowing Triple H to pin The Rock for the three-count. A month later at Backlash 2000, The Rock captured the WWF Championship from Triple H after Stone Cold Steve Austin made a brief return and intervened on The Rock's behalf.
Over the next couple of months The Rock feuded with Triple H over the Championship, and going on to having several classic matches, such as an Iron Man match against The Game at WWF Judgment Day 2000, which starred Shawn Michaels as the special guest referee and saw the return of The Undertaker, The Rock would lose the title as a result of Undertaker's interference attacking Triple H. The following night on Raw, The Rock would get his revenge, and along with The Undertaker, took out the entire McMahon-Helmsley regime. The Rock would later win the WWF Championship again at King of The Ring 2000 against Triple H in a Tag Team matching pitting himself, Kane, and Undertaker versus Vince McMahon, Shane McMahon and Triple H. The Rock would go on to defend the Championship against Superstars such as Chris Benoit, Kurt Angle, Triple H, Kane, The Undertaker, and Shane McMahon.
The Rock later lost the WWF Championship to Kurt Angle at WWF No Mercy in October 2000. During this time, he feuded with Rikishi (after he made accusations that The Rock called him to run over Steve Austin in November 1999) and defeated him at that year's Survivor Series. He also participated in the 6 Man Hell in a Cell match at that year's Armageddon event for the WWF Championship, in which he was unsuccessful. It is also notable that The Rock was the only man not to climb to the top of the cell in this match.
In 2001, The Rock feuded with Kurt Angle over the WWF Championship, and the feud was settled at No Way Out. In a battle that saw The Rock kick out of the Olympic Slam and Kurt kicking out of the Rock Bottom and The People's Elbow (at different times), The Rock finally came out on top, delivering a second Rock Bottom to regain the WWF Championship. Afterwards, The Rock feuded with the Royal Rumble winner Stone Cold Steve Austin. The Rock went into WrestleMania X-Seven as the WWF Champion, but was defeated again by Austin, after a shocking turn from the rattlesnake, who used Vince McMahon to win the title. Jim Ross is famously quoted as saying "Austin has sold his soul to the devil to get back to the top". After losing to Austin in a rematch on the following night's RAW, he went on hiatus to film the movie "The Scorpion King" after a kayfabe suspension from Mr. McMahon. The Rock would return in July 2001 and would decide which side of the WWF/Alliance wars he would align himself with. After Vince McMahon, on the WWF side, urged the Rock to "give the people what they want," the Rock delivered a Rock Bottom to Vince. The Rock seemed to have joined the Alliance, and smiled, shaking Shane McMahon's hand, but quickly drew him in for a Rock Bottom. At Summerslam 2001, The Rock defeated Booker T to win the WCW Championship. He would later lose the WCW title to Chris Jericho at No Mercy of the same year, only to win it back a few weeks later on RAW. The Rock was also involved in a match at Survivor Series which saw him defeat Stone Cold Steve Austin in a Classic Survivor Series match to end The Alliance once and for all. The Rock closed out the year losing the WCW Championship to Chris Jericho at Vengeance, who would go on later to become the first WWF Undisputed Champion.
As 2002 came along, Vince McMahon introduced the nWo, and The Rock began a feud with Hollywood Hulk Hogan, which ended with a victory at WrestleMania X8. This match, one of the most memorable matches of all time pitting "Icon vs. Icon", saw the Toronto fans audibly cheer for Hogan, who was the heel, after every move (including heelish moves like "the back rake of doom"). The fans also clearly booed The Rock, the supposed face in the match, despite the WWF's best efforts to make Hogan a despicable character before the match. On July 21, 2002, The Rock would win his record-breaking seventh and final WWE Championship. He defeated Kurt Angle and The Undertaker in a classic match at Vengeance, after he hit the Rock Bottom on Kurt Angle. He would lose it to Brock Lesnar at SummerSlam 2002 in a match that saw the fans turn on The Rock again and cheer for Lesnar. This was his last title reign, it lasted for only a month.
The Rock's last heel turn began on SmackDown! in February 2003, where he publicly criticized Hulk Hogan. Their WrestleMania X8 rematch at No Way Out ended with The Rock claiming victory again, with assistance from Vince McMahon and Sylvain Grenier. It is widely speculated that this heel turn was due to The Rock's growing Hollywood stardom, giving the appearance of having "sold out" his wrestling roots.
The Rock later drafted himself to RAW and started a feud with The Hurricane and other babyfaces. He also had a comical gimmick, where he played the guitar and sang songs mocking the host city for the event, which culminated in a "Rock concert" which took place during the main event of the March 24, 2003 edition of RAW, where The Rock mocked host city Sacramento because of the Sacramento Kings' inability to beat the Los Angeles Lakers, the city The Rock now thought of as home. He sings, "Well, I'll be sure to come back when the Lakers beat the Kings in May!" The Rock would also tease Canada in a song as well, saying "Canadians have no class... that's why they can kiss the People's Ass" (basically referring to the fact that they booed him at WrestleMania X8, despite being the "good guy").
When Steve Austin returned, they once again feuded, with the Rock defeating Austin at WrestleMania XIX; this was the first time the Rock defeated Austin at WrestleMania, and Austin's last major appearance in a wrestling role. The Rock then had a feud with former WCW star Bill Goldberg, losing at Backlash in this match, both superstars recived a mix reaction from the fans with some being more pro Rock and the others pro Goldberg. After that, The Rock turned face once more by betraying Chris Jericho and Christian. This was specifically when Christian (who was the WWE Intercontinental Champion at the time) labeled himself as the New People's champion (based around the fact that Christian was labeled by The Rock as his "favorite wrestler". This would eventually lead to Christian labeling his fans as "his peeps"). The Rock, with the help of then RAW star and then babyface, Booker T defeated Chris Jericho and Christian, and even did his version of the "spinaroonie".
The Rock made occasional wrestling appearances up to 2004's WrestleMania XX, with the storyline revolving around Mick Foley bringing him in to help in his war with Evolution and Randy Orton. One humorous bit involved Rock hosting his own version of "This is Your Life" for Foley on an edition of RAW. Rock and Foley would go on to lose to Orton, Ric Flair, and Batista at Wrestlemania when Orton pinned Foley. He made sporadic appearances in the WWE following Wrestlemania, including standing up for Eugene and helping Foley turn back La Resistance. His last appearance to date in WWE was hosting a "Pie-Eating Contest" during the 2004 WWE Diva Search. He ended the segment by giving Jonathan Coachman a rock-bottom and People's Elbow. In several interviews, Dwayne Johnson had reported that he is no longer under contract with WWE and that his contract had expired in 2004. Johnson himself reported that the reason he was able to continue using the name "The Rock" was part of a dual ownership between him and WWE.
In February 2007, The Rock's profile was removed from WWE.com.
Video Link: The Rock vs. Steve Austin (WM17)
