The 50 Greatest Wrestlers Of The Last 50 Years: Who Is #13?

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#13 The Rock

From a natural talent standpoint, it is pretty much undisputable that The Rock is at the very top of the list of the most talented guys to ever lace up a pair of boots. When The Rock came to prominence in the late 1990s, he had every single skill that the World Wrestling Federation required from a top guy. The result of course was one of the greatest runs in box office history and The Rock’s rise in popularly would increase to the point that he would end up outgrowing the wrestling business, moving on to loftier aspirations in the entertainment industry.

The Rock’s background has been well-documented, he was the son of Rocky Johnson, a popular mid-card and tag team wrestler in the Northeast, and the grandson of High Chief Peter Maivia, one of the most popular babyfaces in the history of wrestling in California. The Rock was a standout athlete in high school, competing in football, wrestling and track and field. After playing football for the University of Miami, The Rock spent some time playing in the Canadian Football League.

After his football career ended, The Rock decided to get into the family business and his father agreed to train him. Due to his family connections, The Rock was able to get a tryout for the WWF in 1996. From day one, it was clear that The Rock had something the WWF was interested in. He was a third-generation talent, he was a big guy and a tremendous natural athlete, he was handsome and even if it wasn’t completely capitalized on at first, it was apparent that he had some charisma. He signed with Jerry Lawler’s United States Wrestling Association, which at the time was utilized as a developmental territory for the WWF. Wrestling under the name Flex Kavana, The Rock worked in the USWA, winning that promotions tag team titles twice in 1996 before being called up to the WWF.

The Rock would make his official WWF debut at Survivor Series 1996 under the name Rocky Maivia, a combination of his father and grandfather’s names. As the name would suggest, The Rock was presented as a blue-chip prospect who was going to accomplish big things in the company. He was impressive in his debut, becoming the sole survivor in an eight-man tag team elimination match. While the crowd did not overwhelmingly react to him, his in-ring work, selling and charisma were enough to impress the WWF brass who remained very high on him. In fact, it was famously predicted after the match that The Rock would become the biggest star in the company by the year 2000. He would actually beat that estimation by a couple years.

Despite his obvious natural gifts, The Rock began to be the victim of the outdated booking philosophy that was hampering the entire company. The Rock was presented as being a generic babyface who didn’t have a ton of outlandish charisma or character traits, and the crowd began to reject his basic personality. He upset Hunter Hearst Helmsley for the Intercontinental Championship in February of 1997. Despite the win and successful title defenses against Helmsley and The Sultan at WrestleMania 13, the crowd continued to be hostile against The Rock, famously chanting “Die Rocky Die!.”

In April of 1997, The Rock would drop the Intercontinental Championship to Owen Hart and would take some time off to recover from a knee injury. When he returned to the ring he would do the logical thing, embrace the hatred of the fans and become a heel. The Rock would refuse to acknowledge the Rocky Maivia name, simply going by The Rock and referring to himself in the third person. No longer handicapped by having to endear himself to the fans, it became apparent that The Rock was very good on the microphone. He would insult the fans, announcers and his opponents with a remarkable off-the-cuff speaking style that had never before (or since) been seen in professional wrestling. A massive egoist, The Rock combined his tremendous physical gifts with superb comedic timing and classic heel tactics, which began to turn him into one of the most valuable commodities in the company.

The Rock aligned himself with the Nation of Domination, a militant group of black wrestlers, led by Farooq (Ron Simmons) that proved to be a unique and watershed stable for a company that was struggling to fight off World Championship Wrestling. While Farooq was the leader of the group, it was clear that The Rock was the star of the stable. In December of 1997, The Rock began to feud with Stone Cold Steve Austin, who was making his huge babyface run towards the WWF World Heavyweight Championship. Austin defeated The Rock and retained the Intercontinental Championship on a PPV but the next night he was ordered to defend it again against The Rock. Austin instead forfeited the championship and then gave The Rock a Stone Cold Stunner.

In 1998 The Rock would feud with Ken Shamrock over the Intercontinental Championship. The Rock defeated Shamrock in a memorable bout at the Royal Rumble. The match saw The Rock hit Shamrock with brass knuckles and then tuck the knuckles inside of Shamrock’s tights. After a referee bump, Shamrock recovered and hit The Rock with a belly-to-belly suplex for the pinfall to win the championship. However, The Rock complained that while the referee was down, Shamrock had hit him with brass knuckles and not his finisher, and if the referee didn’t believe him, he should check Shamrock’s tights. Sure enough, the referee found the brass knuckles in Shamrock’s rights and reversed the decision, awarding the match to The Rock via disqualification. To this day, it is one of the more creative heel finishes in wrestling history and a wonderful way to get The Rock over as an insufferable heel.

In March of 1998 he overthrew Farooq as the leader of The Nation and defeated Farooq at Over the Edge. He would then move to feud with Triple H and his babyface faction, D-Generation X. DX and The Nation would often interfere during their matches, adding an element of gang warfare surrounding the Intercontinental Championship. The Rock retained the championship in a two-out-of-three falls match at Fully Loaded, but Triple H managed to win the championship at SummerSlam in a Ladder match. The feud would be a precursor of things to come for the two stars as they would have one of the more competitive rivalries in recent wrestling history.

At Breakdown in September, The Rock cut one of the more engaging promos of his career, referring to the fans as “The People” and showing signs of a babyface turn. He would then go on to defeat Shamrock and Mankind in a Steel Cage match that made him the number one contender for the WWF World Heavyweight Championship. He would also begin a brief feud with stablemate Mark Henry, effectively ending The Nation.

As the paradigm in wrestling began to shift, The Rock went from being a heel to a babyface. Unlike his character one year earlier, The Rock wasn’t bland and boring, he was bombastic, oozing charism and wit on the microphone and selling and reacting in the ring like one of the best wrestlers in the world. As Austin rushed the wrestling world into the age of the anti-hero, The Rock quickly followed in his footsteps; like Austin he was just so unique and engaging that fans gravitated towards him, regardless of the actual morality of his actions. The fans secretly wanted to root for The Rock all the time, but it was hard to do it when he was constantly insulting them. When he became “The People’s Champion” they were given free rein to …

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