Re: Cm Punk says Cena and Rock kissed Vince's ass, talks UFC debut, Pipebomb promo, e
The Rock was the most over wrestler on the roster in 1999. Austin fans always argue this but it is true.
There is the majority of wrestling fans who take much longer to bore than the slightly smaller minority who are usually the canary in the coalmine, and it was plain as day that those people were tired of Austin's schtick and the Rock was getting the biggest pops regularly, title or no title. In fact, the Rock's entire promo and presence was generally one long pop, not just the intro of his theme music.
That isn't to say the Rock didn't have his moments of laziness. The four or five or six month time leading up to the Jericho debut, the Rock was really phoning it in, not coming up with anything new, and just cycling through his four or five catch phrases every single week, directed at a new name.
Austin, on the other hand, was just getting straight up stale, and actually sometimes looked visibly threatened by the Rock's charisma on air. Put another way, he was becoming a transparent try-hard around the Rock on air, with nothing really new to say. Regardless of booking, title intentions, or WM ME's, the Rock, in the eyes of anyone who isn't a complete mark, was, quite simply, in the eyes of the audience, `The Man`.
Also, Triple H was arguably pushed a year early. I never see it ever mentioned, but Triple H had a little bit of Jack Swagger in him during his initial push. He wasn't sweating bullets, but he was very noticeable nervous on air during his very early rise to World Champion and often came off as very awkward.
I remember a few months before he was crowned, he was doing guest commentary to help his push, and the King asked him if he was bi-lingual, and he said, on national television, "I'm bi a lot of things, J.R., but lingual isn't one of them." Then there was an awkward silence at the announce booth Triple H had to break with "Did I mean to say that?"
People act like Triple H was a natural World Champion right from the start.
The truth is he was shaking like a leaf and didn't get comfortable in those shoes until almost a year into his status as a true main eventer.
The marriage swerve is what truly established Triple H, and that happened well after his first world title win.