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Was The Rock ever a good in ring wrestler???

33K views 129 replies 117 participants last post by  The5star_Kid 
#1 ·
Phenomenal on the mic. Greatest ever.

However, his in rings skills were lacking in my opinion.

Whenever he tried to apply technical maneuvers, they just came across as awkward




His over-selling (yet funny) overselling of the stunner:


He did give us the greatest 2 most electrifying moves in sports entertainment though



 
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#36 ·
John Cena esque. Can put on a good match with a great worker but he himself is more along the lines of a B wrestler. Benoit, Jericho, and Angle are great wrestlers Rock is an above average to good wrestler.
Quick question do you think angle, benoit, or jericho could have salvaged a 4 star match outta the great khali like cena did
?
 
#18 · (Edited)
Phenomenal on the mic. Greatest ever.

However, his in rings skills were lacking in my opinion.

Whenever he tried to apply technical maneuvers, they just came across as awkward
He doesn't normally apply the sharpshooter this way, but If I'm not mistaken, this photo was taken from Rebellion 2001. There was suppose to be a spot were Austin apply the sharpshooter and Rock counter it with one of his own, which resulted in an even shittier version than the one he usually does.



Back to topic.

Rock around '01 - '02 was an amazing in-ring performer, criminally underrated, IMO. During that period he was having great matches left and right with almost every top star.

Rock being criticized for not being a good technical wrestler is like Shawn Michaels being criticized for not being a powerhouse. To each his own in-ring style. At 6'4 270 lbs, I didn't expect much chain wrestling from the guy, personally.
 
#25 ·
Rock adapted to the style of his opponent and could work ANY type of match and work well. He also was a product of the times during the Russo era of booking 98-99, he was more of a brawler with different power moves thrown in, and heelish tactics which played off his character as it was written (Punching the balls of the opponent while the ref wasn't looking, eye raking, talking on the headset taunting his opponent). The performance during this era was more than the sum of the parts for everybody on the roster. And the crowd control by the Rock was second to none. He didn't do submission moves during this era (Unless storyline such as screwing Mankind), so that complaint is void here. This was attitude era style wrestling, hardly anybody outwrestled the Rock, because nobody wrestled any different than he did, and with the myriad of trashy wrestlers on the roster at the time, The Rock was hardly the issue.

During the 2000-04 era he opened up his moveset to be more flashy, more athletic, and more fast paced to coincide with the new workers in the company and once again adapted to his opponents and style of booking post-Russo. With his 2000 and 2002 years being his best in ring years. He DID use submission moves regularly during this era, such as the sharpshooter and others as you mentioned, shitty or not, they DID add to the matches and made him a better wrestler. Athletically this was his prime, as he was non-stop action. He was less physically imposing during this era as he continuously lost weight, and thus worked like a middleweight as opposed to a heavyweight like during the 98-99 years. Which obviously bodes well for technical purposes.
 
#20 ·
Rock was never technically sound, but he knew how to work the crowd even with less than 10 moves. I'd rather watch Rock in the ring instead of an indy match with 100 moves.
 
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#38 ·
In the ring? Yes. He made his opponents look like real threats no matter who they were, he didn't get caught calling spots, and he sold his ass off and had the crowd eating out of his hand for his comeback.

But little kids on here will bitch because they don't like him and because he didn't do flips. But the fact is, the biggest draws in wrestling didn't do flips.

And the suicide dive is the most overused move in wrestling. EVERYONE does it
 
#50 ·
The difference is, Rock could get away with using the People's Elbow as a finisher because its probably in the top 5 most over moves, like, ever.

Five Knuckle Shuffle doesn't even seem as over as it used to be at times. People's Elbow got over and stayed over.
 
#51 ·
For me, He is one of greatest in-ring psychology of all time and had ton of atheticism. as well as good wrestling style. he might be a bit weak in term of skills but IT'S DOESN'T MATTER :rock
 
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#124 ·
his selling of moves and his facial expressions in the ring are second to none. when he puts that sharpshooter in he makes up for the fact that its so loose by making himself look like hes in a genuine struggle
 
#62 ·
I'll put it to you like this...he had the greatest WM main event match in history. Something Shawn, Bret, Hogan, Cena, Batista, Edge, Taker, Warrior, Macho, Flair, Vader, Sid, Hall, Nash, Luger, Arn Anderson, Ricky Steamboat, Jake Roberts..something they can all NEVER say. Bret might try to to say but he's into himself.
 
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#78 ·
I would rather watch a random Smackdown match of The Rock vs. X-Pac than almost any PPV match of today. Why? Because The Rock could tell a story in the ring. I don't give a fuck about technical ability if you're just doing shit for the sake of doing it. Neville can do a million flips and Becky Lynch can do a million submissions, but they will NEVER connect to the audience the way The Rock did.
 
#81 ·
This is what I've been saying for a long time now.

Nowadays, guys are doing moves to get cheap pops, or finisher kickouts/false finishes to get a cheap pop, instead of making the crowd care so much about you and the story you are telling in the ring that they will literally pop for a headlock because they are so into your character or the story of the match.

I don't want people to think I'm shitting on the guys today, because lord knows there are some amazing wrestlers on the roster today. But it just seems like, to me at least, that guys have been so beaten down with the horrendous booking they receive that, since they aren't given adequate mic time or vognettes or segments to get people more into their character, that they have to result to kicking out of finishers 3 times per match or doing crazy high spots that are dangerous as fuck as cause injury just to get the people to pop for them.

Make no mistake, this isn't the wrestlers fault. This is 100% on Vince, Creative, and the agents/producers for allowing this to happen. Wrestlers are just a different breed, if you let them they will risk life and limb just to have a memorable spot in a match. I mean look at Mick Foley, dude allowed himself to be thrown off a fucking cell because he was so determined to be a main event star and Vince had killed his character with those constant character changes between Mankind, Dude Love, and Cactus Jack. Vince told MICK afterwards he was putting a governor on him to help keep him safe. So that's what it takes for Vince to step in and tell someone to slow down? Going off a cell through a table? Why couldn't he have done that back in the summer of 2013 when Bryan originally hurt himself? He couldn't have pulled Bryan aside and told him to nix the top rope drop kick and diving headbutt?

Where is Vince when Cena and Owens are kicking out of each other's finishes 3 times each every match? Or kicking out of top rope AA's? Or when there is a random match on Raw with 2 finisher kickouts?

Guys just aren't being allowed to become great workers and storytellers anymore, because they have to compete with everyone else who is doing all these insanely dangerous high spots. I'm not the only one who has realized how much more frequently guys are suffering severe injuries than they did 15-20 years ago, right?

Bottom line, if wrestlers today were given the proper microphone and TV time to develop their characters and get audiences behind them, and I don't mean doing a scripted segment backstage or a scripted promo in the ring, I mean really letting guys speak from the heart off of some simple bullet points, fans would be reacting MORE to LESS. That's just a fact.

That's why I think it's fair to say that Rock, in his prime, was a better WORKER than most of the talent is right now, or he's at least better than a lot of the talent are ALLOWED to be today. There just aren't many stories being told in the ring anymore, and it bums me out.
 
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