I've always wonder how come The Rock who was the 1b to Austin's 1a never used backstage politics to do things the way he wanted to? For a top guy he lost more than he should have? HHH who was no where the star and money maker The Rock was in 2000 used a lot of backstage power to make him win at WM 16 and other things. Can someone explain this?
I think it's pretty obvious the Rock just didn't care too much about politics. In an interview on the Just Bring It DVD, the Rock said he never wanted to be booked like Superman because he thought it was boring and he was right.
Rock was a stand up guy who (despite his drawing and star ppower) was notoriously easy to work with, which is why no one has had much negative to say about him after 20 years. He did jobs he had no business doing (Judgement Day '00 immediately comes to mind as does WM '00.) He put HHH over a lot which is commendable considering how Hunter and Shawn attempted to derail the train and sabotage his momentum early into his run. Iirc, they tried to convince Vince he "wasn't ready" to beat Austin and tried to put Mankind in his spot. Vince simply didn't give a damn about their sales pitch because you become "ready" to be pushed to the top of the card for McMahon the moment you begin making him the amount of money and putting the amount of asses in seats that Rock was. When a guy is getting his name chanted 5 minutes into the broadcast and he isn't even scheduled to be in the arena that night?
He's ready.
Rock politicked in a much more subtle, non malicious fashion. He'd take creative and producers out to dinner, engage them about their personal life and kids, ect. Part of that was because he was simply a class act but he was also smart enough to know getting certain people on his side -- especially those that write his angles -- would be handy. I recall reading many accounts of Russo testimonys about creative members going to bat for Rock when it was time to hand in the script to Vince.
Simple, he was an actual cool guy who didn't came in the WWE to be the biggest star of all time and he loved wrestling and also the wrestlers. I think he was one of the only wrestlers who was cool with Chris Jericho when he debuted in the WWE
Triple H needed that win at Wrestlemania 16 more than Rock did. I know people want to see the top good guy walk out of Mania as the winner & champion but a heel had never walked out of Mania before as the winner & champion and Triple H being the first heel to do that estabilished him as a mega-heel champion.
Rock losing to Triple H at Judgment Day benefited the story. It kept their feud going for one more month, got Undertaker involved in the title picture too and it made the build/match for King Of The Ring much better with Undertaker and Rock not being able to trust each other because of Undertaker accidentally costing Rock the title at Judgment Day and the stipulation that whoever from Rock, Undertaker and Kane's team got the pin would become the new WWF Champion, making it look like The McMahon-Helmsley Trio would get an easy win and retain the belt at KOTR since unlike their opponents, they got along. And when Rock did get the pin and win the belt at KOTR, he also finally put an end to The McMahon-Helmsley Faction by pinning Vince in the match and humbling so bad he left the next night on Raw and Triple H couldn't trust Vince anymore. It was a sweet payoff to the whole Rock vs. McMahon-Helmsley Faction feud.
If The Rock were gonna veto any losses, it should've been to guys like Al Snow, Lance Storm and The Hurricane who gained nothing from those wins. Those losses didn't hurt Rock at all, I know that, but he may aswell have not bothered doing the job for them since they weren't gonna benefit from it. They were just meaningless losses for Rock.
Simple, he was an actual cool guy who didn't came in the WWE to be the biggest star of all time and he loved wrestling and also the wrestlers. I think he was one of the only wrestlers who was cool with Chris Jericho when he debuted in the WWE
I love The Rock and he's one of my favourite wrestlers but I really don't believe this to be true at all. He left WWE to become a bigger star than he already was in Hollywood, not that there's anything wrong with that, if I were in Rock's shoes I would've done the same too. And if he were just happy to be there, not intent on becoming a big star, he wouldn't have asked Vince to let him speak on the mic when he turned heel and joined The Nation Of Domination, which in The Rock's words was "the birth of The Rock". He could always have chosen to stay as the bland Rocky Maivia and gotten shoved down people's throats instead of turn heel and join the NOD. Rock said he was given those two options and he chose the latter.
He understood the business and was secure enough in his own talent that he knew that a win or a loss in no way effected him because he was The Rock. He's like 80's Ric Flair in that respect where he can lose, come out next week and cut a promo and be more entertaining than everyone to the point where nobody cared about the result the night before.
Plus his character wasn't built on being superman like hogan or Cena or the toughest like Austin. Those guys needed to win to keep the credibility of the character. The Rock was the most entertaining guy and win or lose that would remain in tact.
I think people are getting confused here. Refusing to do a spot in a match is not the same as refusing to lose to younger stars or burying people lol. It's not a big deal if the Rock didn't want to do a spot with the Dudley Boyz. If people consider that "playing politics" well then *every* wrestler is a politician. I'm a big fan of Nash too but he talks junk about everyone.
That being said the Rock has repeatedly hinted that guys like HBK played politics to try to hold him down. I'm sure we can all guess HHH was probably involved as well. The Rock seems like one of those guy's that gets revenge by getting over, and then proceeding to avoid politics and elevating up a few stars himself, which is about the smartest way you can handle the situation. He was clearly respected backstage so it seems what he did worked well.
I will admit the stuff with HHH winning that one Wrestlemania was warranted in the sense that the Rock really didn't have many big names to feud with. Of course the HHH vs Rock matches got extremely stale by the end, but if HHH lost that mania, it would hurt the Rock in the long run because who would he have to feud with? To be frank here, the Rock really didn't need that win anyway.
It's like a weird misconception that Rock was losing left and right. He lost more than most top guys, true, but he was never "buried" or anything. He wasn't constantly losing matches he should have won, and having momentum derailed. But Rock's also a one of a kind talent, who could sell a feud/match on the mic against anybody under any circumstance.
Top guys can lose and get away with it under the right context. It's the senseless jobbing or blatant assassinations that ruin their programming today.
HHH got that "big win" over Rocky at Wrestlemania. Rock should've won at Mania, but it put over HHH for beating Big Show, Mick Foley, and Rock in that fatal fourway main event.
.................Who says he didn't? Eating a few losses means you don't play politics? There are plenty of shoot vids on Youtube where people talk about Rock using power plays. Kevin Nash has a few for example that I've listened too.
I've heard stories of him refusing to take moves/spots from guys like Nash, The Dudleyz, Ahmed Johnson (even though he wasn't a main eventer just yet) and complaining to Vince about Orton and getting backstage heat on him for trashing him in an interview, but unfortunately on here none of that matters and refusing to take a couple losses or refusing matches/feuds with some guys even if there was a good reason behind it or the guy wasn't worthy of such a push makes you the ultimate villain in people's eyes all over the internet. The Rock actually did turn down a match/feud with Shawn Michaels in 2003 but he gets a pass for it because he disrespected him (and his grandma) in the past yet Austin never gets a pass for turning down a match/feud with Jeff Jarrett because Jarrett disrespected him in the past and the fact that Jarrett sucked and wasn't worthy of a main event push anyway.
People love to pretend Rock was this perfect humble main eventer who never did any wrong and never used his backstage power but he wasn't. Hell, maybe there are more stories of him playing politics that we haven't heard yet.
Every top wrestler plays politics, be it in a subtle way or a more obvious way, every wrestler uses the power they had/have, to say otherwise is ridiculous.
I give credit to the guys who just flat out say no I'm not doing that or don't try to hide it - least they are being honest, something strikes me as a bit cowardly and sly about guys who butter up creative and producers by 'taking them to dinner etc' that's a bit kind of 'please like me'.
I'm not saying this against the rock only as I'm sure other talent has done the same or similar.
Maybe he didn't want to fuck with people's careers like HBK and his bum chum cliq tried fucking with his own? Both Bret Heart and Y2J books paint Dwayne as a very friendly and nice guy and i'm guessing he quite secure with his talent.
from Hogan outright saying he wouldn't put Bret Hart over, to a wrestler not wanting to do a feud.
if someone (presumably Vince) says i want you to put someone over and you refuse then that is shameless politicking, assuming you know you're not getting fired for saying no. Turning a feud down based on some logic feeling you can't make it work (kalisto v khali anyone?) is surely the right thing to do?
we all know who are the culprits and who always did business. For me the Rock did business.
Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson? I don't think the guy ever does backhanded politics. He was the guy who almost had his career ruined by Triple H and Shawn Michaels back in 1997 at a time when Michaels and Bret Hart were feuding legitimately. Bret wisely took Rock under his wing as a behind-the-scenes mentor and no-sold the HHH/HBK backstage antics. Even Bret saw enough good in Rocky to the point that Rock became a megastar in 1998-99 and was the number one babyface in the WWF in '99-'00 following Austin's neck surgery.
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