The most electrifying wrestler in the history of wrestling – The Rock – Part 1
If You Smell What The Rock is Cooking…
Wrestling fans still remember the old days when a budding wrestler by the name of Rocky Maivia entered the ring at the 1996 Survivor Series. Most wrestlers take 5 or 6 years before they start fighting in the main events but Rocky was different. The Rock as he went on to be known as became the WWE Champion in just a matter of 2 years. However, the Rock was not like any other average WWE Champion. The Rock brought charisma to his matches and gave his fans a reason to believe him as he became the most sought after wrestler all over the world.
It was the electrifying and charismatic personality of The Rock which landed him into different movies like The Scorpion King, The Mummy Returns and Walking Tall. The popularity of The Rock surpassed all previous records in the history of sports entertainment. The Rock was not only the first third generation wrestling superstar in WWE but he was also the first black wrestler to hold the WWE Championship. His motto of ‘Just Bring It’ attracted wrestling fans around the world and elevated him to a status never seen before.
The Rock initially became a part of the Nation of Domination which was supposedly created to counter the superior racial attitudes of white wrestling superstars. He quickly came to main event wrestling by winning the prestigious Inter Continental Championship by defeating Triple H. The Rock then ousted Farooq - the leader of Nation of domination and took over the leadership role.
During these times, The Rock registered a number of rivalries with Mankind, Under Taker and Stone Cold Steve Austin over the WWF and Inter Continental titles. Almost all wrestlers in WWE treat Under Taker with utmost respect and look submissive when he is in the ring. But The Rock not only defeated Under Taker on various occasions but often humiliated him in the ring. As a matter of fact, The Rock disrespected and humiliated almost everyone in the ring including many great wrestlers like Stone Cold Steve Austin and Mankind.
The fearless personality of The Rock earned him a lot of respect amongst the wrestling fans and made him the single most famous wrestler in the industry in 1999. The Rock also mocked different great wrestlers of the past, the ring announcers and even the fans. However, the fans still cheered him on as no one had the charisma and ability to cut electrifying promos like he did.
The Rock had a great rivalry with Mankind in different dangerous and life threatening matches like the “I Quit Match” and the “Ladder Match”. After defeating Mankind and winning the WWF Championship, The Rock made a tag team with Mankind. This tag team became one of the most popular and entertaining tag teams of all time. This team was popularly known as The Rock and Sock Connection as Mankind used to incapacitate his opponents by putting a dirty sock in their mouth. The Rock and Mankind challenged the Under Taker and Big Show. Both these wrestlers’s were destroying and decimating every wrestler in WWE and there was no one to stop them. The Rock and Sock Connection fought with them in an epic match and won the WWE Tag Team Championships. Their team went on to win the WWE Tag Team Championship on no more than two occasions – proving their worth across the globe.
Mankind then went further to arrange a segment called “This is your life” in which he called different people from Rock’s life. That part still remains the single most popular segment in the History of RAW and earned an 8.4 Nielsen rating. This rating can be seen and analyzed in the light of the fact that RAW segments mostly touch 3-4 Nielsen ratings on average.
To be continued...
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