Where to begin picking this apart...
Taker is as political as ANYONE... but he has the tenure with the company, level of success and "bad ass" level to do pretty much whatever the hell he wanted back stage and has had for many years. Wrestler's Court is the most political concept there is and who was the "judge"? Yep Taker... He had a crew same as Shawn did that all got tattoos... and all those guys were "looked after" by the WWE for a long time. Sure most end up released but most still get work from WWE and Legends deals... the Bone Street Krew was as important as the Kliq and the Harts and their alumni all ended up in pretty strong positions... JBL for example took over from Taker in charge of the "court" once Taker was off the road full time... guys like Savio Vega ended up in booking positions in TNA, some like Yoko and Crush are dead now but were highly respected... no one played politics with the BSK. He's like the college professor with tenure who can basically bang his students, not do any work and as long as he doesn't get in major trouble legally, not be touched... if you mess with "that" guy, you're generally gonna lose cos he can do whatever is needed to see you leave before he does... Taker perhaps hasn't used that power to that extent, but there ARE people blackballed from the business on his say so... one was even his best man once!!!
As time went on Taker of course became political, he began to pick and choose opponents and stuck to the same guys, wrestling 4 guys in 6 years is proof of that. But in all fairness he only really used that "stroke" in these later years, when it was more about prolonging his career. He put up with a lot of crap opponents over the years so stored up some "passes" in my book. He is also someone who would go to bat for others, like after the screwjob... Foley quit but Taker made damn clear to Vince that if it EVER happened to him or anyone else while he was around, Vince wouldn't be walking out of the room on a broken ankle...
As for Rocky he too knew the politics game from an early point, growing up as the grandson of a promoter and son of a WWE performer meant, like Randy Orton they had access to a lot of talent who "mattered" from childhood. People like Vince, Jake, IRS, guys who were around when he debuted and were in WWE with their dad would remember them far easier than some new talent they may have met once and thus more of a connection. It's why 2nd and 3rd gen stars get on in the biz quicker... veterans today will remember Barry Windham and IRS, some will have worked with them and known Bray and Bo as kids for example. In 1996, I can imagine a lot of veterans being very impressed with Dwayne as a package and that "damn, this kid used to sit on my knee...so I'm gonna help him".
Also "the Samoans" as a group of families had a way with the business that many have spoken about, even on WWE roundtables. Hayes made reference to guys like Afa and Sika basically being "in the crowd" and relatives of Peter Maivia who got a break through his influence, Same for Haku/Tonga Kid and the others... Rocky will have known that, it's no coincidence that Rikishi was pushed at a similar time to him and that the Uso's and now Reign's push began in earnest when he was a part of the show again...one of his few appearances during his long hiatus was to put Umaga over with the "shrivelled monkey penis" promo... sure it was making fun of him... but if you're Eddie Fatu and going to Mania, and the biggest star in the business shows up just to diss you... then that's getting the rub... that he was his cousin was the reason for it...
They do for themselves and their family and if they can help another member of the extended family, they do it without hesitation. That's why Rocky will probably only come back to put Reigns over now...
That makes it easier for them to get access to pitch ideas, for ideas to be "taken on board"... The Rocky Maivia stuff was Vince, Dwayne went with it knowing it was dross but when the time came he would have been able to get in front of Vince far easier than Austin had it when he was The Ringmaster... you can even imagine the conversation... "We go way back Vince, let me try it." and that being enough... of course it worked. Austin used the power more than some, but he'd also been badly burned by the business with WCW and how he was treated. He was perhaps more highly strung and insecure and also had a legit concern over his neck and his "limited shelf life", could he have handled things better at times...yes, he admits that but doesn't mean he was wrong... just coulda done things better. Guys like Trips and Shawn and arguably Cena, Orton, the NWO and the like have done it more to suit their own ends or cos they can.
Once you have that kind of access to Vince, even if it's cos he remembers you as the little kid or your merch has just bought him a new toy...you will use it and as Rock's career boomed in Hollywood the politics will have grown... now Vince goes to Dwayne, not the other way round (to Taker to to an extent), he says who he fights, if he shows up, what he does and how much he gets paid... if he doesn't like it, he walks as he did the night after Mania... after all he has 20m plus on a movie contract compared to the 5 tops he gets for a WWE stint... he's gonna make sure he can get both done... so if that means a squash over the Miz rather than a 40 minute brawl with Brock... so be it... he's not taking less cash to do it.
There is no one in wrestling or ANY company who doesn't play politics in some way. Every office in the world has it, who the boss is friendly with, who does extra, who's shagging who, percieved slights and petty dislikes.. All come into play in wrestling too... the one who tries to make out they are above it is playing the most calculating game of all.
