I find it funny that all these performers (including Cena) wonder what The Rock has done to "make anyone a bigger star", I guess they never watched wrestling back when the Rock was doing exactly what they're doing, busting his ass every night in the ring. Everyone suddenly forgets all the jobs he did for Austin back in the day? And Triple H? And Goldberg? And some rookie named Brock Lesnar? I mean, c'mon, this isn't Kevin Nash we're talking about here...
I think this all stems from jealousy for most of the performers. Obviously, Cena and Rock have some level of respect for one another, or else they wouldn't be working a program together. I think The Rock will do the job as he may feel he owes it to Vince, which is ridiculous as he owes nothing to the WWE at this point. He helped them as much as they helped him. People forget though, at one point there was legit heat between Cena and Rock when Cena ran his mouth in an interview about The Rock and his love for the business. Who is Cena to question that? The Rock grew up in the business and for Cena to question that is wrong and insulting to the whole Johnson/Maivia family.
In the end, the guys who feel Rock is just taking a spot from someone else should all line up and do what they do for every other legend in the business, say "thank you".
I read today that some wrestler wanted to remain anonymous when reporting something about the Cena promo tonight.
With The Rock making his much anticipated return to Raw next Monday, John Cena had harsh words for "The Most Electrifying Man In Sports Entertainment" on this week's show, saying he's no longer The People's Champion, but he's a champion with people (referring to the entourage around him). After strongly criticizing The Rock for returning, but not sticking around WWE, Cena vowed to beat the iconic grappler in his hometown of Miami, Florida at WrestleMania XXVIII.
A number of WWE performers appeared giddy backstage over Cena's remarks as they legitimately feel that way over the actor/wrestler. One talent commented via text to PWInsider.com (with permission to be quoted under the condition of anonymity): "[The Rock] comes in to use WWE to get back the audience he lost doing Disney movies, which is fine but he's been back over a year and name one person he helped make a bigger star since then? No one.
"He's here for himself, he keeps to himself, and he keeps someone who's actually touring here all year from making a bigger payday at the bigger shows. It's all about making this the "biggest" Mania of all time. OK, then what do we do the rest of the year? Who's been made? You think he took ANY blame for Survivor [Series] not drawing? Of course not, but how do you feud with a guy on the Titantron? Cena nailed the guy dead on tonight.
"Say anything about HHH, Taker, etc. still being in the top spot but if they were needed to work the road, they would and they would still work their asses off as much as they needed to. Rock is out for Rock and the idea he's here to better anything but his own wallet is the biggest work of 2012."
What happened to respecting the guys who came before you, the guys who allowed you to make a living? Rock is being crapped on. (Although, I doubt he cares.) He doesn't have to do this, period. I do agree he used the WWE to restart his acting career...but everyone benfited. What these guys need to worry about is getting themselves over and putting asses in the seats like Rock did for years. As for the text message....it was probably Punk, Orton, Cena, or Ziggler. The usual suspects. This shooting BS has gone too far...there's a real danger in hurting the main event of Rock and Cena by doing this crap, and that hurts EVERYONE'S paycheck. I don't get this. You don't like Rock, that's great. Take it up with him like a man, not e-mailng a dirt sheet.
Rock put over Lesnar when Austin wouldn't.
Rock put over Goldberg huge when others wouldn't.
Rock ever put over Hurricane Helms which nobody ever did again.
None of us have any idea what Rock is like backstage, but I do agree, it's tough to promote this feud from the Titantron. I was really excited for it initially, but it's boring now. I love the Rock, and he has given back more by putting over more stars than ANY major star I can think of.
-Austin both with their Wrestlemania battles, but don't forget the time between Survivor Series 97 and Royal Rumble 98 over the IC belt which was an important bridge for Austin until he won the Rumble.
- HHH many times, Summerslam 1998 ladder match comes to mind.
- Hurricane (enough said).
- He let Goldberg DESTROY him when Goldberg debuted
- Lost cleanly to put over Lesnar.
- Was very important in Foley's rise to the main event
- Jericho, Angle, Benoit, the list goes on.....
The way I see it from looking at the stuff I've been reading online from "anonymous" WWE wrestlers ever since Rock returned last year, the current roster are nothing more than a bunch of self important, ignorant, ungrateful bitches.
It's due to people like The Rock that they even have jobs to go to. Along with Austin, he revolutionized the business in the late 90's and early 2000's and actually put wrestling on the map again, on a worldwide scale. Also, as someone else has already pointed out, the reason they need people like Rock to come back in order to sell a PPV is because nobody is interested in seeing this current bunch of halfwits, with the obvious exceptions of Punk, Cena, Orton and Sheamus. It's due to The Rock that they surpassed 1million buys last year and it's due to Rock wrestling that they will surpass 1million buys again this year.
I seem to remember years ago at another time that Rock came back for a short while as a hollywood bigshot heel, he layed down for a clean pin loss to the f'n Hurricane on Smackdown too.
Again this would have been as big as Attitude era, and no doubt where the money would have come from. So there you have it you could have swaped the other pieces of the attitude era but with out Austin/Rock there would be no WWE it would be WCW.
And there is no denying that the Rock is the most entertaining superstar period and is a good wrestler check: Rock/Austin, Rock/Benoit, Rock/Angle, Rock/taker, Rock/Lesnar, Rock/Hogan, Rock/Jericho, Rock/Foley and even Rock/Rikishi.
Then about making stars:
Kurt Angle-Yes angle had feuded with UT and HHH, but The Rock was the one who gave him the belt, and lost to him prior to his title reign, Angle even says they still keep in touch, Rock put angle over in a big way at No Mercy 2000 and even at No Way Out 2001 though Angle lost Rock made him look like a machine.
Chris Jericho-The Rock put over Jericho huge y2j even says so in his book, Rock singled him out as the guy he wanted to put over, and he didn’t just do it once he did it 5x, The Rock really boosted Jericho, and awarded him for his talents unlike Triple H who only puts his friends over properly.
Brock Lesnar-Stone Cold walked out when he was asked to put over Lesnar, The Rock put over lesnar happily before the undertaker, and was made to look like a walk over by Lesnar, when the rock put over lesnar, lesnar became huge, triple h putting over batista was not as big, and Cena had to go through the whole roster.
Chris benoit- Benoit even mentions how great the rock is on his dvd, and though he lost to the rock, he was made to look amazing by the rock in their match, as rock actually did lose the title to him, but not it was reversed this happened twice, and one the rock did actually put benoit over on SD.
The Rock’s put people like RVD and The Big Show over. My God he’s even put the hurricane over, even the hurricane for peaks sake. He has lost all three his wm matches that were last on the card putting over triple h and Austin, Cena has won 2 and lost 1 of the three matches which were last on the card and has won 5 world/wwe title matches and lost 2 at wm…the rock derserves the win at WM in his hometowwnn…especially since he’s most likely going to be at summerslam 2012 and wm 29. He can put Cena over then.
Hulk Hogan and Roddy Piper have been in movies but no where near the level of The Rock. The Rock is one of the biggest actors in the world…he has legit made it in Hollywood and is probably earning 20x more than the biggest wwe stars atm, he does not need to come back to wwe at all, there’s nothing in it for him, he is giving back in a big way, its amazing that he’s even come back after having such a big movie career
, by saying he’s back and is never going away, does not mean he needs to be there everyday, that’s stupid why would a movie star of his calibre do that, john cena’s movies are below soap opera level, their wwe movies, you can’t compare. The Rock is schelduled for possibly summerslam 2012 and definitely wm 29 so he probably meant he is going to keep doing big matches. It is great for WWE, Flloyd Mayweather, snooki, Mr T all took ‘superstars spot at WM’ no they helped Wrestlemania be Wrestlemania..the superbowl, it made it feel special, they don’t work the road the rock is in the same place, only its even better as he’s also a legend, they all went over the people they were wrestling, and it only helped the wrestlers Big Shows career was saved by it, so The Rock just wrestling is good for Cena’s career. These superstars need to do something to make themselves valuable enough to mainevent like cm punk otherwise they should be respectful…ratings are down so it shows how great they are. Cena is a great wrestler and a big star, but The Rock just blows him out the water, but like I said it is all just probably a work…
Its all an act, you guys.
The Rock may not have made anyone lately but he sure put a lot of people over in the past... HHH/Foley/Austin/Goldberg/Brock
He used to put everyone over and STAY over (and not in a santino way). He is that good.
Fuck the haters. Rock doesn't need the money. He's not back for himself. Just cause Rock has more talent in his eyebrow than the wwe roster doesn't mean everyone has to be jealous.
The Rock has done it all for the WWE before. For people to even hate on him because he said "Im never leaving again" is outright ridiculous. He worked hard, gave us memorable matches, and hilarious promos.
Remember when Rock had to fight the Cooporation? Went up against Big Boss Man? Caught the club in mid air and hit boss man with it to secure the win.
The sliding peoples elbow. Enough said.
Stone Cold and The Rock, Rock vs Mick Foley, Rock vs Jericho and their amazing promos, Rock vs Triple H(Who tried in real life to put him down in the ranks of the wwe), Rock Vs Angle. Even that bullshit Hogan match was given flair with his presence. He always tried to give us something different.
Meanwhile, I can't remember a legitimate fued with Cena outside of Batista. Thats not to say hes not good, but theres always been an entertainment factor when watching wwe/f. Cena had it early on in his career. Now, hes as stale as ever.