True or False: The Rock Couldn't Get Over on PG Television

[Steamboat Ricky]

The Rock really didn't start getting over until he started dishing out profanities and shamelessly burying his opposition telling them that they "absolutely suck" and that such and such "doesn't matter." Various sexual suggestions, constantly threatening to turn objects sideways...the list goes on. It seems that his character was completely enamored with extremes and cheap pops.

Sure, a lot of this was a product of the "Attitude Era," but to what extent did The Rock use Attitude as a crutch to get himself over? Could The Rock get over in a more family-friendly environment like the WWE is today?

So, once again, true or false?

 

[Razor Blade Dream]

I think he could get over. I mean they showed HHH house raiding Orton like he was fuckin Jack Torrence from The Shining with a PG rating. The Rock was magic on the mic so I'm sure he would still work a promo a hell of a lot better than most of the roster now.

 

[JGlass]

False. Telling people they suck isn't against the PG rating I don't believe, and most of The Rock's antics wouldn't be restricted by the PG rating. We might not have The People's Strudel jokes anymore, or the Do you like pie? segment, but most of his stuff would be ok.

 

[mlola]

False. The Rock could definitely get over on a PG rating. He could do this simply because he has the charisma neccesary to "electrify" (pun intended) a crowd. And on top of that, he had talent too. I mean, The Rock could probably get "JBL is poopy" over. That could start a chant like "JBL's Poopy... clap clap clap-clap-clap". The Rock has the ability to do that. So yes. He could get over in this PG environment.

 

[MetaphoriK]

The whole reason I liked that era more was because it wasn't targeted towards kids and little girls that scream when Cena takes his shirt off or when Jeff Hardy's music plays. That being said The Rock had a lot of charisma none the less, so he could have made it work but I don't think saying something like "it doesn't matter" is too outside the limits of PG... actually I think The Rock wouldn't have been that censored or changed, to me PG just means no nudity or adult style entertainment (pudding matches, etc.) or excessive violence... (maybe undertaker slitting his wrist?) But I'm sure people have seen PG movies with more than a few cuss words here and there.

so I'm going with False.

 

[supersayian]

i will say false. i may not be right if he could come up with PG lines. but i dought it. the Rock and his Profanity would be like telling Austin he cant do it anymore. this would ruin both of there characters because that why there promos were so good they made people crave there promos. if it was PG then they would not have gotten over as they did. Then again the Rock was Special; so who knows but i say no.

 

[DhA]

I reckon he could, I always thought that whilst Austin was the bigger star (and IMO he obviously wouldn't cope in a PG envrionment), The Rock seemed liek the natural sucessor to Hogan in terms of a guy with of the charts charisma who could make the fans love him for convnetional reasons. For That reason I think false.

 

[miroa12004]

The Rock could get over in a babies show as well as in a pensioners show, he is like a piece of mould that can be shaped after the shape in your mind and still adapt to the new conditions.

 

[InfoWarlord]

False. The Rock's had successful PG rated movies and his wrestling promos were never worse PG-13.

 

[Steamboat Ricky]

Just to clarify...I'm not asking if The Rock could still get over right now. Of course he could...he's The Rock. I'm asking...if The Rock was some green opener without any exposure in a PG rated environment...could he establish himself enough to get over without the cursing and the sexual comments?

Furthermore, the only reason The Rock is even in the movie industry is because he got over in wrestling. So the notion that he has successful PG movies is predicated on the fact that The Rock got over in a more adult-oriented program.

 

[Black Snow]

It doesn't matter what era it is or what sort of crowd the company is aiming towards. If you have natural charisma and talent you're going to get over. Guys like The Rock are a rare breed that transcend EVERYTHING.

Guys who are products of the WWE hype machine like John Cena are a dime a dozen. Guys who get over completely on their own merit are the true legends that only need two things to be great: a mic and time.

 

[redmethod09878]

apprently yes since hes been on pg movies an everyone still loves him

 

[Nate DaMac]

It doesn't matter what era it is or what sort of crowd the company is aiming towards. If you have natural charisma and talent you're going to get over. Guys like The Rock are a rare breed that transcend EVERYTHING. Guys who are products of the WWE hype machine like John Cena are a dime a dozen. Guys who get over completely on their own merit are the true legends that only need two things to be great: a mic and time.

first off, yes the rock could get over in any environment. if he was on tna, he would make that company. but cena a dime a dozen? if thats the case, why is he in a class of 3? (austin, hogan). check merch sales my friend. and cena has gotten over on his own merit whether you like it or not, and i actually find it childish that you come to a non cena thread and use it as a forum to bash him. sorry if i rambled.

 

[notorious102]

Rock had natural talent & charisma. He is arguablly the best on the mic ever. He would have no problem getting over. He wouldn't have to politick or sleep with the bosses daughter either. This is a stupid thread.

 

[CJ The Pirate]

Short of the words 'Damn' 'Ass' and the very rare 'Piss' (I can only think of one instance and that was in the ring moments before Austin threw the IC belt in the river)

Damn and Ass are considered slang these days and have been for nearly 10 years. The phrase Kick-ass has been used in NFL games that I've watched. Damn is used pretty much every day on TV and before the watershed hits too. It's worlds away from the S's and F's that can be used.

I always felt that The Rock was PG-13. 'Roody Poo Candy Ass?' 'Who in the Blue Hell are you?' Everything he did was done in a memorable way. Like a lyric from a nursury rhyme. 'I'm gonna take that inanimate object, shine it up real nice, Turn that son'bitch sideways and stick it straight up your candy-ass!' It's poetic. It's funny. It's offensive because of what it implies.

Ask yourself this... which sounds more offensive and intimidating? Fuck off or Go away?

Now try the same with the .'..up your candy-ass' rants in contrast to 'I'm gonna fuck you up, son!' The Rock wins.

So today, I can't see the Rock having much problem starting out as a green collar. Stone Cold will be the foul mouthed guy. The Rock will be remembered for his glitz in-ring and his quick tongue out of it.

 

[OhCanadaEh2009]

True. True to the highest extent.

WWE cannot do half the things they did back in the Attitude era.

That's why they changed Cena's STF-U and FU to just STF and Attitude Adjustment, and changed his Word Life handsign to some lameass "Everything's A-Ok" hand sign.

EDIT: Seems I got negative rep for this from TwistofRKO, and a nice comment; "that's not the question". In response to that; I don't care. I addressed the topic how I wanted to. Your negative rep was unwarranted. Despite this negative rep, I did get a positive rep for this post from Steamboat Ricky. Thank you Steamboat

 

[SenorAmazing]

The Rock could get over because he has amazing promo and improv skills and is tremendously charismatic. I'm sure he could have thought of witty things that would fit into the PG rating.

 

[maar130]

The guy could get over, he is very good adapting to things, also his ring skills were very good too as the brawler he usually was so I think he could do just fine.

 

[The Catacomb]

I don't know about PG, but, this era of WWE has the writers in creative script everything and are pretty strict on it. I don't think the Rock would flourish in this era because of that. Half of the great promos he did were half scripted and it allowed him to use his personality more. These days, it seems as if creative is the personality of the WWE. That's where much of the WWE is going wrong. The Rock would have his hands tied on alot of promos and I doubt he'd get totally over like he used to since creative would only have him say, like a robot, "I'm the Rock and I will kick your butt" instead of classics like "The Rock says know your role and shut the hell up.

 

[MachoManiac]

The definition of a tv pg rating from:

http://www.tvguidelines.org/ratings.htm

Parental Guidance Suggested

This program contains material that parents may find unsuitable for younger children. Many parents may want to watch it with their younger children. The theme itself may call for parental guidance and/or the program may contain one or more of the following: some suggestive dialogue (D), infrequent coarse language (L), some sexual situations (S), or moderate violence (V).

With that being said, in my opinion The Rock would still get over if he were starting out as a rookie so to speak.

 

[Vee Dub Represent]

It doesn't matter what era it is or what sort of crowd the company is aiming towards. If you have natural charisma and talent you're going to get over. Guys like The Rock are a rare breed that transcend EVERYTHING.

Guys who are products of the WWE hype machine like John Cena are a dime a dozen. Guys who get over completely on their own merit are the true legends that only need two things to be great: a mic and time.

In all truthfulness, I think if John Cena were around in the attitude era, he would probably be as legendary as the Rock, people seem to forget that John Cena made it on being funny and crude on the mic, and a sick sick battle rapper, and he didnt start losing popularity until he had to start toning it down on RAW. If The Rock were here today, there is a good chance he would be in the John Cena position, all the charisma in the world, stellar promo's, but would be 'uncool' because he would be limited, but he would still be over and one of the top performers, and nothing but a cash register for Vince.

 

[Angleslammer]

True! I dont think Rock would have been as popular in a pg environment.

would he still have been a major player, probably, but i dont think he would have been nearly as over, can you imagine, him saying kiss his roody poo candy bottom? No, of course not it would have been stupid and all the teens and 20 year old's watching would have booed the hell out of him like they have cena the last five years.

it was a different era, and it wasnt until The Rock started talking smack as vulgar as he did that he took off!

I'm not a big Cena fan but I do give him props for being one of the few guys I think could function in two different eras, r or pg rated.

In short, yes the rock would have still been a big name but not nearly the success he had without the freedom to say the things he said (which would be restricted on today's pg tv)

 

[agentm005]

The Rock could get over in a babies show as well as in a pensioners show, he is like a piece of mould that can be shaped after the shape in your mind and still adapt to the new conditions.

Unless those new conditions are Disney movies, of course.

 

[Black Snow]

but cena a dime a dozen? if thats the case, why is he in a class of 3? (austin, hogan). check merch sales my friend.

I always love people who jump to the merchandise sales defense because I can always pull out this little fact.

The Hurricane was the top merchandise seller for over a year. If merch was such a huge deal then where is Helms' WWE or World title reign? Hell, where's his U.S. or IC title reign? Merch sales is the most overblown statistic ever. It's important but it's not THAT important.

In all truthfulness, I think if John Cena were around in the attitude era, he would probably be as legendary as the Rock, people seem to forget that John Cena made it on being funny and crude on the mic, and a sick sick battle rapper, and he didnt start losing popularity until he had to start toning it down on RAW. If The Rock were here today, there is a good chance he would be in the John Cena position, all the charisma in the world, stellar promo's, but would be 'uncool' because he would be limited, but he would still be over and one of the top performers, and nothing but a cash register for Vince.

I think this is the fatal flaw in some people's logic. Cena didn't lose popularity because he had to tone down his character. Granted, it was a contributing factor but it was far from the contributing factor. He mostly lost popularity because they kept matching him up with guys the fans liked more than him. Jericho, HBK, Angle and even friggin' Christian! He was also getting booed long before his title reigns got ridiculously long. That speaks to the lack of Cena's staying power.

Also, you're selling The Rock short. When has he ever been considered a limited performer? He's not the world's greatest wrestler but come on. He's had great matches with just about anyone. One of the big things that got him over was how unselfish he is and willing to put his opponent over like one million bucks. He did that nightly. I'm sorry, but you can't compare Rock to Cena. Rock never had a massive fan backlash. The only times the fans did turn on him were because they knew he was leaving the company for an extended period of time. That didn't speak to the Rock character though. Heck, even when they did turn on him he made it work in his favor. He turned heel and that made the fans love him even more! Cena gets booed like crazy and he tries to smile and act a little cocky but that doesn't stop the booing or change fan opinion.

The Rock is on a different level of entertainer that only guys like Austin and Flair can join him at. They can read from the phonebook and fans would eat it up and beg for more. Cena has been trying for over FOUR YEARS now to get the fans to react to him like they did in 03-04 and he continues to fail just as often as he succeeds.