Was CM Punk Right About The Rock?

[XXJJ]

Buyrates for The Rock's in ring return were 260,000. Those are very similar numbers to Survior Series 2010.

Punk said that The Rock is getting way too much credit for Wrestlemania 27 having 1 million buys. Rock had such a small role at WM, he was just a guest host. And it turnes out based off the SS numbers Punk was right. The great one's in ring return didn't do much.

If the Rock decided to become full-time wrestler for the WWE today. How big of a draw would he be?

Because I dont think he would be a bigger draw than some of the current guys. Sure if he only shows up at the biggest ppvs, and makes an occasional appearance it gets fans excited. But if he worked full-time I dont think he would make much of a difference. Second tier ppv's like Vengeance, Capital Punishment, Over the limit will not have more buys. Just look at the Survior Series buyrates. People are overrating Rock's current drawing power.

 

[FlexAmerican Dynamite]

Buyrates for The Rock's in ring return were 260,000. Those are very similar numbers to Survior Series 2010.

Punk said that The Rock is getting way too much credit for Wrestlemania 27 having 1 million buys. Rock had such a small role at WM, he was just a guest host. And it turnes out based off the SS numbers Punk was right. The great one's in ring return didn't do much.

If the Rock decided to become full-time wrestler for the WWE today. How big of a draw would he be?

Because I dont think he would be a bigger draw than some of the current guys. Sure if he only shows up at the biggest ppvs, and makes an occasional appearance it gets fans excited. But if he worked full-time I dont think he would make much of a difference. Second tier ppv's like Vengeance, Capital Punishment, Over the limit will not have more buys. Just look at the Survior Series buyrates. People are overrating Rock's current drawing power.

No. One simple reason,the product. Alittle sick of the people jumping on the Cm Punk bandwagon and start believing everything he says is true. If The Rock was a full time wrestler, GUARANTEED to be on RAW every monday night then you better believe more people are going to tune in more. Let's be honest here, besides Rock returning at SS what else was were we suppose to really look forward to at SS. Henry/Show? No. Traditional and predictable tag elimination matches? No. You can argue that Punk/Del Rio was good but there was no way that match could of held over the MSG crowd as the final match. Rock made what was looking as one of the most underutilized SS and made it look pretty decent.

 

[Y-2-Jay]

First wait for the official buyrate to be released because at the moment its just a rumor. The number for PPV buyrates always goes up and down before being officially released MITB 2011 was rumored to be near 300K at first but the official number was 195K.

The Rock got WWE 1 million buys for Wrestlemania no doubt the number was slipping each year before 27 and you have to remember the word going round about The Rock returning brought back lots of old viewers as well who would just buy this one PPV. Only thing i can say is wait for the official Survivor Series buyrate before questioning The Rock's drawing power.

 

[SPR*VLN]

Look at the Raw rating of the Rocks return in Feb '10. Now look at the first hour (average), now look at the second hour. Okay, lastly look the overrun rating of the Rocks promo. See those numbers?

. . . Yea he draws. And to anyone who thinks he wouldn't draw on a weekly basis isn't screwed too tight.

 

[Azane]

if a Rock event turns good, it was the Rock's doing, if a Rock event turns bad, it was the supporting cast.

This is the argument you will get pages of by his fanboys, so prepare for it.

The Rock isn't drawing that huge, because even super casual fans know he's only showing up for 5 minutes an event


Drawing RAW ratings here or there isn't a big deal. PPV Buyrates are much more telling, since if the Rock was a consistent player, he'd draw much less RAW time.

 

[Richard Blonoff]

Aside from The Rock, who was teaming with Cena, the guy everyone wants him to beat down, Survivor Series last year was fairly weak. Another reason I think that Rock wasn't a huge draw was expected ring rust. He was very protected in that match. Being out so long I think people expected it.

I also think the current product plays into it. When they did the 3 hour show a few months back and he was on for maybe 10 total minutes plus the Rock Bottom to Foley they had their love affair with Twitter and they kept Rock PG. One of the reasons I think he was so good on the mic in his day was his ability to lay down some fairly memorable PG-13/R rated promos. I think a lot of people, myself included, were dissapointed with his return and it caused interest in the PPV to drop.

To answer the other question. He would be one of the best draws. He is still The Rock. No amount of crappy Disney movies can change that. Let him work a few post show matches and squash a few jobbers to clean off the rust and he would be back on top. The problem though is people know when he makes his "appearances" its either by satellite or its a quick watered down promo with Cena where they can't stop mentioning whats trending on Twitter

 

[Dalinkwent]

No. One simple reason,the product. Alittle sick of the people jumping on the Cm Punk bandwagon and start believing everything he says is true. If The Rock was a full time wrestler, GUARANTEED to be on RAW every monday night then you better believe more people are going to tune in more. Let's be honest here, besides Rock returning at SS what else was were we suppose to really look forward to at SS. Henry/Show? No. Traditional and predictable tag elimination matches? No. You can argue that Punk/Del Rio was good but there was no way that match could of held over the MSG crowd as the final match. Rock made what was looking as one of the most underutilized SS and made it look pretty decent.

Buyrates aside. Punk was right in one regard that Rock shouldn't be the only thing WWE is counting on for buys and product interest. Rock is a short term gain when WWE needs LONG TERM gains to create interest in the product overall. WWE booking and creative was beyond piss poor during the build towards SS, even Rock's angle was loosing steam. This isn't Rock's fault, but WWE's overall. WWE is guilty of playing it safe and not pushing the bounderies to see what could work, if they were Cena would have turned heel long ago. WWE thought as long as Rock was featured that would be enough, well clearly it wasn't.

 

[bk555]

No, if The Rock is the reason Survivor Series sold at ALL. He is the main reason Wrestlemania was so succcessful. The Rock's name instantly translates into PPV buys and publicity for WWE. Thats just the kind of person he is on the mainstream media and in the IWC. Everyone, no matter what they say, is interested in the the Rock. End of Story. Punk was right about the Rock coming back and being a bit selfish, but here he is totally wrong.

 

[ReneO93]

I honestly thinks it's arrogant of Punk to be comparing himself to The Rock. First off, the ratings have actually gone down with him in the spotlight. So, he's nowhere near the level of popularity that The Rock has. Second, the fact that his gimmick is basically him just being himself (AKA, being that guy that tells it like it is) means he's a fucking prick. He's lucky as hell that he didn't get released after December to Dismember, people. All because HBK spoke up to WWE staff, he was kept in the company, and the rest is history.

 

[H33LTurn]

You have to be kidding me. First of all as it has already been stated, he does draw and would draw on a weekly basis on RAW. Second of all the only thing people had to look forward to on SS was The Rock. I wouldnt pay around 60 bucks to see The Rock and Cena in a tag match against Truth and Miz. Remember who The Rock was fighting. If you even had the slightest thought that The Rock wasnt going to come out on top at that ppv you need your head examed. Mania will sell because its Rock vs Cena one on one. Plus you're already got a great card being rumored to include the likes of Orton, Jericho, and Punk so yeah its going to sell to every demographic possible on the highest scales. Rock is the only reason we've been talking about WM 28 since last year, remember that. Dont compare the largest attraction WWE has to a ppv that only had one semi important match. And Black Dynamite was right, some people need to jump off the bandwagon and realize the character Punk is playing. Like his theme says, its a cult of personality, hes the only one in the business trying to discredit The Rock, and its for his own personal gain. If he has any brains hes sitting in a hotel right now laughing at all the people who believe the crap he spews. Remember, he does it for a paycheck too.

 

[dman1373]

i think that everyone is wrong. The wrestlemania buyrates broke 1 million cause of snooki. I know alot of people that aren't wrestling fans, that watched wm because of snooki. I didn't hear anyone say "i am watching wrestlemania cause of the rock" Thats just my experience with people.

 

[BASSER911414]

i think that everyone is wrong. The wrestlemania buyrates broke 1 million cause of snooki. I know alot of people that aren't wrestling fans, that watched wm because of snooki. I didn't hear anyone say "i am watching wrestlemania cause of the rock" Thats just my experience with people.

Really cant tell if you're joking or not.

The fact that u never heard anyone say Im watching wrestlemania for the rock says a lot about your credibility in itself. Or maybe you're just a jersey shore fan who never saw wrestling in the previous decade and a half.

Firstly there have been tons of other celebrities participating at wrestlemania way way way more famous than snooki who have never broken 1 mil buyrates and trust me snooki isnt about to do that herself. Nobody is going to pay what 80 bucks ?? to see a brown little midget doing a backflip. Get your head examined and please accept the fact that in the WWE the Rock has more drawing power than any celebrity in the world. Except maybe michael jackson rising from the dead or something like that.

And your experience with people. Who do u hang out with, I'm curious ??

 

[SinCityBlitz]

Really cant tell if you're joking or not.

The fact that u never heard anyone say Im watching wrestlemania for the rock says a lot about your credibility in itself. Or maybe you're just a jersey shore fan who never saw wrestling in the previous decade and a half.

Firstly there have been tons of other celebrities participating at wrestlemania way way way more famous than snooki who have never broken 1 mil buyrates and trust me snooki isnt about to do that herself. Nobody is going to pay what 80 bucks ?? to see a brown little midget doing a backflip. Get your head examined and please accept the fact that in the WWE the Rock has more drawing power than any celebrity in the world. Except maybe michael jackson rising from the dead or something like that.

And your experience with people. Who do u hang out with, I'm curious ??

He is somewhat right. I also know a lot of non wrestling fans who ordered Wrestlemania for Snooki. I can't stand the little Hobbit but her fans will pony up the dough to see her. You underestimate the MTV crowd.

Obviously the Rock had a bigger impact.

But Punk is right in that The Rock is not drawing like he used to. Everybody knows this just a part time ego thing for him. So it wouldn't surprise me if SS 2011 didn't do that much more than 2010.

The Rock fans in this thread are funny with the excuses they make for him. First he draws but even if he doesn't it's not his fault because no one wants to see him and Cena vs Miz and Truth? That right there is the definition of not drawing. I love it when the Rock draws it's all him but when he doesn't it must be someone else's fault.

The WWE needs to let Rock go because he makes them look bad by coming back via satellite for 5 minutes once a month.

 

[XXJJ]

You guys cant say that Rock is the only reason people bought Survior Series. When last year they did about the same number. They can produce that number without him.

The reason they were not many other great storylines going into SS was because of The Rock...his in ring comeback was suppose to be the main attraction.

Lesnar return fight in UFC did 750,000 buys. That is a big time draw. Vince needs to do everything possible to bring Lesnar back. Punk is right Rock is outdated. A lot of his 18-25 year old fanbase during the attitude era have outgrown him. They are now in their 30's with families and dont watch wrestling anymore. Lesnar is more popular with the current 18-25 year old demographic.

 

[Huey]

You have to be kidding me. First of all as it has already been stated, he does draw and would draw on a weekly basis on RAW. Second of all the only thing people had to look forward to on SS was The Rock. I wouldnt pay around 60 bucks to see The Rock and Cena in a tag match against Truth and Miz. Remember who The Rock was fighting. If you even had the slightest thought that The Rock wasnt going to come out on top at that ppv you need your head examed. Mania will sell because its Rock vs Cena one on one. Plus you're already got a great card being rumored to include the likes of Orton, Jericho, and Punk so yeah its going to sell to every demographic possible on the highest scales. Rock is the only reason we've been talking about WM 28 since last year, remember that. Dont compare the largest attraction WWE has to a ppv that only had one semi important match. And Black Dynamite was right, some people need to jump off the bandwagon and realize the character Punk is playing. Like his theme says, its a cult of personality, hes the only one in the business trying to discredit The Rock, and its for his own personal gain. If he has any brains hes sitting in a hotel right now laughing at all the people who believe the crap he spews. Remember, he does it for a paycheck too.

I wouldn't say CM Punk is the only one trying to "discredit" The Rock. Cena has been pretty outspoken about and Randy Orton didn't shy away from the subject.

You can write Cena off as all storyline but it's my opinion he feels there's a lot of truth in what he says.

It's more than just CM Punk calling him out. It's three of the top guys in the company.

You can argue that The Rock sold wrestlemania or that it was Snooki bringing in the buys but it's just conjecture. Unless WWE issued a poll when buying Wrestlemania there's no way to know. Any comment otherwise is just speculation.

For every argument that The Rock didn't help sell Survivor Series there's the ratings increase he brought to raw. For every one that points to the buys on wrestlemania there's the allegedly poor buy rates for survivor series.

 

[shooter_mcgavin]

Considering that WM27 had a lackluster card (compared to WM26 of course) one could make the assumption that The Rock did actually help WM27 get over one million buys while WM26 did much lower. I am sure that one million did not order WM27 because of the "epic" Miz vs. Cena showdown. Right?

 

[dman1373]

Really cant tell if you're joking or not.

The fact that u never heard anyone say Im watching wrestlemania for the rock says a lot about your credibility in itself. Or maybe you're just a jersey shore fan who never saw wrestling in the previous decade and a half.

Firstly there have been tons of other celebrities participating at wrestlemania way way way more famous than snooki who have never broken 1 mil buyrates and trust me snooki isnt about to do that herself. Nobody is going to pay what 80 bucks ?? to see a brown little midget doing a backflip. Get your head examined and please accept the fact that in the WWE the Rock has more drawing power than any celebrity in the world. Except maybe michael jackson rising from the dead or something like that.

And your experience with people. Who do u hang out with, I'm curious ??

You obviously are a ******. First of all i meant in the real world i have never heard anyone say they are watching wrestlemania to see the rock host. And lets be honest here. The rock is a c list celebrity at best. Thats not knocking the guy or anything, but he just isn't leonardo dicaprio or anything or even kim kardashian. And i don't like kim kardashian or anything, thats just the way it is. Now him hosting wrestlemania isn't going to have the casual fan say hey I want to watch some movie star that started off in wrestling host a 50 dollar show(not saying that some wont). That means he has to get the wrestling fans to buy the ppv. Now ill just ask you this, did you buy ppv because the rock was hosting. Did you pay 50 bucks just to see the rock host. If you did then i am sorry for you, but the majority of wrestling fans who bought the ppv just cause its wrestlemania.

Now if you look at snooki. She is an a lister(just calling it how I see it). And plus she is an short little puff ball. She was getting major coverage from things like entertainment tonight and e news. People wanted to see what she would do and if she would fail or whatever. She is a draw nomatter how you slice it. Shes more of a draw because she has never wrestled before.

Now your acting like Im crazy just because i know that snooki is bigger then the rock is right now. Its just a fact. Just because the rock is your favorite and little snooki is not a wrestler, you jumble your mind untill it makes sense that your favorite is the greatest draw, the biggest celebrity, the best wrestler, and all that when its just not the case.

 

[SPR*VLN]

Wow, your saying Rock fans are 30 with families? I think you got Rock confused with Hogan. He's been drawing since '04, not '84. There still are fans 18-25 (I'm sure even younger) who still remember the Rock and will order because of him. Ive got a couple of friends who are ordering WM28 just to see the Rock, I am also.

Also, you may have forgotten dude is a established movie star. He's picked up younger and older fans who never tuned into WWE. So saying the Rocks fans are old, and wont contribute to the sucess or buyrates is a weak arguement.

I don't even know why I'm wasting my time to prove the obvious. I'm never amazed by this forum, next time I come on here people will be saying Punk is weak, and sex is bad.

 

[tjmars]

First of all I would like to say that I like The Rock a lot and he's one of the best to ever do it...

But there is no way possible that The Rock all on his own got one million buys for Wrestlemania. A lot of people probably bought it because it is Wrestlemania and would have bought it regardless. Also, people may have wanted to see what was going to happen with John Cena after he AA'd The Rock on Raw that week. It is a joint effort.

There's no doubt that The Rock may have brought in more viewers with all the hype and everything but he is not solely responsible for all those buys. Credit also goes to John Cena for giving the Rock an actual reason for being there besides to open the show and do a few backstage segments. And credit for the rest of the roster who busted their ass the whole night.

By the way, I do believe that The Rock would get pretty stale pretty quick if he returned full time to the roster. Yeah it's all great now when he shows up every now and again and it gets the crowd excited because absence makes the heart grow fonder but his act would get kinda boring in this day and age. The main reason why people go crazy for him is because we don't know how long we will have him and we may never see him again after Mania. Do you still get excited for Stone Cold? Probably, but not as much as you do for The Rock because we know that Austin will always be a part of WWE in one way or another no matter what.

So my point is give The Rock his credit where it's due, but not all of the credit.

 

[kabby420]

the rock will always draw massive numbers, (the industry i work in)...lets just say they arent wwe fans....were watching, and some are still watching the product...im not kidding you when i say this... from the raw after the rock returned...all of a sudden all the blackberry messenger names were changing to something "ROCK" related everyone in the damn universe was pumped up to see THE GREAT ONE again, theres a very good reason for this.......HE REALLY WAS THE GREAT ONE...people remember what he did, and if he came back full time all the time....it would take him 2 full time weeks to be right back where he left off....unfortunately he is dwayne johnson....sometimes they call him the rock....so when he comes back they can only do so much with a guy who is really comming into a wwe that is growing their talent as we speak....so they stick em with cena...tell him to ease up on the pie jokes, and let 1 future GREAT (arguably) have fun with the past GREAT...and throw twitter into the mix as well...rock cant be at live events all the time....when he can he does, if not he uses satellite or pre recorded stuff....everyone needs to face it...he aint ever commin back as THE ROCK....we're all going to have to settle with dwayne"The Rock"johnson....
But if he did come back full time he would absolutely smash every buyrate record there is for everything...he is that damn good... if he chose that life path... but he did not

 

[PowerHouse]

Nobody in the WWE can draw like The Rock can... Not Cena,CmPunk,DelRio,Orton,Sheamus,Big Show,Mark Henry,Jericho none of them have the drawing power that the Rock does. The only guy who can draw like The Rock is Stone Cold Steve Austin thats it!!!!!!!!!! So anyone who thinks that the Rock isnt the reason that WM had as many buys as it did is kidding themselves. Whatever the Buyrate of SS was you can bet that it was because those people who bought the PPV bought it to see the Rock.

 

[sicmcnasti]

I also think the current product plays into it. When they did the 3 hour show a few months back and he was on for maybe 10 total minutes plus the Rock Bottom to Foley they had their love affair with Twitter and they kept Rock PG. One of the reasons I think he was so good on the mic in his day was his ability to lay down some fairly memorable PG-13/R rated promos. I think a lot of people, myself included, were dissapointed with his return and it caused interest in the PPV to drop.
Twitter

Are you serious? You act like The Rock used to drop F bombs left and right. The Attitude Era wasn't this crazy experience full of nipples and murder. The Rock said "ass", "crap", and "bitch" then and he said the same thing for his promo in November. There were no R rated promos during the Attitude era. His promo in November was classic Rock. Nothing less. If you were disappointed by his promo and by his return that's because you were delusional. There are plenty of of porn movies that might be more to your liking. Hopefully Val Venis won't come back for you to have false feelings about his past.

 

[quink987]

I find it funny that orton and Punk are bad mouthing Rock because you can tell they are Jealous, Think about it if they had the drawing power do you think they would need Rock for WM28? and Plus wasnt it just a few weeks ago that you all was bad mouthing Punk about being a shit draw? Im sorry but most of the IWC cant make their fucking minds up!

and another thing do you think Punk would be bad mouthing Rock this much if he was in the Main event with him hell no! Punk is pissed off because he finally gets a big push and he is still 2nd string to Cena and now the Rock! plus for 7 years everyone has been saying I wish ROck would come back for 1 more match and now he has your all bitching about him, remember for someone to be a big draw they need the right story to be involved in and the right opponent to face and to be honest how come everyone watched WM28 because we was all waiting for Rock to get his hands on Cena not for the Punk/Orton Match which was low on the card, not the HHH/Taker Match which everyone bad mouthed after it RANT OVER!

 

[shafe_41]

This thread makes me want to punch myself in the dick for some of the utter stupidity I'm reading. Where this 260,000 buyrate is coming from is puzzling me because I've seen that number umm..... nowhere. Preliminary numbers were up around 280,000... which was UP from the 244,000 last year. So to say buyrate was 260k, about the same as last year... false.

Second, do you remember how much trouble the WWE had selling tickets for Mania last year? No? For shame. Well they did. I'm not going look for dates of reports on how many tickets were left, but the facts are there if you want to find them. But as soon as it was announced The Rock was going to be there, tickets flew and they sold out.

Third, look what the Rock did at SS this year. Nobody truly cared it was his "in-ring return." Because guess what? We knew the outcome of the match before it even started. Cena/Rock vs..... Miz and Truth? A combined... 17 or 18 titles or so vs. two guys that have been champion... uhhhhhhhhh once. That isn't interesting. There was NOTHING interesting about that match. There never was going into it. THAT is why people didn't order Survivor Series. Because overall, the card was garbage. The buyrates of SS2011 had nothing to do with The Rock. Sure he garnered a little more interest with buyrates going from 244k to at least 280k and I've read anywhere possibly up to 310k, but that doesn't save the card from sucking any less.

The Rock deserves A LOT of the credit for WM27 buys being over a million because when he returned to Raw that night and cut his promo for hosting WM27, he overshadowed every single person in that locker room and what they've done over the past 7 years in ONE NIGHT with his promo. People ordered WM27 because as the build-up to Mania went on, you knew The Rock was going to get his hands on Cena, and that's what people wanted to see. People wanted to see some of the real-life heat between those 2 guys on the biggest stage possible. You really do need to quit believing everything that comes out of CM Punk's mouth. I love the guy, but he's hardly the "pipebomb" he wants you to believe.

So when Mania buyrates come out for Wrestlemania this year and they're upwards of 1.2 million, I suppose The Rock won't be the reason for that either. Will he?

 

[Ruthless-RKO]

I've got a big feeling that WrestleMania 28 will do more than 1 million buys.. Why? Just because of the fact that we will see The Rock in one on one action and who better to put him up against? The biggest star in WWE today John Cena.. You can't say you're not looking forward to this match.. Some say it's atually bigger than Hogan/Rock.. And Vince booking the match a year in advance? Genius!! They've had beef for years and now over a year feud in the WWE..

Other people will order the event to watch the streak, because that's another big seller.. I'm kinda going off the point.. but the fact is, because the Rock took 7 years out of the ring, him being back, he is a big draw!! Some are saying the SS buyrates were hadly up from last year, fair enough, THEY DID INCREASE THOUGH!! Survivor Series hasn't really been the same since 2005.. Say he had the match at SummerSlam, it would have been much better IMO!!


Another thing.. I think now days, you can't blame the product! WWE has its loyal fans, but remember USA isn't in a good financial position, actually half the world is kinda going downhill.. not many people can afford it, hence why you get live streaming on the net.. I can guarantee people will be saving some money to order this years WrestleMania..