From there, week after week, as Rocky embraced “The Rock” more and more, he literally became him. All those great promos, all those great deliveries, all those money one-liners . . . ALL HIM. I wish I could stake claim to the greatness of the line, “If you smell what the Rock was cookin’”, but that was all his genius. Man, without disrespect to any one, with the exception of Austin – and let’s just call that one a tie – “The Rock” was just so much better than everybody else.
When I look back and I relive that game changing conversation with Rocky Maivia, I realize that I had hundreds of conversations like that with hundreds of wrestlers. As a writer, you are constantly trying new things, especially when you have a live show every single week. So, it is your duty, and your job, to keep feeding the talent new ideas and new material, but at the end of the day – it’s what that individual does with that material.
“The Rock” took a simple name that I had, for arguments sake, “borrowed” from another WWF legend, and turned that into money that he couldn’t even count if he wanted to. THAT was all him.
I’ve always said that “The Rock” is arguably the greatest sports-entertainer, not only of our time, but of ALL TIME. In my honest opinion, I don’t think another will come even close, ever. I think it all boils down to one thing – “The Rock” was just so much damn smarter than everybody else. If you gave him one single brick, he would build you a Kardashian mansion. He just had that sixth sense of knowing what to do and what to say, in every single situation, to capitalize on the maximum potential of every second that he was on air. THAT is how you build a priceless brand.
And look at what happened just three short days ago when he returned to RAW – “The Rock” once again owned it. And, for the few minutes that he was in that ring, nobody could touch him…or even come close. That, ladies and gentlemen, is when you know that you are on a playing field all by yourself.
Don’t even bother picking up a bat or putting on your glove. Once “The Rock” takes the field, it’s simply game over.
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