The Importance of…12.05.08: The Rock

-Is it just me or has Chris Jericho been booked like a total bitch for the last couple weeks? Don’t get me wrong, I like the whole manipulative, conniving heel thing, and think that his mic work, particularly interacting with the other heels, and talking about his son, has been very smart and well-done. But as for the physical elements of his program with John Cena, let’s review:

Survivor Series: Cena beats Jericho clean to take the title

Raw, Nov. 24: Jericho tries to punk out Cena verbally; Cena single handedly destroys him physically, making him tap out before leaving him lying in the ring

Raw, Dec. 1: Jericho runs in on Cena’s match with Kane and gets absolutely pummeled. Cena gets back in the ring, and cleanly wins his match, brushing off the minor inconvenience of Jericho’s interference.
To be fair, Jericho did get the last laugh for this week, locking in the original Walls for the final image of the show. But that’s only after three other guys joined him to jump the Champ, which was only after a full match with Kane.

To sum up, Jericho is playing his douchebag mastermind heel gimmick perfectly, but the booking has left me with absolutely no reason to believe Y2J could ever beat Cena in a one-on-one match.

-Has anyone else noticed a pattern taking shape in Batista’s matches? Excluding last week’s triple threat, he’s had, in many ways, the same Raw match in consecutive weeks now with Cody Rhodes, Manu, and Dolph Ziggler. In each instance, the young and up and comer is aggressive, and surprises the big man by countering or evading some of his signature offense, and mostly dominating the match for about five minutes. Then Big Dave comes back, hits two or three power moves and wins the match.

All in all, it is a fairly effective formula. Anyone gets a lift when he gets most of the offense in on Batista, regardless of the outcome of the match. And the fact that Batista still wins keeps him strong. Nonetheless, any formula used too many times is going to come to a point where it wears on the fans. I think this pattern is approaching that level.

On to our regular column

In a wrestling world full of stars, there is no one to make a bigger impact for as short a period of time as The Great One, The People’s Champion, The Brahma Bull, the one and only Rock.

The Rock helped teach WWE how to use a legacy. Much of the buzz around Rocky Maivia, upon his debut, was the fact that he was a rare third generation wrestler. What the company learned in a hurry was that no one cared. Rocky Maivia was utterly vanilla in the ring, and his father and grandfather, while legends, weren’t significant enough names to the fans of the time to warrant any undue respect (the way, you could argue, Dusty Rhodes or Ted Dibiase did for their sons). Even if the memories of the fathers were more relevant or more recent, young Rocky still demonstrated the need for a young star to prove himself on his own merits.

The Rock’s greatest ability was his gift for gab. I’ve heard it said that Pat Patterson wrote a number of Rock’s promos, and I have no real evidence to point either way. But even if someone was feeding him lines, I would still argue that no one has ever delivered lines better, in the history of the business. There was the iconic promo Rock cut on Billy Gunn, praying to God that people would stop thinking he sucked. There was the pre-Armageddon promo during which he busted balls on four of the greatest stars of all time… and Rikishi. And then there was my personal favorite, when Rock sang a customized version of “The 12 Days of Christmas” to Test, talking about the 12 ways in which he would annihilate his foe on Smackdown.

In addition to the sheer quality of The Rock’s performance on the stick, his promos deserve special mention for the way in which they transcended the business. Everyone knows the lines about smelling what the Rock is cooking. While certain crowds, and the pro wrestling community had been using “jabroni” for years Rock turned it mainstream. And then, most notably of all, Rock made laying the smack down a way of life. It’s a common phrase, both for those referring to wrestling, and also to people who just want to talk about taking care of business in an assertive fashion. DX may have popularized “Suck it!” and Stone Cold may have gotten the nation to give him a “hell yeah,” but no wrestler got his catchphrases into the vernacular with quite the same notoriety as The Great One.

Beyond the promos, The Rock was quite able to back up his talk as an actual wrestler. While critics will rightfully call his in-ring mannerisms a bit cartoonish, the man’s charisma is undeniable. He got people to pop when he raised his eyebrow. He made an elbow drop the most over move in the business, and his electrifying style of movement was truly unique. The charisma shone through clearest in Rock’s showdown with Hulk Hogan at Wrestlemania 18. While Hogan was the star of the match, that’s in no small part because of the way The Rock put him over, knowing just how to orchestrate the match to give fans the show they really wanted. Beyond the charisma, Rock showed time and again that he had the goods as well, perhaps most notably demonstrating his conditioning a one hour iron man classic against Triple H just as both men hit their primes.

A lot of folks from both inside and outside the business knock The Rock now for leaving his roots behind, shunning wrestling and even The Rock persona, in favor of pursuing an acting career as Duane Johnson. I will concede that I’ve been disappointed with how little we’ve seen of the man in the wrestling world in recent years, and a bit taken aback at his seeming unwillingness to help out the company with appearances at its rougher times. Regardless, whatever anyone wants to say about it, Rock’s performance at the 2008 Hall of Fame ceremony reaffirmed what I knew—even if he is gone, he still has the goods to be one of the best if he ever wants to come back. And even he doesn’t, more power to him, I suppose. After all, how many stars have we seen overstay their welcomes—leaving the business as shells of their former selves, whether it’s geriatric performers like Ric Flair, a nearly crippled men like Bret Hart, or ruined people like Chris Benoit. I don’t necessarily mean to knock any of these men, but am simply arguing that there’s something wrong with a business where your fans and peers demand you keep going until you can’t go anymore. It’s sad not to see The Rock in the ring anymore, but more power to Duane Johnson for making his own decisions about when to leave, and living the life that he wants to live.