Should The Rock End His WWE Career?By Ben Spindler| May 5, 2013 Wrestling Blogs Previous Page Whatever you make of the WWE’s decision to ignore their ‘once in a lifetime’ selling point at the previous year’s Wrestlemania event, booking a rematch was a good decision for business. To believe that they would have passed up the opportunity to promote the two in a second match is naïve in the extreme given the amount of money that was made in their initial bout, a rematch was always on the cards once the number of people who bought Wrestlemania 28 was as high as it was. By adding the WWE Title to the mix, the company had upped the stakes for the pair’s second confrontation, and with back up from Triple H/Lesnar and CM Punk/Undertaker, as well as a hike in prices to as much as $70 for purchasing the pay-per-view in HD, the company was confident they were on to another money-spinning evening. At Elimination Chamber, The Rock pinned CM Punk for a second time in less than a month in defence of his title and the match with John Cena was officially set. The two matches with CM Punk had been disappointing; neither match hitting the heights that were expected. Given Punk’s reputation as one of the best in-ring workers in the business some saw it as evidence that The Rock was not capable of being involved in quality matches now that he had turned 40 years of age. This was further enforced when Punk and Cena faced each other on Raw just 2 weeks after Elimination Chamber and whipped up a great collision played before intense crowd heat and involving the kind of drama that was hoped would be provided by The Rock’s matches. It was as though the two full timers were sending a message to The Rock and the rest of the world that The Rock could no longer go, and that he didn’t belong in the ring with them. Perhaps, of more concern to The Rock should be that a large portion of fair minded wrestling fans might now have had cause to agree with them. Some blamed this on The Rock’s near-super human physique that had been cultivated in preparation for his role as Hercules in his latest movie role. With such bulk on his frame, The Rock did not have the conditioning that a slimmed down version might have, which made his matches a much slower pace than modern day fans are used to. At Wrestlemania 29 itself where Cena was able to get his redemption and avenge his loss from the previous year, the match was again no more than average which made it hard for a crowd who’d earlier witnessed CM Punk and The Undertaker’s collision to get fully up for. The Rock left to a mixed response when he sportingly raised the new champ’s hand at the end of the show. The next night, prior to Raw, it was announced that The Rock had suffered an injury during his match with Cena and would not be appearing as scheduled. And so we return to where we came in, with the question of whether or not The Rock should call time on his wrestling career, this time for good. Firstly, The Rock still faces much resentment within the locker room, as a former wrestler who has found fame in the mainstream and therefore is no longer subject to the rigours of WWE’s hectic schedule or the physical tests that come with it, some of those still scratching around trying to make a name for themselves were bound to be bitter when he returned into one of the top positions on the biggest card of the year. Obviously, the point that they miss is that if the members of the current roster were capable of drawing the kind of crowds that The Rock is then the WWE wouldn’t bother hiring him, but from The Rock’s perspective, why should he want to put up with it, he has a successful and lucrative career in Hollywood where he is treated like a star wherever he goes. This has also been a prolific stretch for Dwayne Johnson the actor, who already this year has seen 4 of his moves released (Snitch, Empire State, GI Joe: Retaliation and Pain & Gain). He is also now promoting Fast & Furious 6 which is released next month and currently filming the new Hercules movie. Why, when the combined money from these releases will dwarf the salary he makes from appearing in the WWE, would The Rock return to a place where a large portion of his colleagues are resentful to him and he is often greeted by live audiences with a round of boos, or worse still (as was the case at Wrestlemania 29) indifference. If ever there was a case of an individual being bigger than the business it is The Rock, who doesn’t need, and in truth would probably be better off without, the WWE and the schedule that even for a part timer is a tough one. Fast Five cast: Dwayne Johnson, Ludacris, Jordana Brewster, Vin Diesel and Paul Walker It was widely reported at the time that in the beginning of The Rock’s movie career, he was advised that he would benefit from removing himself completely from professional wrestling. Not only would it allow him to be defined as an actor rather than a wrestler, but also that he wouldn’t be written off by critics as merely a ‘sports-entertainer’. Maybe The Rock had been away long enough that the studios he was working for felt that returning to the WWE could be beneficial as it would allow him to explore another route to market and promote the films he was appearing in whilst making some extra money on the side, and certainly the success of GI Joe would suggest that this has been the case, but those same studios may also be seeing the other side of that equation in the shape of Johnson’s hernia injury that he reportedly picked up at Wrestlemania. With The Rock still in the middle of shooting Hercules, a role that requires him to take part in a number of highly physical scenes, picking up an injury in a setting not connected to his movie commitments, represents a big risk. Put it this way, if a studio is aware that The Rock will be appearing in the ring again on a couple of occasions in the next year, are they going to be wary of casting him? Someone who could get injured in the process of his wrestling time, putting filming behind schedule and costing the studio large sums of money? Whilst this hasn’t been an issue before, The Rock is now 40 years of age, and the bumps he takes in the ring are far more likely to result in sustained pain and rehabilitation time than once was the case. Indeed, blockbuster director Michael Bay joked last week saying that The Rock needed to grow up and leave the wrestling behind. This more than anything else may be the prompt for The Rock to call time once and for all on his wrestling career. On the flip side, what might the WWE be willing to offer The Rock to keep coming back? The WWE will be looking back on The Rock’s return to the company as a massively profitable period. When The Rock came back in 2011 to appear as the special guest host of Wrestlemania 27, he was required to help the pay-per-view achieve the number of buys expected for the biggest event of the year. As mentioned before, Wrestlemania 28 was the biggest money event in the history of the business and the WWE has announced this week that Wrestlemania 29 is on course to go one better.The Rock’s mere presence in the WWE means that more people will watch and there is more likely to be mainstream publicity trained on the product. Whilst all this is true and has been beneficial in a number of ways since The Rock’s return a couple of years ago, there are a number of reasons why The Rock continuing might not be all that great an idea going forward. One of the hopes that fans of the WWE had upon The Rock’s return was that he would be able to help build and put over a new generation of superstars. As mentioned earlier, if done properly, The Rock had the ability, just by mere association, to raise the profile of some of the younger guys on the roster. However, this turned out not to be the case and The Rock did not mix on screen at all with the rest of the roster. Furthermore, his victories over CM Punk, told the fans only one thing- that CM Punk is not in the same league as The Rock- again, not exactly a message that is good for the company in the long term. It could also be argued that The Rock’s freakish size made other members, working a very heavy schedule (and therefore unable to work out as regularly as an actor) look puny in comparison, hardly beneficial to the WWE in the long run when The Rock was never going to be more than an occasional attraction. The Rock is perhaps too big for the WWE, when he is on their shows he is presented as the star and being so important that other talents on the show can’t get over, if you look at the career of The Miz, you see a man who has been forgotten about simply because the biggest match of his career was almost completely cast in the shade by the presence of The Rock as guest host for the night. Since then The Miz has been going nowhere fast, thanks in part to his big victory in the main event of Wrestlemania 27 being overshadowed by The Rock and John Cena’s first physical confrontation. Also, The Rock does take up one of the big spots on the promotion’s biggest show, a space which might be better handed to someone who can represent the company for the next 10 years, rather than someone who, even if he doesn’t retire now, will only likely step in the ring once or twice a year. Finally, The Rock has been largely criticised for his in-ring performances this year, including in his matches with CM Punk, widely regarded as the best wrestler in the world presently. At his age, The Rock’s performances are only going to get worse as he gets older, he may be able to retain the presence which sets him apart from others, but the industry has moved on somewhat from when The Rock was in his prime and ultimately The Rock’s act hasn’t progressed at the same pace (inevitably as he hasn’t been around the business for large periods of time). It would be a real shame if The Rock continued to return to the ring and tarnish his reputation as one of the top workers in the business as so many others have done in the past twenty years or so. It is unlikely that The Rock will return to put over ‘the next big thing’ and as such, his continued presence would only breed more resentment from other wrestlers and the fans. Do the WWE really even still need The Rock to provide them with the big numbers? The WWE has a plethora of part time stars that will be available in the future, Triple H, Undertaker and Brock Lesnar will more than likely all be at next years’ Wrestlemania and there is even still the potential of Steve Austin returning for one last hurrah, now that his health is sufficiently better than it was when he retired. Should Austin return to action for Wrestlemania 30, does it really add anything to also have The Rock at the same event? More importantly than all of this is that the WWE desperately needs to create a new generation of top stars and given The Rock’s lack of interaction with those who are likely to be part of that during his most recent spell with the company, it would suggest that The Rock is not someone who is going to contribute to that process. The Rock should have a special place in the hearts of the WWE Universe, he is one of the most charismatic wrestlers in the history of the business and in his day was a fine worker who had great matches with practically everyone on the roster. He is a future hall of famer without question and has drawn the kind of money that only a very exclusive group of people can claim to have. Furthermore, nobody in the history of professional wrestling has been more successful in breaking into the mainstream than The Rock, not even Hulk Hogan. With his diminishing performances and the potential for injury in the ring, The Rock would be risking more from continued appearances than he has to gain. As has been stated, the WWE doesn’t need him to keep wrestling and in fact might be healthier in the long run if he stayed away. For these reasons I hope that we have now seen the last of The Rock in the WWE.
