The Rock Gets Mojo Back in Concert, Lousy Portion of Internet Fans Unimpressed

The Rock doesn't have it anymore.  He's mean.  He's got a potty-mouth. 

His Karaoke skills are questionable, and since it isn't 10 years ago, the otherwise impossible, nostalgic standards that have been set for him within our minds will never be met. Ever. 

Rest in peace, Rock.  Hello Dwayne.

At least this is what the very minor portion of whiny Internet guys want you to think.

This past week on the WWE RAW SuperShow saw a live rebound from the Rock after a few weeks of being noticeably outgunned by John Cena on the mic. 

Whether or not these previous debates were meticulously designed to get Cena over headed into WrestleMania with the Rock willingly downgrading his own work is quickly turning into pro wrestling's version of "the chicken or the egg."  In any event, any doubts about whether the Rock had lost it were quickly erased Monday night.

Unless, of course, you are a despondent doubter.  

With the WWE's grand scheme of splitting its fanbase working on all fronts, even with the often "smart," jaded fans, some detractors on the Rock found his concert to be in bad taste and poorly executed. 

They want the guy from 10 years ago who didn't have the No. 1 movie in the world, multiple high-profile roles in the can and a strenuous Hollywood schedule outside of the WWE.  You know?  When he's not carrying a pay-per-view with little depth and no direction outside of the top three matches?

And can you believe the guy had the nerve to read off of a music sheet? 

Armageddon-mongering pundits and/or fans have taken to the public forum to unload their myopic vitriol on what they feel is a washed-up, over-pandering version of one of the greatest WWE Superstars of all time.

Criticisms from the one percent of the Rock's recent concert, which in my eyes was as entertaining as it was fitting for the setting and setup of WrestleMania (setup as in it complemented more tense, serious angles shot on the show a la Punk-Jericho), submit that the Rock was pandering too much to the live crowd and fumbled on the Karaoke portion of his concert, both of which are true. 

However, when one thinks of the brute and impossible-to-please nature of the ingrates who will continue to whine about Rock not being 26 anymore and Cena dressing appropriately in a rapper gimmick for one week out of the year, it becomes that much easier to laugh it off.  Or, in my case, write facetiously about it.

These, mind you, are the same people who turned on Cena after failing to realize (or accept) his corporate value to the WWE.  Far be it for them to digest the fact that Cena desperately needed to evolve from his rapper gimmick to become the lucrative top guy and saving grace he is for the WWE. 

Now they've set their sights on the Rock, whose promos during his full-time WWE days only grow in legend the more time passes by.  This has in turn created a monster that Rock will never be able to slay in the mind of an ardent pessimist.

Fortunately, this is the one percent we're talking about, and like the live-crowd reaction seemed to do with them, their overly analytical opinion of the Rock seems to have fallen on deaf ears among their own readership. 

To illustrate the myopia of some who felt the Rock's concert was further proof that he lost his touch, look no further than this article, which tried valiantly to theorize just that. 

A subsequent poll in the very same article revealed that a resounding 73.8 percent of readers felt the Rock's performance was either good or the best segment of the night.  But what do they know?  They're just "regular" wrestling fans who lack the ability to over-think things.  Maybe their brains are too small.   

Even the glass-half-full specialists at the PWTorch couldn't convince their reader(s) of the Rock's alleged demise, as despite WrestleMania-caliber whining from the small-time dirt-sheet, 65 percent of PWTorch fan(s) loved the Rock's concert, with an additional 41-percent majority agreeing that the Rock's concert was the best segment of the night on a show that featured a rare in-ring segment between the Undertaker and Shawn Michaels—not to mention rapping from the Rock's backward hat-wearing "kryptonite."

Such defiant polling results prove once and for all that perhaps brainwashing is best left in the aging hands of Vince McMahon. 

Maybe, just maybe, it is the vast minority of disenchanted wrestling fanatics—who have watched a bit too many grown men roll around in tights—who are out of touch, as opposed to the Rock or any of the predominantly regular fans who seem to enjoy his work.

Big Nasty weighs in on the latest pro wrestling news and rumors on B/R Video.  Follow him on Twitter @ThisIsNasty, and don't forget to vote!