The Rocks History: Sold Out Arenas To Just Plain Selling Out

The year was 1996, it was the Survivor Series, and we saw the debut of a superstar by the name of Rocky Maivia. He was a charismatic young superstar, who, given his wrestling family back round, seemed to be destined for greatness.

His dad was Rocky Johnson and grandfather was "High Chief" Peter Maivia, which, by the way, is how the Rock got his original wrestling name: by taking his dads first name and grandfathers' last name.

Little did we know at the time, though,  the success that he would have and also the disappointment he would leave us with.

Rocky Maivia, nicknamed "The Blue Chipper" at the time, was being pushed heavily at the time despite his lack of in-ring experience, and ended up being the sole survivor at the Survivor Series.

He won the Intercontinental title from HHH on February 13, 1997 after only being in the company three months. But fans were getting tired of his good guy character in thanks to the rise in popularity of a man by the name of STONE COLD STEVE AUSTIN!!

Because of that it, in almost all his matches, people would be chanting "die Rocky die", and "Rocky sucks!"

He then turned heel, and started going by the name The Rock, after losing the IC belt to Owen Hart on April 28, 1997 on Raw and coming back from an injury.

The Rock joined the Nation Of Domination, and that’s when we started to notice that he had skills on the mic. He started referring to himself in the third person, and in his 2000 autobiography said that he attributed his great mic skills to speech communication classes he took at Miami.

The Rock then spent the end of 1997 and beginning of '98 feuding with Austin and Ken Shamrock. He then went into a feud with DX and HHH, in which DX came out on Raw one night and did a skit where they were each pretending to be a member of the Nation, which was HILARIOUS!

It was becoming apparent that The Rock had a lot more talent and was making a bigger impact than anyone expected, and because of his entertaining and witty interviews he was starting to get over big with the fans. This popularity led him to a WWF title match.

At the time, he was feuding with Mr. McMahon, who had said he had a problem with the people, so thus would target the "Peoples Champ" which is what The Rock called himself. The Rock had defeated Mankind in a parody of the infamous "Montreal Screw job" (which just happened a year earlier) in the finals of the Deadly Game tournament at the Survivor Series.

The Rock put Mankind in the sharpshooter and McMahon ordered for the bell to be rung. Immediately, The Rock turned heel again and won the vacant WWF title, becoming the first African American to do so and at the time the youngest WWF Champion ever.

He then went on to defend the title against Austin at Wrestlemania XV but lost, and then lost the rematch at Backlash.

He then turned face again by being betrayed by Shane McMahon, and went on to form a tag team with Mankind called the "Rock N Sock Connection". They went on to win the Tag Championships three times and were involved in a segment on Raw called "This Is Your Life" in which Mankind brought out people from The Rock's past.

The segment earned an 8.4 Nielsen rating and is, to this day, the highest rated segment in Raw history.

Winning the 2000 Royal Rumble, The Rock went on to Wrestlemania XX to compete for the title in a fatal four-way elimination match consisting of him, HHH, Mick Foley and the Big Show. The Rock lost, though, after being betrayed by Vince McMahon and getting hit twice with a steel chair.

At Wrestlemania X8 he was possibly in one of the most recognized wrestling fans' dream match, against Hollywood Hulk Hogan. The Rock won, turning Hogan from heel to face.

Now it was around that time that The Rock started doing movies. He was still wrestling, but he did The Mummy Returns and The Scorpion King , which were both good movies.

But then it happened: The Rock stopped wrestling and just went straight to movies. It wouldn’t be that bad if he was making good movies.

Some of the movies he made after he stopped wrestling were good, like The Rundown , Walking Tall, and Be Cool just to name a few.

But then he started doing movies like The Game Plan , Planet 51 , The Race To Witch Mountain , and then, the final nail in the coffin, The Tooth Fairy .

The once charismatic superstar who was dynamite on the mic laying the smackdown on all the candy a***s of the WWE superstars is now dressing up in a tutu playing a tooth fairy.

And when I thought it couldn’t get any worse, I was watching Raw one night and a commercial came on with Mr. Dwayne Johnson (The Rocks real name) doing a plug for his movie. I could not believe the words that came out of his mouth.

"Hi Raw fans, Dwayne Johnson here." If I may quote The Miz, "REALLY?...REALLY?" Its Monday Night Raw and he even says "Raw fans" and uses his real name showing me that he wants nothing whatsoever to do with his old character.

Any other wrestler that had an ounce of respect for the business that made him would have used his wrestling name. You wouldn’t see Stone Cold promoting a movie saying, "Hi Raw fans, Steve Williams here." In fact, he even legally changed his name to Steve Austin.

Johnson's last appearance at the 10th anniversary of Smackdown was a crock too: he only momentarily got back into character. He was supposed to host Raw one night but had to go and do something for The Tooth Fairy instead.

I hate John Cena, but at least he has the respect and honor for the business to stay in and wrestle instead of just going off and doing movies, and he has the popularity and looks to do it if he really wanted to.

That, ladies and gentlemen, is how The Rock went from WWE superstar, winning titles, setting unprecedented feats that few superstars have done before, to being nothing but a sell-out softy in a tutu.

So thanks Dwayne. You used the WWE as a stepping stone, and now as a toilet seat to get your movie career. Congrats!

R.I.P. to Owen Hart, Umaga, and Yokozuna.