In Defense Of The Most Electrifying Man In Sports Entertainment

Recently one John Betschel wrote not one but two articles stating that Dwyane "The Rock" Johnson was a sell out because he went into making movies full time instead of staying in wrestling.

Now he did mention the definition of a sell out...and even with that, The Rock does not fit that definition.  

A sell out is someone like Hulk Hogan, who left to join a rival wrestling company after being coddled by Vince McMahon and the WWF/E, then telling them that he was going to retire...TWICE!

Nick Saban fits the description as well.  He had a contract with the Miami Dolphins, three years were left on this contract. He claimed he wouldn't go to The University of Alabama when they asked questions about it.  Three days after the dolphins' season came to an end, Nick Saban was the coach of the University of Alabama. That to me is selling out.

Now you have The Rock. In 2003 his contract ran out. He had the option to go to Hollywood, and did just that. Sure he came back in 2004 for Wrestlemania, and despite months of ring rust had a good tag team match with Mick Foley against Batista, Randy Orton, and Ric Flair, then wouldn't come back in any capacity until 2007 when he had a comment to make on McMahon vs. Trump, then didn't come back again until 2009 for the Smackdown 10th anniversary show.  He's set to make a come back in the summer, and by the way, Raw is live from Miami on June 7th and will most likely continue to use the Guest Host gimmick at the time, meaning the odds are he'll come back there and participate in some capacity until Summer Slam, which is held in his new hometown of Los Angeles.

Back to The Rock's contract running out though.  At that time, WWE got a new head of talent relations, a gentleman you might know better as Johnny Ace, but his name is John Laurinaitis, who holds the same job today.  When The Rock's contract came out, you would think that it would be in the WWE's best interest for their new head of talent relations to at least call The Rock and offer him an extension or a new deal which would give him enough leeway to make movies if he wants to.  Nothing.  A phone call thanking The Rock for his services?  Nope, not that either. The Rock's phone didn't ring, not even for a thank you.  

So, why come back when they're not exactly begging for you to do so?  Then you have the fact that the highest paid wrestler in the WWE, Triple H, made something north of $2 Million last year.  The Rock makes about $5 million per movie.  Now when you consider that Triple H spends about 300 days a year travelling and risks serious injury that could end his career, while it only takes about six weeks to make a movie, I think the decision speaks for itself.

It does suck when your heroes stop doing what made them heroes in the first place, but ask yourself one question before thinking The Rock is a sell-out: would you rather see him in terrible Disney movies at age 38, or wrestling on TNA at age 58? A true fan of the people's champ wouldn't ever want to see the latter situation.