Rock getting booed??

[Guest Mole]

Booker is my darkhorse choice.

 

The only people who were cheering the Rock were the ladies, did anyone notice that? Actually, at Raw during the Desire videos off camera, the people cheered the Rock. So it might just be NY.

 

However, Rock is better as a heel. His character is kind of like a heel anyway, so why not have him be the heel. One thing that is stale about his character is the fact that he has been a face for a very long time. A heel turn my freshen him up for a little bit.

[Guest creativename]

:: slinks away with the shame of having missed obvious sarcasm ::

No need to slink away, because he wasn't talking to you.

 

The obvious sarcasm was referring to when he sarcastically said the Rock cared about what the fans thought. He actually does think that the fans were "selfish assholes" because they booed the Rock.

 

I don't think he could possibly be more misguided about this though. The fans are wrestling fans, and they pay money and devote their time to the wrestling company they love--and clearly, the only fans left now are ones that are tough to drive away. Why in the world would you expect them to calmly cheer a man whose left them for his own personal gain, and yet is portrayed as a hero still?

 

Of course I'm not knocking the Rock for leaving to Hollywood; when it comes down to it, I think most people that boo him would admit they would also make the same choice--it's only logical. However that means very little in this case, because this a *wrestling* event; the man has turned his back on wrestling, so of course wrestling fans will be pissed at him. Anybody that says there's something wrong with that, needs to rethink their position.

 

(And I'd like to add that I'm pretty supportive of Rock--if more main eventers were like him, wrestling would be a lot more fun to watch.)

[Guest creativename]

Booker is my darkhorse choice.

For what?

[Guest Nobody in Particular]

That being said, I hope they DO make him a heel when he comes back.  I really think it could work now.  Fans now have a reason to boo him and he just needs to play off that, with a prima-donna 'I don't need wrestling' attitude.

That's exactly what Paul Heyman said on Off the Record a while ago. Of course, since it's a good idea, Stephie will most likely shoot it down.

[Guest Dangerous A]

I think it's a combo of things you guys brought up that is contibuting to the negative effect the Rock has been getting lately.

 

1) In some fans eyes, he's viewed as a sellout. An actor who sometimes wrestles instead of a wrestler who sometimes acts.

 

2) Staleness. Along with weirdness. His schtick is starting to get to some of the IWC as well as spilling into long time marks. That and the last time he was here his promos (which is what made him, not his in ring work) went from entertaining to downright weird and creepy.

 

3) Most of the marks find it hard to sympathize with the Rock. Most of his popularity came from insulting people with his promos. He didn't connect with the fans like Austin or Hogan did. Fans connected with those guys and really lived vicariously through them. They believed. The Rock kind of kept spouting out how he was for the people (even in his heel days) until it finally stuck. People got behind Hogan in the 80's because he was a "real American". They got behind Austin because he was a beer drinking redneck who stood up to the boss. Rock just kind of talks shit and wrestles. Rock comes off more like the charasmatic, class clown jock that you knew in high school. It's kind of hard to get behind that in comparison to the other 2 which is why the fans picked Austin and Hogan over Rock in their WM main event matches.

[Guest NoCalMike]

Remember also, NY fans ALWAYS seem to act AGAINST the norm. No need to get into the history since I am sure most folks here know plenty of incidents. When Rock (the face) starts getting booed by 90% of the crowd, in EVERY city, I will buy it. When it is only happening in New York, then I can attribute it to the NY fans.

[Guest FeArHaVoC]

The Rock needs to come back. Him going to Hollywood has Exposed the Business, which is killing Triple H's Heat.

[Guest converge241]

I like how the video was pre-taped but they pretended it was Live and Rock could see/hear everyone, and as he quietly sincerley thanked the fans they just went nuts on him.

 

lol

[Guest Dmann2000]

Maybe just maybe they meant for Rock to be pre-taped to make him appear like a "Hollywood sell-out" I know few hear cling to the idea that WWE plans ahead, but maybe it was step one.

[Guest FeArHaVoC]

Well, Rock said he was coming back in the next Month in a half. Gives them more then enough time to figure something out.

 

That sucks though, I was hoping Rock would be back for "NWO" in Montreal, already in Full Heel Mode.

[Guest nikowwf]

The second time Rock bailed solidified him as a heel in my eyes. Its obvious wrestling is the thing he does when he DOESNT have a movie...not that he takes time off occasionaly to do movies. Its secondary....and for fans that love you, to be put second is going to make a person a heel.

 

Austin, I think in most fans eyes looks like he was forced off. The hard sell by vince that it was Austins fault probably reinforces that more.

 

niko

[Guest jester]

Have the fans ever really been 100% behind the Rock? It seems to be like there has always been at least a small percentage of people who hated him, even when he was around and in full face mode.

 

I think the question here is will they turn him heel? I think they should, the fan momentum is there. But they seem to like swimming up stream these days. I think they're going to try to make people like their movie star, which might cause the fans to reject him even more.

[Guest The Hamburglar]

Just a reminder - Austin, prior to walking out on the company, shat on the fans for months by ceasing to put any effort whatsoever into his matches, resulting in heinous crap like his Backlash match with Taker. And if you want to talk about stale promos, look no further than Austin's played-out whatathons.

By contrast, Rock, the supposed disdainful-of-wrestling sellout, returned and had an awesome month and a half of wrestling. He had great matches with Eddy, Benoit, the Triple Threat with Taker and Angle and of course his match and program with Brock. And here's the funny thing - all of those guys were made to look credible by Rock. So you'll pardon me for thinking that fans who boo someone who gives it their all every time he steps into the ring are complete dumbfucks. I'd take Rock's month and a half before anything Austin did since No Mercy 2001. Fan connection be damned.

[Guest Luke Cage]

I'm sure Rock is torn up about it, too. He's making more than twice the money he would be in wrestling and not having to destroy his body in the process, so I doubt that the disapproval of some selfish asshole fans means much to him.

Bingo.

[Guest humongous2002]

The fact of the matter is that the Rock has been overexposed by making movies and being the new media's beloved action star and i also is time to turn him heel b/c his babyface character has run its course. I'm a Rock fan too but i can't stand his babyface personality anymore.

[Guest candie45]

Austin is cheered, because, well.... he's Austin. People love to cheer Austin. Especially when they haven't seen or heard about him in several months. It's not like Rock where first of all, he's left about 3 times already. And where he makes those little "appearances" before he actually returns. Austin has been gone for a while now with no sign of him other then in tape.

 

In my view, they have to turn Rocky. Fans catch on to what the fans in other areas do. Look at 'What.' Look at 'You Suck.' If people hear Rock get booed enough, people will start thinking it's "cool" to boo him. So I hope against hope that they turn him. I want to see 500 dolla shirts again, baybee! And it was hilarious when Rock was like "I really appreciate the fans so much" at the high point of a Boring chant.

[Guest Brian]

The difference is that Austin's mic work plays to the crowd and the crowd loves it. Rock doesn't have as much of a connection like that.

[Guest RickyB]

No- Toronto hates him as well.

No, Toronto don't hate Rock, they love Hogan. Watch WM 18 again, after the match ends the fans start to cheer the Rock.

[Guest AndrewTS]

No- Toronto hates him as well.

No, Toronto don't hate Rock, they love Hogan. Watch WM 18 again, after the match ends the fans start to cheer the Rock.

Well, I don't know about Toronto, but in general, Canada tends to hate the Rock.

[Guest bob_barron]

No- Toronto hates him as well.

No, Toronto don't hate Rock, they love Hogan. Watch WM 18 again, after the match ends the fans start to cheer the Rock.

Yes they do.

 

How come when Hogan did a press conference in Toronto talking about The Rock they booed him and chanting Rocky Sucks?

 

At a RAW in October when Rock was fighting Christian the crowd was also booing the Rock.

 

At Wrestlemania they weren't too receptive to the Rock. He got a big boo when he was doing Hogan's poses as a way to get Hogan to do them himself.

[Guest Goodear]

What in the hell is wrong with people?

 

The Rock = Bad for taking time off to shoot a movie with the expressed permission of Vince McMahon. When he comes in, he wrestles really well and puts people over like there is no end in sight.

 

Austin = Good for walking out on a program with Eddie Guerrero because he would have had to do a job and then beating his wife while on vacation. When wrestled, put over one or two guys and buried 20-30 others whenever he felt like it.

 

And The Rock doesn't have fan participation promos? Did everyone's memories implode or something because if there is one thing Rock's promos are, it is a sing-a-long session.

[Guest bob_barron]

We know that but the average doesn't know that.

 

THAT'S why they boo Rock and not Austin

[Guest Goodear]

So what are these posters' problems?

[Guest RenegadeX28]

It was really bad to see that "live" feed of Rocky in Hollywood. He had all the face mannerisms going on, and the crowd hated him. It was even worse when he said....

 

 

Rock: And the millions....

 

Crowd: (Maybe 1 or 2 ppl) AND MILLIONS!

 

 

No one cared. I would love to see The Rock just turn heel.

[Guest nl5xsk1]

I should preface this with the fact that I've ALWAYS hated the Rock, regardless if he's a heel or a face.

 

But I agree that people boo him because he hasn't changed his act in years, and disappears to make movies and then comes back and expects to be embraced like he never left. If he re-invented himself, and maybe changed in the slightest, he'd be more likely to receive cheers. As long as he does the same old shtick, he's going to receive at least some boos. Just my two cents.

[Guest Hogan Made Wrestling]

The Rock was enormously over in Canada when he was still a heel and making the start of his face turn. Breakdown 1998 is a very good example of this. Canadian fans always like to be on the "cutting edge", cheering the cool heels and big monsters (Sid for instance is always over up here). I bet if Rock turns heel the Toronto crowds will be among the first ones chanting along to everything he says again.

 

I think the biggest problem with turning the Rock heel could be finding a good face for him to play off of that is over enough so that he stays heel. If he goes against someone with little mic skills (RVD, Kane, etc.), the fans will clue in quickly how they are out of the Rock's league and will start to cheer him again. If he goes up against Austin though, Austin will stay the face and Rock will stay the heel. In fact, despite how overdone it is, the best thing to do might be to feud Austin against a Rock-Vince led "corporate" stable, as far as drawing heat is concerned.

[Guest creativename]

So what are these posters' problems?

"These posters" don't have "problems".

 

As bob barron said, we're quite aware of the Rock's situation. All people are trying to point out is that there's nothing wrong with paying fans who put their hearts on the line booing a man who they believe sold them out, after they cheered him and were responsible for everything he became, for years.

 

I myself would take Rock's attitude over Austin's anyday; I hated, loathed, and despised Austin before he walked out--mainly cause he bored the f*ck out of me, and destroyed the credibility of all of his opponents. (I must admit that I'm looking forward to his return, not because I miss him, but because HHH will have to be depushed somewhat when Austin returns...won't he?) However, you cannot dispute the fact that Austin will always be a fan favorite on levels that Rock could never hope to emulate. There has never really been a backlash on Austin of any sort; his character is simply more appealing to the average fan than Rock's is.

 

Rock's character is very much like Hogan's--fans got pretty sick of both guys, and Hogan's character needed to be "refreshed" before they would cheer him again. This will never be the case with Austin, or at least not within the foreseeable future.

[Guest Special K]

A) He started th spiel w/ Finally... The Rock is back in NY.

 

Um, no you aren't. The real boos came after that.

 

B) That was one long, boring promo.

 

C) He (and yes, I DO realize it's the Rock and not the real guy) was particularly prickish in his character. Acting like giving his 'props' (he did actually say 'props', didn't he?) To BookDust is a big fucking deal and they should be swooning, even though they've been busting their ass while he's in Hollywood.

 

If I had payed to see the Rock (again, the character) and he showed up on a TV, blathered in a boring manner and acted like a jerk, I would have booed his ass too, that doesn't mean I bear him any animosity.

[Guest AndrewTS]

What in the hell is wrong with people?

 

The Rock = Bad for taking time off to shoot a movie with the expressed permission of Vince McMahon. When he comes in, he wrestles really well and puts people over like there is no end in sight.

 

Austin = Good for walking out on a program with Eddie Guerrero because he would have had to do a job and then beating his wife while on vacation. When wrestled, put over one or two guys and buried 20-30 others whenever he felt like it.

 

And The Rock doesn't have fan participation promos? Did everyone's memories implode or something because if there is one thing Rock's promos are, it is a sing-a-long session.

Really now? Get the hatred right. Austin walked out because of the KotR Qualifying match with Brock Lesnar. And before you say "well, Rock put him over," his beef was about the lack of build up--doing it out of nowhere.

 

If it had been proposed to him to win the title, face Brock on PPV with a storyline "injury" and THEN job I really don't think he'd have been upset about it in the least.

 

20 or 30 others buried? Huh? Unless you mean the Alliance storyline and the nWo, I don't get it. However, he complained that the nWo should have been looking stronger and it fell on deaf ears. Plus, Vince was looking to make the WCW/Alliance look like shit from the start.

 

Who else allegedly buried? Rikishi? Yeah, that heel turn was going fantastic until that damn Austin came along.

 

Also, it's great that we have you as an eye witness to him hitting Debra, since you seem so damn sure about it. I don't know about whether or not he did or not, but we know Austin stole his first wife from his trainer and Debra is a golddigger so neither of them are exactly angels.

 

I'm pretty well aware about Jarrett, but I haven't heard anything concrete about whether or not he'd put Eddy so that's jumping the gun. Just get it out and say "I hate Austin" instead of fabricating things. Oh, he didn't want to work with Hogan either--even though Hogan would have likely had to put him over anyway.

 

As Barron said, also the fans don't know about the backstage shit, but they know that they are bombarded with more bullshit about the Rock's latest movie. Playing commercials for it during the shows would be enough, but shilling left and right kinda hurts. The Rock has been overexposed even without him wrestling, it's understandable that fans are pissed off.

[Guest bob_barron]

What really disgusted me about Austin was the lumberjack match he had with Booker T the week before Judgement Day. He gave Booker nothing, completely dogged the match and beat up every single person RAW with the exception of Brock.

 

It was just sad seeing Booker T basically get mega buried in his first match as member of the nWo.

 

About Austin hitting his wife- we weren't there but Austin did plead guilty or a no contest so according to the law he did do something to Debra.