No more rock.....

[Guest The Mighty Damaramu]

So I was wondering what everyone thought of the fact that The Rock may never wrestle again? Or at least full time. He said on Larry King he was going to pursue his acting career and at this stage that is no secret. It's no secret that he is probably going to be a full time actor now.

What does everyone think of this? A prominant part of the WWF in recent years is just going. He's going to be gone.

I think it kinda really sucks. The Rock was becoming a better wrestler and at 29 he could be one of the best if he had kept going and improving. Plus he was just so damn entertaining. And he could always wake the crowd up. But it looks like he's going to be gone now......

what does everyone think of this?

[Guest Hogan Made Wrestling]

I agree it's a shame. The Rock is one of the best guys in wrestling today in almost every respect. He's also the best ambassador that wrestling could have.

[Guest godthedog]

yeah...for all his goofy selling and crappy offense i'd miss the rock.  i still think he would've been better than austin on raw, as he's the only guy that can really do a match with big, talentless guys that the crowd can get into without killing himself.  however, it seems that you can visibly see a lack of desire to improve after wrestlemania last year.  he was in a wonderful groove up till then, but after he came back from shooting 'scorpion king' he stopped getting better as a wrestler.  i don't think it's because he started thinking he was better than the business, i think he was just too tired.  his schedule (especially in the weeks before wrestlemania) was pretty unreal.

 

i don't think he'll ever give up the business completely, but i don't think his movie/wrestling, movie/wrestling schedule will ever let him be the wrestler he can really be.  which is a shame.

[Guest]

I expect him to fully be devoted to his acting career, only touching on the wrestling world occasionally if he needs it for more mainstream popularity to bring a higher box office. If he makes a bigtime movie though and becomes the first big action hero of the 21st Century, the next Arnold, I don't think we will see him in the ring anymore. That would not be a good loss for the WWF because The Rock is one of a kind, irreplaceable.

[Guest Brian]

As long as Vince owns the Rock, he'll have a reason to come back. Dwayne Johnson needs that title.

[Guest Caliban]

The Associated Press is reporting that Scorpion King drew $36.2 million on it's first weekend. It beat the previous opening weekend record by a wide margin; the previous record-setter The Matrix drew $27.8 million in 1999.

 

The second place movie over the weekend was Changing Lanes, drawing $11.1 million in its second weekend in release.

 

The other big opening movie was Sandra Bullock's crime thriller Murder By Numbers, which finished no. 3 with $9.5 million. Bullock didn't do anything resembling the exhausting publicity swing that The Rock did this past week promoting the movie.

 

[Thanks to PWTorch.com reader Corey Davidson]

 

 

 

Now that is damn impressive. The Rock has been an awesome wrestler, and now he can rightly claim that he is a record setter at the box office too.

 

Now the mark in me can see the potential for a Rock heel turn here, saying how he is the King of Hollywood and all. Now that would be great, but the realist in me says unfortunatly, it's likely that the Rock isn't going to be wrestling very much at all now.

 

After his amazing publicity he has been putting out doing interview, after interview, after interview, the guy must be bloody knackered. He isn't going to be returning to a full, gruelling WWF schedule anytime soon.

 

Hats off to the Rock, he's gonna try and make it as a big action hero, and he's already had a massive achievement. But I'm gonna miss him - as a WRESTLER. He's just never gonna be the same again.

 

 

P.S. I saw the Scorpion King on Thursday night. The Rock has an impressive performance, and the camera loves him. But my, that film was the biggest pile of monkey crap ever...

[Guest Austin3164life]

Well, if he decides to fully pursue his chances with Hollywood, that's fine by me.  I certainly wont miss him.....

[Guest cobainwasmurdered]

I won't miss him, other than it would have bad implications for the wwF

[Guest]

The only thing I'll miss is having my CAWs beating the living Hell out of him after I watch a show that has him on it.

[Guest cobainwasmurdered]

yeah. whenever he uses the sharpshooter, i turn on my 64 and have Bret beat the shit outta him

[Guest FakeRazor]

I'll somewhat miss him.  I'm not The Rock's biggest fan... not even close, but I respect him, and yes, I like him.  He's not as bad as some people make him out to be, which I have covered about a million times.  So yeah, I guess I'd miss him, but not terribly.

 

Really, being an 8 time world champion before turning 30 is impressive, no matter how short the reigns were.  The Rock has no more to really accomplish in the wrestling ring, so I guess a movie career is the best fit for him.

[Guest Austin3164life]

Correction:  The Rock is a 6 Time WWF Champion......but I see what you mean since he is an 8 time WCW Champion......he got his reigns a bit quick......

[Guest FakeRazor]

Yeah, I meant including the "World Championship" reigns.

[Guest toggle]

If the Rock can make boat loads of cash and still be able to walk when he's 50, more power to him. The down side is that wrestling is losing a charismatic performer, the upside is there will be more room for, gee I don't know... BENOIT!

[Guest evenflowDDT]

Honestly, I was never a really big Rock fan, so I won't miss him much.  However, it will be a bit strange after his monumental, historical win over Hogan to become "the best ever" that he's leaving.  Then again, he IS making more money and there's really so little you can accomplish as a wrestler in America now that everything is owned, branded, and carefully measured out by the WWF... the only problem is now I have to pay to see him and make fun of him...

 

Don't worry, if Hogan is any indication the Rock will be back in 10 years, and you can bet upon his return he'll win the world title!

[Guest oldschoolwrestling]

I don't think he's gone just yet.  If I recall correctly, the WWF either produced or had something to do with the movie, meaning they get some money out of it.  The Rock sees that the WWF will promote his movies on their tv shows, meaning cheap advertising to the proper demographic.  He can wrestle a bit to make some money that way.  The WWF makes money having a movie star in their ranks.  Seems that they could continue to scratch each other's backs without Rock having to do anywhere near a full schedule.

[Guest bcu1979]

If Rock ends up only wrestling 2-3 matches a year, it will be a huge loss for the WWF. Not only are they losing one of their top two draws, but they will be losing one of their most entertaining characters and one of their most consistent wrestlers.

 

For all the crap Rock gets on the internet, he's had tremendous matches with Austin, Angle, Jericho, Triple H, Benoit, among others in the past several years. He busts his ass everytime he goes out there and can keep a crowd into a match better than anyone else in the company. He does whatever's asked of him by the company, even to the detriment of his own character. He's never used his position in the company to sabotage someone else's career or refuse to put someone over. No one has done more to help elevate Kurt Angle and Chris Jericho to that top level than Rock.

 

I don't see how all of that gets thrown out the window because his sharpshooter stinks.

[Guest]

It wouldn't suprise me to see Rock just do TV.  Smackdown and PPVs and if he's champ and nothing going on he will probably do RAWs.  So realisticly he would at least be seen by your average fan 5 times a month.

[Guest caboose]

I really wanted to see Heel Rocky one last time, especially turning on Hogan, but I guess I'll have to watch my best of 1998 tape every night.

[Guest caboose]

I really wanted to see Heel Rocky one last time, especially turning on Hogan, but I guess I'll have to watch my best of 1998 tape every night.

[Guest]

Rock, you are the weakest link. GOOD BYE

[Guest]

i remember that british chick a little bit. damn that show was retarded.

 

anyway, i've never liked the Rock, and for a while i hated him, but lately he's started to grow on me. His matches have always been steaming poop, but he did a lot to elevate guys like benoit, angle, and jericho. His promos were hilarious, especially with Foley, and heel champion Rock was so cool i actually rooted for him, although his matches were still pretty bad. But he did pick it up in his biggest matches, the two WM's with Austin. So I won't really miss see him winning main event handicap matches anymore, and I won't get to make fun of the Dork's elbow, Shitshooter, or the Figure 8 Leglock, but the Rock really contributed to making the "sportz entertainment" part of WWF tolerable, and sometimes cool.

 

He will be back once in a while, or he won't get to be "The Rock" anymore, but he'll be pretty much gone.

[Guest Ash Ketchum]

Na na na na... na na na na... hey hey hey... goodbye Rock...

[Guest dreamer420]

He can't be a wrestler forever and if you think about it Vince McMahon will probably screw the Rock, or fire him, or end his career in some way so why not go out on top and into a different field where he is going to make a lot more money and be a lot more successful.

[Guest]

Anyone else smell a law suit? Vince owns the Rock's name. Rock gets sick of Vince getting paid for his movies. Rock sues Vince to get out of his contract and to get the Copy Writes to the name "Rock."Vince countersues and buries the Rock before he can become too "big" a name out side of Wrestling.  Vince wins and gets closure like he likes to do with "his" superstars and within the next year, Rock is doing Auto-Shows with Goldberg and Chyna.

[Guest]

Well call me a mark, but I like the Rock. He's damn entertaining

and he has done his best to put all of your favorite Smark wrestlers over. Show me any other superstar at the Rock's level to do so in the last three years. I wish the guy well in all that he does, but I believe that if he does leave the WWF

A. Vince will try to bury him with the rights to "The Rock"

B. There will be an irreplaceable hole in the middle of the WWF

that nobody (AND THE ROCK MEANS NOBODY) (JUST KIDDING)

will be able to fill.

C. More casual fans will turn their TV's off and go to the movies to see Dwayne Johnson(The Rock is already subtley angling for this by letting his real name be a point of interest in his interviews. He goes by The Rock in the Scorpion King because VKM was the executive producer of the movie.)

[Guest Pidgerii-4q2]

The only reason Vince McMahon has a credit as an executive producer on The Scorpion King is because he allowed them to use The Rock name.  It's interesting, can anyone else think of a successful commercial movie headlined by an actor with a name like The Rock?

[Guest Mik at Cornell]

From Meltzer:

 

Rock is now touring Europe promoting "Scorpion King." In a story last night in Variety, he said when the tour ends, he's taking a three week break before starting work on "Helldorado," which begins filming in September. When asked when he would return to the WWF, he said he wasn't sure, "Maybe in a couple of months." Seems to get more vague with every interview.

 

Hmm, situation getting worse...

[Guest]

Later Rock.

 

Now, the path is set for the nWo.

 

Really, RAW is drawing better ratings withOUT The Rock then with him.  Why would Vince even care?