It was a cold night in Salt Lake City when Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson entered the Delta Center, sporting a look not seen since 1998.
Johnson entered as wrestler The Rock to a thunderous ovation to join his cousins, one of which was WWE Undisputed Universal Champion Roman Reigns. He took the microphone and began slandering the crowd in a way unheard of in decades.
“You shut your mouth fatty or The Rock will come out there and slap the herpes off your lips,” he responded to a heckler in the front rows as the crowd started to realize who had actually turned up.
What WWE had been building to over the past week was solidified during this vicious promo: Heel Rock was back.
This is a unique circumstance because it is easy for WWE to give a former wrestler a babyface (good guy) run based solely on nostalgia. After all, who wants to boo their childhood?
The Rock has fallen into this in previous years dating back to his first return in 2004. Every subsequent return has seen The Rock work as a face. This is, in part, because he is the wrestler who has had, arguably, the most success since leaving WWE.
This time is different.
It has resulted in a fantastic story leading into WrestleMania XL as The Rock lends his star power to further bolstering a match between two of the top wrestlers in WWE.
What also makes this heel turn fascinating is there are events that have happened prior to his WWE return that set up the shift. Wrestling is at its best when the lines are blurred between reality and fiction, and that is exactly what happened here.
How We Got To Heel Rock
WWE’s Monday Night Raw aired on Jan. 1 and included a cameo from The Rock. In it, he teased a potential matchup with his cousin Roman Reigns, who is amid a title run that began in 2020.
This is a big deal because fans have wanted this matchup for a while because, according to the story, Reigns has proclaimed himself the “Tribal Chief” of the famed Anoa’i wrestling family, which includes The Rock.
Later in January, Cody Rhodes, the top babyface in the company, won the Royal Rumble, securing a title shot at that year’s WrestleMania. At the event, Rhodes pointed at Reigns, indicating we would get a long-awaited rematch of last year’s WrestleMania.
One week later, Rhodes seemingly gave up his title shot and allowed The Rock to take his spot. This caused an uproar on the Internet and caused rampant speculation of The Rock’s ego playing a factor in robbing us of this matchup.
This led us to a WrestleMania press conference where The Rock and Reigns were introduced as the main event until Rhodes crashed the party. He reclaimed his title shot and told both Rock and Reigns their ancestors would be ashamed of them, leading to a slap from The Rock.
After the event, video surfaced of The Rock berating Chief Content Officer Paul “Triple H” Levesque for allowing Rhodes to mess up the self-proclaimed “biggest WrestleMania main event ever.”
A week later, The Rock solidified his heel turn with the public undressing of the Salt Lake City crowd.
A Heel Turn of Shakespearean Proportions
This heel turn is genius on so many levels and it’s because of The Rock’s public perception in recent years.
Fans started to turn on him after Black Adam flopped as reports surfaced that he tried to strong arm Warner Bros. only to get future films canceled. This was particularly difficult for fans because it led to Henry Cavill’s alleged departure as Superman.
Additionally, a feud between Vin Diesel and The Rock split fans as some perceived Rock as the instigator and going into business for himself.
The perception here is Rock, as Johnson, makes things about himself. So when Rhodes seemingly gave up his WrestleMania spot, those feeling surfaced again.
The days after that episode of Smackdown featured an Internet campaign trying to pressure WWE into changing the main event back. Furthermore, there was speculation that The Rock’s ego was at play.
It’s important to note that in late January, Johnson joined the board of directors for TKO Holdings, a company that consists of both UFC and WWE. Along with that, he also gained ownership of The Rock and everything that comes with it.
This was the crux of criticism as many claimed The Rock used his position on the board to screw Rhodes out of the match.
Personally, I believe the entire thing was the plan from the beginning. I don’t think there was ever an intention to keep Rhodes out of the main event. We’ve also come to a point where nobody knows who will win at WrestleMania, which is exactly what WWE wants.
I do think, however, that WWE was caught off guard by how much hatred The Rock garnered. I have no idea how that played into plans, but The Rock and WWE leaned hard into it and made for a memorable heel turn.
Pro wrestling can often get a bad rap because it’s not quite sports, but it’s not quite traditional scripted entertainment either. That said, wrestling companies can weave some Shakespearean stories told in such a unique manner.
This is one of them.
We have a story that consists of the once-beloved Rock, once again, going into business for himself. There are elements of truth here, but also elements of kayfabe.
Furthermore, it sets up a real David and Goliath situation. Sure, Rhodes is the fan-favorite to finally end Reigns’ title run, but beating out a board member is not an easy task.
This story is in line with some previous ones WWE told, particularly during the Attitude Era.
Stone Cold Steve Austin and The Rock both had to overcome villainous owner Vince McMahon (who ended up being a real-life villain) to win the title. Furthermore, Triple H was often McMahon’s chosen wrestler because that was his son-in-law.
This same concept is at play here. It’s just funny that The Rock is now the villainous authority figure and Triple H is pushing back on the nepotism.
The Best Version of The Rock
Not only does The Rock turning heel make for a compelling story, but it gives us the best version of the character.
Rock was a heel in 2002-03 after he started taking movie roles. He became Hollywood Rock, which was largely a comedic and ego-centric Hollywood jerk. This version isn’t that.
This version of The Rock dates back to his heel run of 1998-99 where The Rock was more ruthless than comedic. He flaunted his Versace shirts and put down wrestlers in vicious manners.
To me, The Rock has always worked better as a heel and we’re seeing that now. Not just because of what he’s doing, but what he did leading up to this heel run.
It shows how WWE can take real-life situations and turn them into a script. The Rock turning heel still would’ve made sense, but it’s enhanced because there’s been an ego cloud that has followed him recently.
The result is a largely entertaining Road to WrestleMania that allows current fans to experience what The Rock was like during his prime. Sure, he’s not as quick as he previously was and he does look like a man going through a mid-life crisis.
But that’s what makes it all work so well. I can believe Rock is trying to relieve his glory days and thinks he’s God’s gift to WWE fans.
What makes this more amazing is The Rock likely won’t fade off as all legends eventually do. He is part of the Board of Directors, meaning we’ll see him around more often.
Even if you’re not a wrestling fan, you have to appreciate the storytelling here and boy, is it good.
Featured Image: WWE (via Wrestling Inc.)
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