Introduction

This seems like a silly question at first glance, it's The freaking Rock. The People's Champion. The most electrifying man in sports entertainment. But, if you take a closer look at the Mount Rushmore of WWE superstar babyfaces consisting of Hulk Hogan, Steve Austin, John Cena, and The Rock, the question gains some validity. Because, in terms of how each was treated in story, and how they were pushed, The Rock is actually a fairly large outlier. In this essay I will compare him to his peers, and attempt to explain why I think The Rock continuously overcoming his (relatively) weak push, gave him the single greatest peak in Wrestling history, and, combined with other factors, could make him the greatest wrestler of all time.

Hulk Hogan & John Cena

Everyone knows the narrative behind Cena & Hogan, so I'm going to keep my thoughts on them brief. Hogan was Roman Reigns (in terms of his mega push) before the rise of the internet. He never lost, he was always the center of attention. Even when they tried to push new superstars, he navigated the waters to make sure he remained on top.



Cena was largely the same, although his was less backstage power wielding, and more just a matter of circumstance. He peaked at a time when the WWE had just lost 2 of its 3 biggest stars ever. They were also navigating away from the gruesome Attitude Era into the PG Era, which only served to increase the value and reliance on a consistent draw in Cena.



Both are known for overstaying their welcome, and being pushed to the moon well after fans had become tired of their act. Cena, at least towards the end of his run, put some people over, but both OVERCAME THE ODDS a disgusting amount of the time they laced up the boots.

Stone Cold Steve Austin

For some reason, Austin is not viewed in the same light as Cena or Hogan. Maybe it's because his peak was shorter ("you either die a hero, or live long enough to see yourself become the villain"), or maybe it's because Austin is inarguably a better wrestling character than the other two. Regardless, Austin may have had the most blatant push of any wrestler in WWE history. From the time he was strapped at WM XIV, to his heel turn at WM X-7, Austin lost one match, yes, ONE match, where he was pinned reasonably clean. It happened at No Way Out 2001, and you'll never guess to who.

But that's just the beginning. When you go back and re-watch these PPVs, there is one major overarching theme: Austin is strong. Even on the nights he did not win, it was always imperative that he got the last laugh. At Survivor Series 1998, The Rock won his first WWF Title turning heel. This was a big moment for him. And yet, the night ended with Austin, who did not fight the Main Event, returning to the ring and stunning the new champion as the credits hit. Armageddon 2000 was even more ridiculous, as Austin, towards the end of the Six-Pack Hell In A Cell match for Kurt Angle's WWF Title, stunned The Rock (both faces) and was about to reclaim his championship, when he was pulled off of The Rock by HHH allowing Angle to sneak in and pin The Rock without any extra damage inflicted. The Stunner sure is strong! Austin then returned to the ring and stunned Angle, ending the PPV with his music playing. At his peak Austin won 3 Royal Rumble's, and was 3/3 Main Event'ing WM, successfully capturing the WWE Title each time.

For what it's worth, this isn't even really a criticism of Austin or his booking. He is, arguably, the GOAT, and was at his peak. He should have been the strongest wrestler. My point is only to establish that; 1) that megastars at their peak always got strong booking and 2) a clear juxtaposition between how Austin (as well as Hogan & Cena) was booked compared to The Great One.

The Rock

After his amazing heel run, the Corporation had grown stale and The Rock was simply too popular to keep heel. He turned face after losing clean to Austin at Backlash '99, with Shane McMahon declaring it was The Rock's allegiance to the people that cost him the title. The Rock's next two PPV feuds were a title feud against the Undertaker at King Of The Ring, and a program against rival HHH at Fully Loaded. Keep in mind, The Rock, right before his brief face turn at the end of 1998, lost an acclaimed ladder match at Fully Loaded to HHH. This match, which was a strap match, was also won by HHH. Only one of these losses was clean but what was already emerging was a trend; The Rock was not winning.

Still, if history has taught us anything, it's that a hero winning too quickly can be boring. The Rock hadn't reached his peak yet, nor was he even the top babyface in the company. 1999 ended with The Rock losing a Steel Cage match for the WWF Title to HHH at No Mercy, and then finishing the year teaming with Mankind for the tag team championships. The Rock's popularity was growing, and then it happened; Stone Cold Steve Austin needed surgery.

This could not have worked out more perfectly for WWF. Well, I suppose Austin not getting hurt would have been better, but I'd argue that The Rock was primed to take over anyway, and this served to make that transition easier. I'm not sure Austin would have been willing to stay out of the title picture for long at that point in his career. To go along with that, HHH had emerged as one of the top heels the company had ever seen. Now The Rock, and the people he represented, had a common enemy, something for him to overcome. Much like Mr. McMahon was to Austin, The McMahon-Helmsley faction could be that for The Rock.

2000 started with more of the same. The Rock won the Royal Rumble, except he really actually didn't. You see, his floor hit the ground first, and there's video evidence to prove it! Well okay, that's not exactly the best for your top babyface, but whatever, they'll fight a match at No Way Out and The Rock will go over and have his crowning moment at Wrestlemania. Except that did not happen either? The Rock lost to Big Show at No Way Out in a match to determine the #1 contender, which resulted in the Main Event of WM2000 becoming a contrived and lazily developed fatal fourway. Every star had had their moment. Hogan beat Andre. Michaels beat Hart. Austin beat Michaels. So okay, a fourway elimination match is kind of lame, but surely now is his time right? Nope. With a McMahon in every corner, the patriarch of the family turned on The Rock and, for the first time ever, the hero was not victorious at Wrestlemania.

I could probably stop here. The Rock is the only all-time star I can think of who never had a Wrestlemania coronation. Austin/Cena/Hogan all had multiple. **** Roman Reigns has had like 5. I could stop there, but unfortunately, it gets worse. Backlash 2000, arguably the biggest and most memorable win of The Rock's career, wasn't even really his own. This match isn't even really remembered for The Rock finally going over HHH & the McMahon-Helmsley faction. Nope, somebody else played star.



And guess what? The Rock dropped the belt to HHH at the very next PPV. He then won it back at King Of The Ring...but he did so without pinning HHH. Rather, he pinned VINCE MCMAHON. The heel was not pinned to drop his title. In fact, it had now been almost two years of The Rock feuding with HHH, over half of that as the babyface, and he had yet to pin HHH clean. And then HHH didn't even get a rematch. God forbid he lose right? Instead, The Rock had largely forgettable feuds with Chris Benoit and Kurt Angle, before dropping the title in late 2000 to Angle. After another failure at Royal Rumble 2001, when Austin won his third Rumble in five years, The Rock got his revenge on Kurt Angle at No Way Out, re-capturing the title after a sloppy finish, putting him, once again, in the Main Event of WM against his biggest rival.



Everyone knows what happened. McMahon ****ed The Rock again, Austin turned heel, and won the title from The Rock to close probably the greatest Wrestlemania of all time. He then went on to take a sabbatical to shoot The Rundown. While he would return on & off over the next two years, the peak of his career was effectively over.

To sum it up, the highlight of The Rock's peak was a four month title reign, which included a victory over Chris Benoit (in a match that had to be restarted for him to win), and a victory in a triple threat match against Kurt Angle & HHH where his title defense was not the main storyline (he did pin HHH though!!!). He never actually won the Royal Rumble. He didn't have a Wrestlemania moment. He never even once went over the biggest heel clean. He never beat Austin as a face. He never got revenge on McMahon for screwing him at back to back Wrestlemania's. In fact, when he returned in 2001, he was the face of the group of wrestlers who saved
Vince and the WWE against the Invasion of WCW/ECW. He had more failures at his peak than every other babyface at theirs combined. And yet, he remained strong and unflappable.

Conclusion

The Rock has always been underrated by the Smarks of the world for his technical wrestling acumen, but I believe his peak face run is underrated in general. WWF did everything they could to undermine his brief stint as the company's top babyface. It was the total opposite of what they had done for Hogan & Austin. Both had their foes, both even had their stumbles, but the greater goal of their comeuppance was always the end goal. And while The Rock, like Hogan and Austin, rarely ever lost clean himself, there were also far more of those losses.

Was that just their attempt at trying something different? Was it HHH wielding his newly gained power? These are things we'll likely never know. What we do know, is that The Rock's character persevered despite unparalleled booking. He was the only top babyface who did not need to win. His unmatched mic work and in-ring profile did the work for him. Throw in that The Rock was by far the best heel of the four on Mt. Rushmore (although obviously Hogan had the most impactful heel turn), and I can only draw one conclusion:

The Rock is the GOAT

It's tough to argue with your main conclusion, but I'll throw in one other name: Chris Jericho. Jericho was NEVER booked as the top guy in the WWE. Unlike the four guys you mentioned, Jericho has a losing record at WrestleMania.

Never being booked strongly greatly limits how over you can be with the crowd. As we saw with John Cena, there is a significant portion of the fan base that will cheer for whoever is booked as the superhero babyface. They know the way WWE tells stories, and the superhero babyface will always win in the end, and it's fun to cheer for the guy who wins in the end. Jericho was never in that position, and so there was no way he was ever going to be as popular with the crowd as Hogan and Stone Cold and The Rock.

But through constant re-invention, he stayed as an upper-midcarder for twenty years. He's had more success outside of the wrestling business than Hogan or Austin. Maybe Cena has passed him, but only because Cena is a full-time actor at this point. There's no question that Jericho is a better actor and could transition into being a movie star if he wanted to.

But instead he helped launch AEW. Now, maybe AEW is a flash in the pan and the naysayers are right and it will disappear into the dustbin of history. Maybe. But maybe AEW can keep its momentum going and someday become a real rival to WWE. If that happens, Jericho will have had a huge part in that, which gets him on my Mount Rushmore.

As a starting point: I love The Rock and have great appreciation for his contributions. Certainly worthy of pretty much any accolade thrown his way. But I can't buy Rock > Austin.

Two main reasons:
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1. Austin getting his spot was much more about him forcing Vince and the other powers that be into giving him that top spot. If there's one thing we know about Vince, it's that he's a cookie-cutter type that he REALLY believes in, and Austin wasn't that. He didn't have the fatal flaw of being small, though he did have the lesser flaw (I'm talking flaws primarily in Vince's eyes) of not being physically huge. He was credible, but as a physical specimen he was pretty far from larger than life.

His character also wasn't what Vince would have wanted to carry a company. We saw the clearest example of that when he put the belt on Kevin Nash and then made the terrible mistake of trying to jam Nash into that mold of "nice guy, face of the company," obliterating every bit of personality he could offer. Vince was very resistant to having his babyface champion be anything but that.

Austin got one chance to make his mark, when he was tapped to win King of the Ring, and he brute-forced his way to prominence with the Austin 3:16 promo. That started him down a path where he just wasn't going to be denied. It can be acknowledged that he was caught a lucky break to get this spot, when HHH fell into the doghouse and was removed from his planned push to win that KOTR, but it certainly wasn't an undeserved break, and he absolutely maxed it out.

This is as opposed to The Rock, who fits the Vince mold much better, and who Vince made clear from the very beginning that he was determined to push to the top whether he was ready or not. He debuted prior to being ready, and the company nearly wrecked him simply by ignoring the reality of his greenness and moon-pushing him anyway. Thankfully they had the sense to listen to the fans and change course by repackaging/turning him.

Obviously, both Rock and Austin proved themselves to be more than worthy of a push to the top. But I do believe that Austin was forced to carve out his spot, and that there was always going to be a spot waiting for Rock. That, to me, speaks to a more impressive trajectory on Austin's part.
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2. The Rock's act wore thinner on people than Austin's. Rock was historically over, but it tapered off and reached a point of audible booing. The Austin heel turn at X7 was a disaster not because he failed to play the heel well - he was awesome at it - but because he was way too popular and the fans simply wouldn't accept this reality where they were supposed to be cheering against him. Not the case with The Rock when he had to turn heel. To me, this is a clear symptom that Austin was simply stronger and more enduring as a top babyface than The Rock was.

I just realized that Vince, eventually being right about the Rock being so great, one way or the other, is probably responsible for his incredible stubbornness on everything going forward.

Thing with this is that, despite his immediate moon-push being ill-advised, Vince's handling of The Rock overall was very reasonable in comparison to the more recent Vince we've seen.

He wasn't wrong when he diagnosed Reigns as having the whole package of traits a wrestler would need in order to be a legit top guy. However, obviously the manner of trying to push him into that spot was completely misguided for multiple years, and he for a VERY long time refused to change direction or deal with the reality that the Reigns thing needed some different creative direction to fully work.

With Rocky, that whole process of pushing him hard and then pulling the plug to repackage him - in response to the reality that the crowd wasn't buying it - was about a five-month process. And that was in the midcard, where the stakes were clearly lower than trying to push someone at the top of the company. With Reigns, I think Vince just got dug in and angry and wasn't going to let the fans push him around. And if that meant that a bunch of big events had to come off terribly with crowds crapping all over what they were doing, so be it.

FWIW, I agree with your overall point, Jericho got the shaft. The booking of his main event at WM18, where he was the champion but also was not even a part of the main storyline (Steph vs HHH) was embarrassing. And then it was totally absurd that Owens/Jericho did not get the Main Event at WM when they were BY FAR the best storyline going at the time was even worse.

With that being said, The Rock was 5-5 at WM, and 0-3 from 99-01, which was his prime.

Ya this is all fine. I probably should have just left the conclusion part of it out, because I don't really even care so much about that part of the discussion. I just found it incredibly interesting how poorly the incredibly over babyface version of The Rock (late 99-00) was treated in comparison to his historical peers.

Even if Austin was better, the gap between the two was not nearly as large as the gap between how they were booked. Not giving The Rock a Wrestlemania moment, not letting him go over HHH clean ever, **** not even (legitimately) winning a single Royal Rumble, all just feels quite ridiculous to me when you compare it to Austin/Hogan/Cena who all won multiple rumbles, had multiple clean victories over their biggest rivals, and multiple Wrestlemania coronations.

There's no question that Rock jobbed more often than others at that elite level. I get the feeling this is about Hogan/Austin refusing, and Rock not having much of a problem with doing jobs. I have to think he could have put his foot down a lot more and been on the losing end a lot less of the time.

I will say: going over Hogan at WM X-8 absolutely is a WrestleMania moment. In hindsight it really sucks that that wasn't the last match on the card, but it completely blocked out the sun and caused the main event to be forgotten.

The Cena comparisons are just too apples-to-oranges to draw many conclusions from IMO. Cena got to exist in an era where he was the meal ticket that the company couldn't do without. Transplant Rock into that same era, especially without Cena around, and I have to think the booking looks similarly strong.

More good points. I didn't forget about X-8 obviously, I just was thinking of his title matches, specifically 2000, which seemed particularly egregious.

Hulk Hogan didn’t get a push from Vince. Hulk Hogan pushed WWF, when he was already the biggest wrestling star in the world wrestling in Japan and AWA, and then was brought in as the main attraction. The Rock, Stone Cold, HHH, they were all pushed and marketed by Vince and WWE. BIG difference. Hogan will always be the greatest wrestler of all time because he brought WWE to the top.

I still am amazed that Rock/Hogan was advertised as "ICON vs ICON".

The Rock was 29 years old at WM X8.

Can you imagine someone under 30 being considered an "Icon" these days?

Hard to call Rock underachieving at Mania when he has clean wins over Hogan, Cena, and Austin there. And Erick Rowan!

Every time the too many cooks video gets to ‘cena’s last chance’ and you find out there’s still 2:19 left in the video makes me lol so hard

Went back and watched the build for SS 2002, and I think this is a misrepresentation of what happened. The Rock got a huge pop upon return in mid-2002, was the clear favorite in the TT match against Undertaker and Kurt Angle at Vengeance, and was over as hell in the run up to SS. When it was leaked he was going to be leaving again soon after the PPV, he was then annihilated by the Summerslam crowd in Long Island, known to be incredibly smarky, cut an annoyed heel promo* after the show, and was not seen again until returning as a heel months later.

To me, this is not a crowd being sick or growing tired of face The Rock. This is an attack on Dwayne Johnson. They were mad that a wrestler who owed his fame and popularity to wrestling, particularly one who goes by "The People's Champion", was jumping ship and "selling out". I firmly believe had Austin taken the same path, he would have been treated the same by fans.

*Also would like to point out this was the 2nd time in The Rock's career he made an assessment on the fly and chose correctly. At WM18 he saw what was what and, with Hogan, changed the script of the match on the fly. Most in this spot woulda just shrugged it off, cut the promo they were supposed to, and pretended like it never happened. It was much easier to do so back in 2002. But The Rock embraced the heat and used it to setup Hollywood Rock.

I was at Summerslam 2002 - hot crowd, maybe it was smarky for 2002 but definitely wouldn't touch the crowds of today. I don't remember any other heel except for Lesnar getting cheered that night

Was any other heel that night fighting a face leaving to go act in movies for the third time in 18 months?