On the WWE’s lauded “Road to Wrestlemania,” there’s always a series of huge developments. The Rock has now found himself back in the mix for the first time since last year’s Wrestlemania XL. And this time, “The Final Boss” is as menacing as ever. As the impetus behind John Cena’s heel turn, The Rock is forging a path to make this year’s Wrestlemania a can’t-miss event once again. I’m of the opinion that this will be remembered as the most impactful period of The Rock’s career. Pro-wrestling fans will look back fondly on the crossover star’s desire to really get his hands dirty in the product again. He’s no longer just showing up as Dwayne Johnson. He’s a part of the canon of what’s going on. So if you’re old enough to remember “The Nation of Domination,” you’re loving the hell out of this.
Let’s turn the clock back a bit. The year is 2003 and I’m in the spring semester of my freshman year of high school. By this point, The Rock has made his way into Hollywood on almost a full-time basis. With much less access to the ins and outs of the business at the time, we had no clue if The Rock would ever return. The last that we saw of “The Great One,” was getting F5’d by a young Brock Lesnar the previous August. At that year’s Summerslam, The Rock lost his then-record seventh WWE championship. So as we fast forward to spring 2003, it was a shock to learn that he’d be returning for that year’s Wrestlemania season. He’d be returning against a slightly less controversial figure at the time, the legendary Hulk Hogan.
This time was different though. The Rock wasn’t returning as the famed “People’s Champion,” that the fans loved to cheer. He was returning as a self-actualized movie star. A movie star who couldn’t give two rips what “the people” thought of him anymore. His stardom was beyond any of that. So with this shift in persona, The Rock became someone the fans loved to boo. That was until his incomparable humor just couldn’t help but be cheered.
The “Hollywood” heel persona of The Rock is one of the most entertaining characters in WWE history. Although playing a foil to babyfaces on the roster, the people ate it up. After that run, whenever The Rock would return from Hollywood, he’d just run off his greatest hits. He may hit a person’s elbow from time to time. He would most certainly give you all of his catchphrases. But something was missing. We were missing the character of The Rock, mixing it up in consequential confrontations. When he returned to the WWE in 2011 to host Wrestlemania 27, it set off a three-year involvement of him with the event. He then main-evented Wrestlemania 28 and 29 with his new heavy, John Cena, but even then, it just felt like Dwayne Johnson, fresh off the set of Fast Five.
That’s all changed now. As I mentioned in an article I wrote here last year around this time, The Rock is fully invested now. He is a member of the board of TKO for WWE. He owns stock, so the health of the company is not only a responsibility of his, but a high priority. And as it turns out, embracing being an on-screen character again, as the power-wielding “Final Boss,” was the key. The Final Boss takes some elements of ‘Hollywood’ Rock as well. The change in entrance music is my favorite addition, but the slow saunter, and deliberate speech has also returned. But this version of The Rock is the most menacing. He plays the mind games and manipulates his target. He no longer uses comedy as a conduit to get his point across. He makes you think twice about crossing him.
If you ask me, the years spent in Hollywood have really benefitted Dwayne in this respect. Because it’s now that I see that he sees the value in having a character with depth. He understands that the thing people can’t stand about someone with power is if said person abuses that power. With an overarching theme like that, there’s a palpable feeling on WWE TV, that Big Brother is always watching. And clearly he is, judging from The Rock’s most recent exploits.
The reason why The Rock is doing his career-best work is three-fold. Firstly, he is going to do the best business that the company has ever seen. Better than what the business was doing when he was in his prime. In kayfabe, these are the most consequential stories that he has ever been involved with. Outside of the “Invasion” era, this truly is as big as it gets. Lastly, he’s being able to work with his kin. He gets to work with his “Usos,” the likes of Roman Reigns, and whatnot. He’s getting to continue adding to the spotlight that the Samoan culture has had on the pro-wrestling business in recent years. By the time he walks across the stage as a WWE Hall of Famer, above all else, we’ll be having the Final Boss as his greatest iteration.
