The FIRST TIME Wrestlers Had Their Million Dollar Idea

2. The Rock Raises His Eyebrow

There's a healthier-than-you-think debate to be had about just who was the bigger deal in the Attitude Era between Stone Cold Steve Austin and The Rock, and even then most of it comes down to trying to find an eleven from two superstars with boatloads of tens.

'The Rattlesnake's ruddy-minded brilliance and popularity single-handedly pulled the company back from the brink, and in doing so erected an entirely new stage for wrestlers to try new things to remove themselves from New Generation alter-egos. It wasn't a cast-iron promise of success of course, but the arms race for every wrestler to Steve Austin themselves was almost comical in late-1997, especially as it fell in line with a company overhaul and rebrand going in the same direction. Racing away from the pack at a rate and speed that genuinely doesn't get discussed enough was Rocky Maivia - or "The Rock" as he spent months irritatingly correcting people over - who had turned heel to join the Nation Of Domination in September but was on another plane within two or three weeks of linking up with the stable.

It can be tracked weekly just how impeccably the real life Dwayne Johnson judges the room, and with the under-appreciated help of an increasingly furious Faarooq, gets going with the gimmick that would propel him to at one point being the biggest movie star/celebrity in the entire world. Little quirks and catchphrases seemingly dropped out of the sky, into his brain and out of his mouth with every passing promo, to the point where by the time he was the "Ruler" of the Nation just over six months after joining it, lines such as "know your role" and "laying the smackdown" were already familiar territory.

In fact, the night he took control of the group in April 1998 was the first memorable use of his soon-to-be-massive eyebrow, but even that was already established by then. Casually dropping it halfway through a D-Generation X: In Your House promo because he was just so impressed with himself, his look down the lens obvious lands more with hindsight, but was presumably just one more thing somebody clocked and noted as something he had to keep.

He was promoting his Intercontinental Title bout with Steve Austin, even though Stone Cold was already a cert for the top strap at the subsequent WrestleMania. Just five days earlier, he'd also found one last missing ingredient for the act that had changed everything...