The Many Faces Of The Rock - Ranked From Worst To Best
From Corporate Champion to People's Champion, which persona saw The Rock peak?
No professional wrestler has ever captivated an audience like The Rock. Hulk Hogan comes close, as does Steve Austin, but the end of the day, there's a reason we call Dwayne Johnson "the most electrifying man in sports entertainment." He was never the most skilled wrestler in the world, but it didn't matter: Rock's supreme showmanship and unparalleled charisma trumped everything else, and made him an era-defining megastar.
More significantly, Rocky is the biggest mainstream crossover star that wrestling has ever produced. Sure, other wrestlers have embarked on careers in other forms of entertainment over the years, but none can match The Rock's success. Forbes named him the highest-paid actor in the world back in August, and it all stems from skills developed throughout his time with WWE.
Nobody could have ever predicted this level of Hollywood success, but The Rock was a tremendous actor throughout his various WWE runs. He was able to portray a number of different personas convincingly and effectively throughout his wrestling career, and while they weren't all surefire hits, some of his faces were legitimately game-changing.
Few wrestlers have ever switched personas as effortlessly as The Rock, and while his character has always been underpinned by his supreme confidence, Rocky's versatility is often undersold. Barely a year passed without him tweaking his character in some way or another, but how do The Rock's numerous personas stack up against each other?
Here are the many faces of The Rock, ranked from worst to best.
8. Rocky Maivia
If you think Roman Reigns’ current crowd reactions are bad, take a trip back to the mid-90s and witness the venom and bile that greeted Rocky Maivia. The Rock’s first character was so disastrous that if he wasn’t so naturally charismatic, it would have been certain death for his career. Looking back, it’s borderline miraculous that he was not only able overcome these early obstacles, but also go on and become his sport’s biggest star.
He debuted in 1996, and the name Rocky Maivia came from his father (Rocky Johnson) and grandfather’s (“High Chief” Peter Maivia) ring names. Rock was immediately thrust into a position of prominence, and he was the sole survivor in his debut match at Survivor Series, eliminating Goldust and Crush along the way.
An impressive debut, but it soon became clear that Rocky was greener than an envious Kermit. The fans rejected his overbearing do-gooder persona (just as they’d done with Bob Backlund in the past), but the push didn’t stop: Maivia was quickly elevated towards the Intercontinental Title, and won the belt from Hunter Hearst Helmsley in early 1997.
The audience’s hostility escalated as Rocky’s prominence soared. He was regularly met with chants of “Rocky sucks” and “die, Rocky, die,” and it was clear the character wasn’t working. Fortunately, WWE were able to recognise this by April ‘97, and after joining the Nation of Domination later that year, “The Blue Chipper” became a thing of the past.