It can be argued that The Rock has become the most popular wrestler in the history of the business. That's not necessarily because of his career in wrestling, but because of his rise as a movie star over the last decade. He started dabbling in Hollywood in 2000, then it became more and more. He took a mostly part time schedule from 2001 until early 2003 and then he left. He returned for WrestleMania 20 in 2004 to put over Evolution along with Mick Foley, but then he was gone as a regular until the 2011 return. When The Rock left, that was a big void gone for WWE fans. He was arguably the best talker in the business during the Attitude Era and he stopped wrestling full time when he was only 31 years old. A lot of the fans that grew up with him were disappointed that he was gone. There's nobody in wrestling that can replace him in terms of being innovative on the microphone and having his charisma. He's an all time great that didn't even work in WWE for ten years. That's pretty amazing. If you asked Vince McMahon if he's happy for The Rock's success he would most likely say that he is because he was a big reason why Rock became a star. However, he probably wishes that he was able to use Rock in the 2000s because he would have been the biggest star without question while mixing in with the younger guys that came through like Lesnar, Cena and Orton. The numbers show that some fans definitely left when The Rock "retired" from WWE as a full timer, so that's why his absence is something that nearly caused hardcore fans to stop watching too.
John wrote at WhatCulture from December 2013 to December 2015. It was fun, but it's over for now. Follow him on Twitter @johnreport. You can also send an email to mrjohncanton@gmail.com with any questions or comments as well.
