10 Wrestlers Who Became Successful After Getting Repackaged

2. The Rock

Dwayne Johnson was the first third-generation wrestler to work in WWF, which was a major reason for his early push. Debuting in 1996 as Rocky Maivia, he was a clean, cookie-cutter babyface that people were supposed to cheer for, despite being inexperienced in the ring, and (ironically) bland on the microphone. So when his appearance was met to a chorus of boos, including loud chants of €˜Die, Rocky, Die€™, WWF did the right thing and turned him into a villain. He transformed himself into The Rock, started referring to himself in the third person, and went the extra mile to improve his speaking abilities. The end result was a Superstar that is now lauded as the greatest and most charismatic promo person of all time. The Rock is credited with the impressive ability to make his promos unique. He had several memorable catchphrases, he successfully worked the crowd into his promos by involving them in specific points, and he could balance seriousness and comedy into a single, seamless promo. It doesn€™t matter that his technical ability wasn€™t on the same level as, say Kurt Angle or Eddie Guerrero; The Rock was so good at exciting the crowd that it would€™ve been ludicrous to NOT make a world champion out of him. This part of his career is strangely repeating itself in the eyes of many fans with Roman Reigns, who is someone that many fans think is being pushed too much too soon, solely because of image or family affiliation. The fans aren€™t accepting what€™s presented in front of them, yet WWE is still going ahead with it. Maybe, just maybe, they should allow history to repeat itself fully this time, by taking something that the fans hate and turn it into something they want. After all, it worked for The Rock; why not for Roman Reigns?