1. The Rock Becomes Corporate Champion - Survivor Series 1998
After breaking away from the original Nation of Domination, simply because he was too charismatic and too talented to be bogged down by a group of inferior wrestlers, The Rock seemed poised to be the newest megastar in the WWF. He received positive crowd reactions on par with Stone Cold Steve Austin, put into high-profile matches against Mankind and Ken Shamrock, and had even drawn the ire of Vince McMahon, who was feuding with Austin at the time. When the WWF Championship was vacated and put into the Deadly Games tournament at Survivor Series, The Rock was one of the favorites to win, and everybody was buzzing about a Rock/Austin final. However, in a swerve that was the norm for head writer Vince Russo, Rock and Mankind did a double turn where Rock turned heel and Mankind turned babyface, with Rock screwing Mankind and joining up with The Corporation. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s7dBPXYowGk While the swerve at the time was shocking, and a nice callback to the legit screwjob from the previous years Survivor Series, it seemed like a step back for The Rock. He was already in a heel stable, and seemed to grow out of it. The fans agreed, as they refused to boo The Rock, no matter how much he talked down to them. He even remarked in his biography how frustrating it was to be a heel when the crowd wanted to adore him. Rock said to Vince something to the effect of, Ive done all I can to sh*t on these people, and theyre not having it. By the time Wrestlemania and Backlash 1999 came and went, Rock was turned back babyface, and the rise of the Peoples Champion continued where it left off the previous November. Itll be interesting to see where, or even if, Kofi ranks on this list when all is said and done.
