The Many Faces Of The Rock - Ranked From Worst To Best
1. Hollywood Rock
Few wrestlers can lay claim to playing one of the most iconic heel gimmicks of all time, let alone two. The Rock can, however, and his time as a Hollywood heel in 2003 produced some of the best work of his career.
The Rock left WWE to kickstart his burgeoning acting career in 2002, and he returned with a character similar to The Miz’s current “movie star” shtick. The grand comeback started in January 2003, and it was clear something had changed. Hollywood had turned Rocky snobbish, and it was impossible to shake the idea that he now considered himself “above” wrestling - the business that had had made him famous in the first place.
The People’s Champion was dead and gone. Rocky started belittling the crowd and his opponents on a weekly basis, and debuted his “Rock Concert” segments, where he’d grab a guitar and mock the show’s host city. Things like his infamous Toronto promo, hideously self-indulgent ring entrance, and his eternally sharp wit made this the most compelling run of Rocky’s career, even if it lasted just a few months.
Hollywood Rock is the greatest short-term gimmick in wrestling history. This run saw Rock score another win over Hulk Hogan, defeat Steve Austin at WrestleMania XIX, then fall to Goldberg at Backlash. He was soon jetting off for Hollywood again, but this run produced some of the best work of Rock’s WWE career in a very condensed period of time.
It was tough for WWE fans to jeer him, even when he was destroying them on the mic. Rocky, as always, was just too entertaining for his own good, but that’s just what happens when you’re the most charismatic wrestler in WWE history.