Why It’s Time For WWE To Play The Ultimate Trump Card
WWE have the money to pay The Rock whatever he wants for theoretically as much as he wants. But do they have the nous to make him take it?
A wadded organisation is offering an even more wadded man the opportunity to try and make them all more wadded than ever. That's the reality here, but the reason that matters is because Rock has less than zero motivation to take a single bump unless his sense of artistry and/or professional pride are spoken to over the meeting room table.
They've got to sell the story that they can still tell a story, and Dwayne Johnson isn't a flustered television exec looking for something - anything - that draws in a similar crowd to live sports. He'll smell the bullsh*t no matter how many $100 bills they use to fan the aroma away. Can they be the company that booked him so impeccably between 1998 and 2000? Because beyond Vince and Bruce, the only two guys still there crafting a wrestling show are the ex-DX d*ckheads that tried to bury him at his peak.
The Rock's probably not ever going to be on an #AllElite graphic (though never say never), but it's not that WWE have to worry about. If their evident systemic failures somehow destroy their safest hand, then what? With the titular "trump card" played, what then? Pay for Steve Austin to physically prep himself and follow the same short-term pattern? Book freakshow fights like Conor McGregor Vs A Paul Brother for a WrestleMania and hope your core base don't just tune into Dynamite instead? Convince American fans that those godawful Saudi Arabian pay-per-view main events are worthy of a 'Show Of Shows' as well?
The needle-movers (lol) ain't shifting sh*t, and WWE's last regular ratings popper is a Vince McMahon that no longer wants to be in front of cameras because he looks like a Crazy Frog advert on pause when he talks. Everybody's already fantasy booked The Rock Vs Roman Reigns, but WWE need Dwayne Johnson's vibe more than one single hot ticket match. They need years of nailed on appearances, as ingeniously promised and delivered upon as they were between 2011-2013.
It's definitely too much to ask that WWE be the company of 2000, but could they at least be the one from the turn of the 2010s? Astonishingly, probably not. If they could, CM Punk, Daniel Bryan, Cody Rhodes and countless other generational talents wouldn't be working Wednesdays.