The Rock/Cena vs Wyatts

[AkydefGoldberg]

Reading the recap, it seems Rock got a decent pop but as with him, it didn't really do much for the show or was an even memorable moment.

Rock's tweet after the event, despite thanking the WWE employees etc, seems bit too self congratulatory on breaking records when it's really not all too important. Maybe it's Hollywood PR to boast of records and numbers all the time but as a Rock fan, becoming a tad grating.

[Hanley!]

Rock's whole bit last night was just pure masturbatory shit. I like the guy as a personality, and as an actor. But if I never see him on a wrestling show again, it'll be too soon. The long ass entrance at that point in a 7 hour show was absolutely excrutiating. Then he made one of the top heel acts in the company look like an absolute nobody.

This whole segment went on FOREVER. It was torture. I actually thought it was one of the worst parts of the show. Maybe the worst part. Wasn't into it at all.

I wasn't all that into the Austin, Michaels, Foley segment, but I'd watch twenty of those before putting myself through a Rock segment like this one again.

[Str8Shooter]

I fucking love The Rock, you can all go fuck yourselves.

It didn't add much to the show, but the visual of Rock and a returning Cena fighting together was cool. Plus only Rowan got beat by Rock himself and Rowan is clearly the jobber of the group. The other two it took Cena and Rock to take down.

I've said it before and I'll say it again, these Mania one offs don't hurt the participants at all. It's the other 364 days that do permanent damage. Mania is a special day, the League of Nations will be just as fine today as they were Friday, the Wyatts will be spinning their wheels next week as well as they were last week.

As for the tweets, that was Rocks job, to come in, hype the event, use his celebrity to help WWE and make this Mania seem like the biggest ever, which is what he was doing there.

[Circled Square]

I fucking hate the Rock right now

I liked Rocky "The rock" Maivia but Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson is watered down bs

[prophet]

I fucking hated his entire segment. His entrance was exhausting and unnecessary, his humiliation of the Wyatt's was a downright burial and his nostalgia has completely worn off for me.

[Westcoastvibes]

If he would have sold an ass whooping from the wyatts with bray standing over his lifeless body before the white night came out to save him then the segment would have accomplished something. But yeah, as it was, total bullshit

[KaiserGlider]

I must agree that Rock's 90 minute entrance was the worst part of the show. Guy is giving Taker a run for his money. Can you imagine if he left after announcing the attendance record? That would have been hilarious in the worst way.

[AkydefGoldberg]

I think now, compared to 2003, he can be called Hollywood Rock.

[The Legend]

[quote="Str8Shooter"}I've said it before and I'll say it again, these Mania one offs don't hurt the participants at all. It's the other 364 days that do permanent damage. Mania is a special day, the League of Nations will be just as fine today as they were Friday, the Wyatts will be spinning their wheels next week as well as they were last week.[/quote]

OK, yes have the Wyatts or League of Nations or other guys been booked poorly? Sure. Has that damaged them? Sure.

BUT, adding one more day of it does do damage to them. One more day on the biggest stage of them all when you've got a lot of casual viewers that could possibly see something in a new act other than being jobbed out to some old time part time nostalgia act, that could catch those people's attention.

Remember a lot of those casual viewers don't know what happened to the Wyatts or League of Nations the other 364 days of the year. If you showcase those new guys like the greatest things on the planet, not only are you not harming them, You are actually HELPING them and the product immensely.

The bottom line is the WWE have done a lot of things wrong and using the logic that we've done it this way before is a huge part of the problem. Changing how they do things immediately is the answer.

[Hanley!]

Every moment of screen time is an opportunity to turn a nobody into a somebody. You can't justify Rock burying someone by saying that it's not the first time they've been buried. If anything he was in a strong position to get something out of them and had nothing to lose by doing so.

[Str8Shooter]

Nobody at Mania wants to see the Rock get the shit kicked out of him by the 3 Wyatts, or Steve Austin eat a Brogue Kick though. That crowd went apeshit for those guys kicking ass and taking names. That's what they paid to see.

Sorry, I just can't see some casual fan watching Mania with his buddies for the first time in 5 years seeing Bray Wyatt and Braun Stroman manhandling The Rock and leaving him laying and saying "Dudes, can I come over tomorrow to see these guys do this to someone else?". They're more likely to say "What the hell was that? I wanted to see someone eat a Rock Bottom".

[Everlong]

Nobody at Mania wants to see the Rock get the shit kicked out of him by the 3 Wyatts, or Steve Austin eat a Brogue Kick though. That crowd went apeshit for those guys kicking ass and taking names. That's what they paid to see.

Sorry, I just can't see some casual fan watching Mania with his buddies for the first time in 5 years seeing Bray Wyatt and Braun Stroman manhandling The Rock and leaving him laying and saying "Dudes, can I come over tomorrow to see these guys do this to someone else?". They're more likely to say "What the hell was that? I wanted to see someone eat a Rock Bottom".

I'm with you, as someone who's become a WrestleMania casual I'd way rather see The Rock come out and kick some dude's ass than the other way around, if it's not an actual match.

[Everlong]

BUT, adding one more day of it does do damage to them. One more day on the biggest stage of them all when you've got a lot of casual viewers that could possibly see something in a new act other than being jobbed out to some old time part time nostalgia act, that could catch those people's attention.

They've got literally the entire rest of the show and all the matches to see something in a new act. These appearances outside of matches are entirely fan service specifically for nostalgic fans. It'd defeat the purpose to have The Rock come out in a one-off appearance and get beat down by someone the "casuals" are unfamiliar with.

WWE should be getting the casual fans interested with appearances like Rock's and KEEPING them interested in the rest of the show by presenting a great product and having new wrestlers go over and be built up. But they don't do that, they rely solely on the appearances and nostalgia without adding that little extra something to keep the casuals coming back for more.

There's a time and a place in wrestling for nostalgia, and it ABSOLUTELY is WrestleMania.

[The Legend]

BUT, adding one more day of it does do damage to them. One more day on the biggest stage of them all when you've got a lot of casual viewers that could possibly see something in a new act other than being jobbed out to some old time part time nostalgia act, that could catch those people's attention.

They've got literally the entire rest of the show and all the matches to see something in a new act. These appearances outside of matches are entirely fan service specifically for nostalgic fans. It'd defeat the purpose to have The Rock come out in a one-off appearance and get beat down by someone the "casuals" are unfamiliar with.

WWE should be getting the casual fans interested with appearances like Rock's and KEEPING them interested in the rest of the show by presenting a great product and having new wrestlers go over and be built up. But they don't do that, they rely solely on the appearances and nostalgia without adding that little extra something to keep the casuals coming back for more.

There's a time and a place in wrestling for nostalgia, and it ABSOLUTELY is WrestleMania.

Maybe they wouldn't have loved to see the Rock get beat up by the Wyatts and maybe the Wyatts wouldn't get them to tune in the next night, but that doesn't mean you can't put the Rock in a situation with someone that would attract their attention by beating the crap out of the Rock. Instead of the Wyatts interrupting the Rock, why not have Kevin Owens come out, pissed off that he lost his championship? Why not have him cut a promo about how he's still going to turn it into KO-Mania and he's going to use the Rock to make a name for himself, and then actually have him break through with it? Are you telling me there's not a chance to turn Kevin Owens into a somebody that they would turn in for by showing him in a cool segment with the Rock? Cause, all anybody that only watches Mania saw Owens do was lose the IC title in a clusterfuck of a ladder match.

Are you telling me Kevin Owens couldn't have benefited from having a positive interaction with the Rock for himself?

[Hanley!]

It'd defeat the purpose to have The Rock come out in a one-off appearance and get beat down by someone the "casuals" are unfamiliar with.

Why? It shows those fans that the guy that beat up the Rock is a big fucking deal. That he's a big talent and a big star and that maybe they should stick around to watch him while the Rock goes back to Hollywood. That doesn't sound to me like it defeats the purpose at all. Sounds really productive to me.

I'm a big fan of nostalgia in the right doses but just having someone who used to do cool things in the 90s fart around doing nothing for a half hour doesn't make any part of me mark out. He was cool in the 90s because he actually did things.

I'm beating a dead horse though, as I have this complaint about something almost every year at Wrestlemania. For most people seeing these stars is enough. But for me, particularly when the guy in question shows up at least once a year, they need to actually do something for me to invest.



More importantly though, this Rock segment was just so fucking boring.

Entertainment is ultimately the goal, and nothing about that was entertaining.

What's interesting is that at least on this occasion, a lot of people seem to have thought this. It wasn't a small minority of fans. A lot of people thought this went too long and were ultimately turned off by it.

[Str8Shooter]

It wasn't a small minority of fans. A lot of people thought this went too long and were ultimately turned off by it.

There didn't seem to be many of them in that massive crowd of legit 93,000 plus though. They seemed to be loving every second of it in fact.

Are you telling me Kevin Owens couldn't have benefited from having a positive interaction with the Rock for himself?

I absolutely think Kevin Owens could benefit from an interaction with the Rock. I just believe in making the people happy the majority of the time, especially at Mania.

I think Mania should be a celebration of pro wrestling and WWE, almost a wrestling festival, which it's kind of turning into. I think it's a night where mostly babyfaces should win, and it should be about popping the crowd and *shudders*, putting smiles on people's faces. In this situation I like The Rock and Cena cleaning house, now if this were a Raw leading up to Mania, I would say it's perfectly fine to have The Wyatts beat up the Rock and leave him laying. But on this night, it's about the big stars showing off and giving the people what they want to see.

[The Legend]

Well, then I sincerely hope they give me what I want to see next year, which is to say, no more Rock. No more Austin. Just no more. I am sick of the tedious and repetitive nature of these returns where you know every detail of what's going to happen every time it happens. I don't find either Rock or Austin the slightest bit entertaining anymore because there's no suspense to their appearance. Having them always go over at Mania is pointless and boring. If they fall every once in a while it would be even better.

[JPG619]

If he would have sold an ass whooping from the wyatts with bray standing over his lifeless body before the white night came out to save him then the segment would have accomplished something. But yeah, as it was, total bullshit

That what I thought we could of ended 30 minutes earlier if it was not for the segment it was totally useless

[Everlong]

Maybe they wouldn't have loved to see the Rock get beat up by the Wyatts and maybe the Wyatts wouldn't get them to tune in the next night, but that doesn't mean you can't put the Rock in a situation with someone that would attract their attention by beating the crap out of the Rock. Instead of the Wyatts interrupting the Rock, why not have Kevin Owens come out, pissed off that he lost his championship? Why not have him cut a promo about how he's still going to turn it into KO-Mania and he's going to use the Rock to make a name for himself, and then actually have him break through with it? Are you telling me there's not a chance to turn Kevin Owens into a somebody that they would turn in for by showing him in a cool segment with the Rock? Cause, all anybody that only watches Mania saw Owens do was lose the IC title in a clusterfuck of a ladder match.

Are you telling me Kevin Owens couldn't have benefited from having a positive interaction with the Rock for himself?

You're really putting words in my mouth here How did me not believing Owens wouldn't have benefited suddenly come into this equation?

For the record, I have never said the segment was great. I always enjoy the Rock showing up, but I agree with the general consensus that it was far too long. What I disagree with is that the general idea of a guy like the Rock showing up for a one off segment and beating up regulars like the Wyatts is harmful to the product, especially when done at WrestleMania.

I do think Owens would have benefited from having a great interaction with the Rock, or that the segment in general could have been done better, so I'm not sure where the accusatory tone of this post comes from The entire conceit of my post was that the majority of fans want to see the Rock at Mania, and they want to see him kick some ass, and in no way does this harm the product. It's on the WWE to make sure the entire other 700 hours of the show actually make these casuals want to turn in on a regular basis, and not rely on a few nostalgic moments, which absolutely should happen at Wrestlemania. Wrestlemania is the most fitting place in the entire WWE schedule for fan service.

Why? It shows those fans that the guy that beat up the Rock is a big fucking deal. That he's a big talent and a big star and that maybe they should stick around to watch him while the Rock goes back to Hollywood. That doesn't sound to me like it defeats the purpose at all. Sounds really productive to me.

The purpose of bringing him out is nothing more than to give a break between a couple big matches, do some fan service and make the crowd happy. It'd be different if The Rock was going to stick around and work a program with someone. Then he absolutely should be putting people over. But for a one-off appearance, casual fans want to tune in and see The Rock do his shtick. That's the purpose.

I'm a big fan of nostalgia in the right doses but just having someone who used to do cool things in the 90s fart around doing nothing for a half hour doesn't make any part of me mark out. He was cool in the 90s because he actually did things.

...


What's interesting is that at least on this occasion, a lot of people seem to have thought this. It wasn't a small minority of fans. A lot of people thought this went too long and were ultimately turned off by it.

I mean, once again, I don't disagree that the segment was way too long. But that audience was absolutely on fire for Rock's segment. Say what you will about it being "boring" or cheap pops, but it accomplished exactly what it was intended for, even if it took far too long in doing so.

[SlightlyJames]

It's been said but I'm of the mindset that I don't care if Wyatt gets buried, the reason I didn't like the segment is because is was super long and boring as fuck.