Hollywood Rock

[tiger_rick]

Spent a couple of hours awake in the night (fucking thanks burgular alarm) watching YouTube vids of Rock's heel run in 2003. This isn't an original thought, granted, but, fuck me, is it entertaining?

The Rock concert, the mini feud with the Hamburgular, the off the charts heat wgen he tells Toronto that the mapleleafs suck is wonderful. I piss my pants when he brings Gillberg out to mock Goldberg and tells him 'you're in trouble now, you've been taking the mick for years' to the most wonderful facials from the best Duane.

Putting it on the fans for turning on him against Hogan is brilliant heel motivation.

It's so sad that they would never take a chance like this now. They're so fucking terrified. Here you've got the second biggest star ever telling people to go fuck themselves and they still love the guy now.

(6:15 for the awesome heat)

 

[HarmonicGenerator]

Hollywood Rock was an utter revelation. I used to like him before (certainly I would always pick him over Austin) but it was this run that made me love him. I don’t think if there’s ever been any greater demonstration of charisma in wrestling than in those few months. Every moment was utter brilliance, and it wasn’t just that WWE weren’t afraid to go for it - Rock himself wasn’t afraid to go for it either. What a wonderful opportunity after the fans turned on him at Summerslam 2002. What could have been a downbeat return or a failed attempt to capture positive reactions of times past turned into the best character run of his career. But you’re right, they’d never do it now. 

The Rock Concert. The Hurricane segments. The new music. Wonderful.

[Devon Malcolm]

The entrance video and slowed down music were magnificent. He was superb during this era, a great lead on to becoming the Great One in Hollywood too.

[IANdrewDiceClay]

The Toronto promo was as good as you get on the mic. Love how he wore the same clothes every week as well. That leather waist coat and pants combo. That match with Austin was tremendous as well. I remember loving it at the time, but people stick is as the 3rd place in the league table of Rock/Austin matches. I'd have it over the WrestleMania XV match anyday.

[air_raid]

Should have re-christened it The Hollywood Elbow.

[ColinBollocks]

About as good as it gets. My favourite part was his all too brief feud with Hurricane where The Rock sold and hammed his way through making Hurricane such a brilliant foe. Of course, this being The Rock he even took the pin from Hurricane too.

All of their exchanges are still piss funny. Couple of goofs.

[PunkStep]

45 minutes ago, Devon Malcolm said:

The entrance video and slowed down music were magnificent. He was superb during this era, a great lead on to becoming the Great One in Hollywood too.

When he first used that music (No Way Out?), I swear his intro video of the LA skyline lasted for 5 minutes. It was bloody fantastic.

[Devon Malcolm]

Yeah, it was brilliant. It was unlike anything I'd seen before for an entrance video and it was perfect for him at that stage.

[IANdrewDiceClay]

There was a period in 2003 where the WWE was excellent. It was such a good roster, even Triple H had to go one about 4th from the top at WrestleMania. During an era where he was on about 50 minutes of each episode of Raw. Its amazing how WrestleMania XIX was the lowest drawing in years. Angle/Brock, Rock/Austin, Shawn/Jericho and Hogan/Vince were sensational bits of pro wrestling madness.

2000 and 2003 were probably the best rosters they ever had if you think about it. They were stacked all over the shop.

[tiger_rick]

10 hours ago, Devon Malcolm said:

The entrance video and slowed down music were magnificent. He was superb during this era, a great lead on to becoming the Great One in Hollywood too.

Can't believe I forgot to mention that incredible video and theme combo. It screams SUPERSTAR and DOUCHEBAG in equal measure. It's so utterly perfect.

8 hours ago, IANdrewDiceClay said:

There was a period in 2003 where the WWE was excellent. It was such a good roster, even Triple H had to go one about 4th from the top at WrestleMania. During an era where he was on about 50 minutes of each episode of Raw. Its amazing how WrestleMania XIX was the lowest drawing in years. Angle/Brock, Rock/Austin, Shawn/Jericho and Hogan/Vince were sensational bits of pro wrestling madness.

I think fact the roster was so stacked is why I hate WM 19 so much. Don't share your love for HBK/Jericho or Rock/Austin which are decent but not brilliant and Angle/Brock is great up until he lands on his fucking head. For all the guys they has under contract, I just think it's such a disappointing card and they'd blown through everything in the last couple of years that there was so little that felt fresh. As much as it's an incredible moment, it's always annoyed me that Goldberg came in the night after too. If Austin had one match left and he was losing, surely you do Austin/Goldberg.

[Accident Prone]

A bloody fantastic bit of business. Probably one of my favourite angles of all time. The build-up, the spin-offs, the ending. Superb stuff.

Aug 2002 - Aug 2003 maybe one of my favourite periods of WWE, there's so much great stuff going on. 

[air_raid]

13 hours ago, IANdrewDiceClay said:

There was a period in 2003 where the WWE was excellent. It was such a good roster, even Triple H had to go one about 4th from the top at WrestleMania. During an era where he was on about 50 minutes of each episode of Raw. Its amazing how WrestleMania XIX was the lowest drawing in years. Angle/Brock, Rock/Austin, Shawn/Jericho and Hogan/Vince were sensational bits of pro wrestling madness.

2000 and 2003 were probably the best rosters they ever had if you think about it. They were stacked all over the shop.

Probably why Here Comes The Pain was the best PS2 game. Roster was stocked to the gills with Hall Of Famers and Brock.

[Accident Prone]

8 minutes ago, air_raid said:

Probably why Here Comes The Pain was the best PS2 game. Roster was stocked to the gills with Hall Of Famers and Brock.

I recently had a playthrough of HCTP when I unearthed my old PS2. I took Booker T through the season mode all the way to beating HHH for the BIG GOLD BELT at 'Mania. A cut scene then played of Booker putting over HHH then turning heel and attacking him. Even in a video game, they still wouldn't let Booker come out smelling of roses at WMXIX against Trips. Mad shit.

[CTXRussomark]

On 8/17/2018 at 11:44 AM, Accident Prone said:

A bloody fantastic bit of business. Probably one of my favourite angles of all time. The build-up, the spin-offs, the ending. Superb stuff.

Aug 2002 - Aug 2003 maybe one of my favourite periods of WWE, there's so much great stuff going on. 

What stood out for me there was how subdued the pop for Austin was. I'd forgotten how much his popularity had waned since the whole heel turn and Invasion run. 

[air_raid]

What stands out for me is how they did such a good job of making Rock into a star that it never made him less of a star when he lost, and that's a perfect example. Right back to when he'd lose to Al Snow on Raw in 99 to make Al's feud with Foley a bigger deal, or lose to Boss Man so our chum Big could get an inexplicable WWF title shot. He was always a big fucking deal and no defeat dimmed his aura because on the way up once he got to a level they kept him there, you always knew you were watching a main event player.

Compared to now when nobody is made into a sustained top tier guy and everyone is allowed to slide back down into the pack when they try someone else, even in two separate eras of two World titles where you've got room for both established top guys and incremental bedding in of "the next top guys" they favour the revolving door. To the point a guy that main evented a WrestleMania (the Miz) and seven years later has not only apparently lost a thousand times, but the company tells you so in their Tale of The Tape graphic (see SummerSlam 2018 thread). I'm reeling.