The Undertaker didn’t think The Rock would make it in WWE after his debut.
While The Rock has come to be known as one of the greatest stars in the history of professional wrestling, his path to the top didn’t get off to the best start. When the future People’s Champ made his debut at WWE Survivor Series in 1996, he was known as Rocky Maivia, wore garish bright blue ring gear, and had a permanent smile on his face.
Fans quickly soured on the star, whose gimmick seemed to come from a bygone era of cartoon-character babyfaces rather than the company that was on the verge of beginning the famed Attitude Era.
The Undertaker was at the event, and on the latest episode of his Six Feet Under podcast admitted he didn’t think Rock would last more than a couple of years.
“I’ll never forget, I remember him coming out in the Garden. He had the funny colored thing on and whole deal. I was like “This kid ain’t gonna make it. He ain’t got a chance. He’s dead in the water.’ I thought him being a legacy would give him a couple years that he probably wasn’t going to deserve.”
The Undertaker Claims The Rock Embodies The American Dream
While things didn’t start off well for The Great One, he quickly turned things around and worked his way to the top of the company before leaving to pursue an equally successful career in Hollywood.
According to The Phenom, Rock is the personification of the American Dream as he would always rebound from failure.
“He is the American dream. He wanted to play football, that fell through. There are a lot of times when something like that happens, people cave. Then they never rebound. Even when I thought he sucked, he was always motivated. He wasn’t like having a pity party.
“He was picking people’s brain. He was around the guys that knew what the hell was going on and picking their brain. Trying to figure out what it was that he was going to bring to the table. I wish more people had that. I’m just talking about the wrestling side of it for now.”
Undertaker went on to explain that The Rock and Bray Wyatt were similar in that respect as they were always willing to think outside the box.
“Because a lot of times guys are very…right now I feel like there’s a lot of guys that are very cookie cutter. They’re looking at the formula that, what they think is going to lead them to success. And they’re bringing nothing new to the table. They’re staying within the box. That was what was so great about Bray Wyatt. He thought outside of the box. Guys like Rock with his promos. It was just always ‘never be content’ and ‘always try and be better.'”
Also on his podcast, The Undertaker revealed which perk would have improved his WWE career.
H/T to SEScoops for the above transcription.