411’s Countdown to WrestleMania 28: The Shimmy – You’re Dead to Me, Andy Clark

“You’re dead to me, Andy Clark…”

This was the statement of a good friend of mine in the hours after this past year’s Survivor Series. The disappointed comments were in response to my official proclamation of joining Team Cena in the build to WrestleMania XXVIII. I never thought I’d make that declaration; I never wanted to. But after seeing the man that was instrumental in bringing me to appreciate this crazy form of entertainment known as professional wrestling devolve into a hypocritical bully I had little choice.

Now you have to know that this decision does not come lightly. It was The Rock that brought, and kept, my attention to professional wrestling. Ever since that fateful morning, (November 14, 1998 to be exact) where I stumbled upon footage of that week’s Raw on a show called LiveWire, I was hooked. Of all the characters I saw on that program it was The Rock that captivated me the most. By the time I found the show again The Rock had turned heel and joined the dastardly Corporation. For most seventh graders in the midst of the Attitude Era that should have been enough to turn me from being one of “the millions,” but to me The Rock was still the coolest guy in the room. While all my friends eagerly anticipated Stone Cold Steve Austin’s victory over The Rock at WrestleMania XV, I hoped in vain that somehow Mr. McMahon would have some sort of diabolical scheme to keep the title on the Corporate Champ.

Life got easier as The Rock eased his way into being a fan favorite. And while many WWE fans lamented the loss of Stone Cold Steve Austin due to his neck injury, I was perfectly fine with The Rock taking over as the face of WWE. Finally the WWE fans were seeing in The Rock the guy that I had when I first started watching professional wrestling. For once he was the guy, no longer getting the scraps of the heels that Stone Cold didn’t want, no longer stuck in the perennial semi-main event. Things were nice, but with every medical update on the Texas Rattlesnake you knew that sooner or later it had to end. I encountered the fickle fate of fandom that would plague The Rock at various times in his career and for the first time as a wrestling fan I experienced the wolves eating their own.

WrestleMania X-Seven will go down for me as the single greatest wrestling event of all time, a thought shared by many. The main event on that show was in my opinion the most compelling match in WrestleMania history. Two icons, the two men that helped define the Attitude Era, a rivalry for the ages, clashing for the second time on the grandest stage of all. 65,000 people in the Houston Astrodome watched as The Rock defended not just his WWE Championship but the title as flag bearer for the business against the returning Stone Cold Steve Austin. In the month leading up to the show both WCW and ECW had closed their doors and the era spawned to greatness by the Monday Night Wars and an abundance of creativity was coming to a dramatic climax. There were no two more perfect individuals to cap off such a prosperous time than The Rock and Stone Cold Steve Austin. The build to the match was tremendous and the storytelling done on commentary, especially by color man Paul Heyman, was fantastic. Heyman was famously quoted as stating that this was a match that “both men have to win, but neither man can afford to lose.”

“I need to beat you, Rock. I need it more than anything you can ever imagine.”

Those were words spoken by Austin in the weeks leading up to the match. Stone Cold knew that if he did not recapture the brass ring at WrestleMania then his time was over. The old lion would have been overcome by the new lion, and it’s entirely possible that the new lion was every bit better than the old. The Rock had taken the ball from Austin and run farther than anyone could have imagined, not only carrying the wrestling business on his massive shoulders but managed to light the spark of a burgeoning Hollywood career as well. Only The Rock could turn a few minute, one line cameo into a starring role in a blockbuster spinoff. For all of his accolades and t-shirt sales even the mighty Austin 3:16 could handle that feat.

I settled in on my sofa to enjoy WrestleMania that year, eagerly anticipating the night’s main event. After three years the rest of the world would finally see what I had seen all along, that Austin’s time was over and it was time to appreciate the true greatness of The Rock. This was going to be the passing of the torch moment I had been waiting for. But a funny thing happened along the way.

The Rock got a great reaction, no doubt. And Austin, expectantly so, received a louder pop from his fellow Texans. This in and of itself was not a problem. But as the match continued the audience began to turn; it was no longer split, now it was very heavily in favor of their fellow redneck. Even Jim Ross began to openly root for Austin on commenary, much to the chagrin of Heyman. How could this be? This wasn’t some run of the mill heel here, this was the guy that carried the company for an entire year. This was the man that the so called “millions” oohed and aahed over, that played “Sing Along with the Great One” every night. And now they decide to turn their backs on him? It’s one thing to cheer for Austin, but to actively boo the man that you had embraced so feverishly for twelve months? I felt vindicated when Austin resorted to the ultimate low blow: relying on the assistance of his own mortal enemy, Mr. McMahon, to help defeat The Rock. I’d known all along that he couldn’t do it, and despite the fact that my guy lost I felt satisfaction knowing that he was the better man.

Despite this setback Austin would never been the same. He’d hand out hugs and play the guitar and even when he’d finally reclaim so of the old Austin spark it still wasn’t quite as dangerous as the Austin everyone fell in loved with. In the meantime The Rock worked his way into becoming a full on movie star, dominating both in the ring and at the box office. As a fan of both The Rock and professional wrestling I was proud and supported his new ventures. And no matter his success The Rock found time to come back to the WWE. One year after the debacle in Houston at WrestleMania X-Seven, The Rock found himself up against yet another WWE legend: Hulk Hogan.

Hogan had returned to the WWE in February along with his cronies Scott Hall and Kevin Nash. While it was certainly cool to see Hogan back in a WWE ring for the first time in nine years, the fact is is that he was old news. He was one of the reasons WWE fans made fun on WCW, the man responsible for Hogan-Warrior II, Age in the Cage, the Fingerpoke of Doom, and Jay Leno’s arm lock. We had seen parodies of Hogan, from the Huckster to the Showster, on WWE television for years. Once again The Rock was defending his turf, but instead of facing a contemporary he was clearly facing someone from the past. It was a clear battle of old vs. new and once again I expected the WWE universe to support the man that supported them.

The problem with having expectations is that sometimes they just aren’t met. Sometimes they’re downright surprising. Just like The Grinch standing high on his mountaintop, puzzled by the sound of singing on Christmas day, I sat there, stymied as the fans chanted for old man Hogan over their true hero. I couldn’t believe it. Nostalgia run amok? Crazy Canadians working with their “Bizarro World” nickname? Whatever the cause for the second WrestleMania in a row the people that The Rock was supposed to be the champion of had turned their back on the Great One. With the reaction of the fans for the previous two years it is no wonder that he left almost immediately to film another movie.

Later that summer The Rock returned to cut one of the best promos I have ever seen on a departing Stone Cold Steve Austin, the infamous “Take Your Ball and Go Home” promo. It is that promo that showcased the passion that The Rock had for the wrestling business and you just knew that no matter how many movies he starred in, how many red carpet events he attended, how many talk shows he went on, he was a WWE superstar at his core. It’s because of that that when the Long Island crowd booed The Rock out of the building against Brock Lesnar at SummerSlam that year that I had enough. The Rock is the one person that could successfully balance a movie and wrestling career, how dare anybody begrudge him of that. It was months before Rock returned for his WrestleMania program, one more go around with Stone Cold, with a rematch with Hogan thrown in for good measure. This time though The Rock was smart; he fed into the hate. The Rock put on the best performance of his career, creating a new persona, one that played off of the emotions of the seemingly jilted fans. If the fans wanted a Hollywood villain that is exactly what they were going to get.

It’s ironic that on this run The Rock finally notched those victories over Hogan and Austin, pretending to be what the fans thought he was: a sellout. Despite everything though, whether he was insulting the fans or a fan favorite superstar, you could still tell that the man was passionate and loved what he was doing. The small moments, such as the laughter after a great insult or the intimate moment he shared with the Hartford crowd after his match with Goldberg, illustrated that even with all of his success that he was the same Rock that was bred into this business. That conversation with those that attended the Backlash PPV was one of the last ones The Rock would have for a long time.

Like a friend who has moved away or started a family or developed new interests, The Rock’s visits became less frequent. The impact he made far less significant. Even when he returned for WrestleMania XX it was as a tag team partner a match fifth from the top, largely playing second banana to the Mick Foley-Randy Orton feud. A few sporadic appearances sprinkled throughout the rest of 2004, a few recorded hellos from red carpet premieres, that is what was left of the relationship between The Rock and those in WWE. His movies went from starring The Rock to Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson to simply Dwayne Johnson. The action star, picked for kicking ass in the wrestling ring, began entering into family entertainment, poking fun at himself to diversify his movie career. When asked about returning to wrestling in interviews his answers changed from “Of course, someday” to “Maybe if the opponent is right” to “I quietly retired from the business so that I could pursue acting.”

The fact that he “retired” and did so “quietly” is the thing that ate away at WWE fans and kept the inquiries coming, regardless of the answer. Over the years we have seen many retirements, some stick, most don’t. But one thing that I have discovered is that even if the retirement is in the short term, closure is the key. Mick Foley in 2000, Ric Flair in 2008, and Shawn Michaels in 2010 all had high profile retirements. While fans would surely be interested in seeing comebacks from those men (and two of the three did indeed come back) the public nature of those retirements allowed the fans to get past wrestling moving on without them. Stone Cold Steve Austin followed the same model as The Rock, “quietly” retiring in 2003; nine years later and the Texas Rattlesnake is still the subject of return match speculation.

WWE fans saw the change in The Rock, or more appropriately Dwayne. But even with the clear change in priority we all took what scraps we could get. A recorded cameo before WrestleMania 23? Awesome. Returning to the Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony the night before WrestleMania 24 to induct his father and grandfather? Awesome. In fact The Rock being front and center before an arena full of fans was so refreshing and nostalgic that it didn’t even matter that he took what should have been a special moment for his family and turned it into his typical standup routine. The Rock went off on the likes of Big Show, Santino Marella, and of course John Cena and we all ate it up. We wanted more. We needed more.

But more didn’t come. The change in Orlando was evident. As nice as it was to see The Rock back in his old habitat, it wasn’t the same. When rolling through his old catchphrases Dwayne was caught off guard by his millions filling in the “…and millions” line once he said the word. That one must have been left out of the script. Many people were hoping for an appearance by the Great One at WrestleMania the following night. None happened. Even his old nemesis Steve Austin was noted as saying that Rock had changed and approached people differently backstage. It was clear that Dwayne Johnson: movie star had now overtaken the role of The Rock: professional wrestler. And really, that’s OK. People are allowed to change jobs, to change passions even.

The problem was that Dwayne felt that he could have his cake and eat it too. Even when he’d mention his “quiet retirement” from wrestling he still paid lip service to the fact that he was “passionate” about the wrestling business and that it was “in his blood.” And yet for a long time there was nothing to indicate passion or that those bloodlines stilled flowed. In fact when rumors surfaced prior to WrestleMania XXV that WWE creative had been interested in putting together one more match between Rock and Austin it was laughed at, not because of their ages or health, but because of Dwayne’s take on the business at the time. As they say actions speak louder than words and Dwayne Johnson’s actions stated that despite his protestations, professional wrestling was no longer tied to him…

Enter John Cena….

Debuting in WWE in 2002, John Cena was one of a crop of young talent that would be the next generation of WWE superstars. Starting off as a plucky face with “ruthless aggression,” Cena transitioned into a gangsta rapping heel, to an edgy babyface, to WWE Champion in just three years. Through this journey the fans stuck with him, claiming that was underutilized in the early going, cheering for his rise to the United States Championship (Madison Square Garden even loudly chanted for Cena at WrestleMania XX, something unheard of today), and enjoying see a new face put on the WWE Championship. It was after he made it to the WWE Championship plateau that Cena’s relationship with the fans began to wane. Gone were the biting raps and interesting character, now John Cena was simply a man. A man that could not be beaten. A man that was clearly designed to be the present and future of sports-entertainment.

The backlash was slow at first. People complained about not being as interested in Cena during his feuds with Eric Bischoff and Kurt Angle. His dominance of a relatively weak main event scene on Raw seemed to stagnate his once growing popularity. The boo birds began at New Year’s Revolution, lauding Edge for cashing in Money in the Bank on the assumed “chosen one.” They intensified at WrestleMania.

The amazing thing is that heading into WrestleMania 22 there had not been much interest in a John Cena vs. Triple H main event, even by yours truly who was fortunate enough to be in Chicago that weekend. In fact many people chastised the fact that Rey Mysterio’s chase for the World Heavyweight Championship was not the final match on the evening. Regardless of the interest in the weeks leading to the show, once both men stepped into the Allstate Arena there was no apathy. The hate had been building all weekend; John Cena had been booed so unmercifully at the Hall of Fame ceremony that most people were likely unable to hear his induction of William “The Refrigerator” Perry. The hate Cena, the All-American good guy, received as he went up against everybody’s favorite heel was remarkable. Dueling chants are not uncommon in professional wrestling, but usually there are two chants to support two different wrestlers. The chants on this evening were not split between Cena and Triple H, but between “Fuck You Cena” and “Cena Sucks.”

What had John Cena done to deserve such treatment? Win? Be a positive role model? Embrace the fact that children looked up to him? Prior to WrestleMania 22 I would not have considered Cena my favorite wrestler, but certainly I had more respect for him than those in Chicago (and apparently around the world as well). Much in the same way the fans senseless turning on The Rock solidified my support for the Brahma Bull, my defense against Cena’s unfair critics placed me as a member of the Cenation. For Cena the hits just kept on coming. He’d face an obstacle, whether it be a superstar or an environment and overcome. Much like The Rock dealt with unnecessary pressure in the Austin, Hogan, and Lesnar matches, Cena would go on to feel that pressure in almost every match he’d compete in for the next six years. Rob Van Dam in the Hammerstein Ballroom. Edge in Toronto. CM Punk in Chicago. Never before had a champion caliber babyface defined his career by dealing with the most un-babyface reaction imaginable. And yet he just kept on, and keeps on, going.

The similarities between Cena and The Rock would naturally bring questions about a potential matchup down the road. Both successful at a relatively young age. Both extremely charismatic. Both employers of ridiculous maneuvers such as the Five Knuckle Shuffle and the People’s Elbow, as well as shoddily applied submission holds. And both men that, at points in their careers dealt with some level of fan backlash. The connection was only natural to make, and since the people asking these questions were normally fans of wrestling and not Hollywood insiders, Cena was the one left giving answers. Unfortunately for some fans they didn’t like the answers they got.

John Cena gave an honest opinion, one that hit to the core of the matter and called a spade a spade. The Rock had every right to walk away from the wrestling business and to pursue another career. He had done it all in WWE and no one can hold wanting to realize another dream against him. The problem laid in The Rock’s portrayal of his passion for the business, the same passion that clearly had gone away long ago. Cena verbalized what some fans realized long ago, others still too blinded by their own nostalgia to see. The old expression “Don’t piss on my leg and tell me it’s raining” came to play here. If you love this business so much, why cut yourself off? Dwayne Johnson employed the same flawed logic that a teenager on a soapy drama would, talking about having to handle things on their own and taking a step back to “find themself.” As with most things Cena’s was vilified for his statements but just because a statement is unpopular does not make it any less true. Regardless, it appeared as if the argument was a moot point. The Rock was gone and the two men would never get to exercise the proper kind of the catharsis needed by the fans. That is, until last year. When finally…The Rock came back to WWE.

I won’t lie, I was stoked. I sat at attention in front of the TV soaking in every glorious moment of The Rock’s twenty minute return promo. It was good to see my old hero back in front of the screen, spouting the lines that we all knew by heart. He even remembered “the millions” this time! As the weeks went on The Rock dug back into his back of tricks and despite the fact his target was the man I had grown to appreciate as the true champion of WWE there was no denying why the WWE Universe dubbed him the Great One. For the first time I enjoyed watching Cena get torn down by an adversary, eagerly anticipating the hero of my youth to come in and whisk things back to the halcyon days of old.

All good things must come to an end, however. As time went on the appeal of The Rock’s catchphrase began to lessen. Despite how cool he sounded at the beginning of his return, you could tell he didn’t quite have the same spark. He began reaching for things to talk about, he became overly reliant on Twitter references, and he had very little of substance to say. The Rock’s war against Cena was based soley on two things: 1) the opinion that John Cena sucked, and 2) Being upset that Cena would have the audacity to criticize The Rock for abandoning professional wrestling. South Park once had an episode where they deduced the plot of Family Guy was determined by a group of manatee selecting random words in a pool; honestly that same writing strategy could have worked for many of The Rock’s promos. Slowly but surely the illusion started to fade. This was no longer The Rock, WWE superstar come home to dominate. This was Dwayne Johnson, Hollywood superstar, playing the role of The Rock. The jabroni beating, pie eating, trail blazing, eyebrow raising People’s Champ was just as much of a role as Joe Kingman, Roadblock, or the Scorpion King.

Despite the façade beginning to crumble I was still committed to The Rock’s cause. I purchased a hat for my Dad on Father’s Day representing Team Bring It. When attending a show with friends last spring I defended my support of John Cena by reassuring them that come WrestleMania I’d help boo Cena out of the building. The Rock, for all his faults, was still the reason I was here, the reason Vince McMahon and Co. have gotten so much of my money over the years. I couldn’t see anything that would have caused me to switch allegiances; that is until the video.

This video was a response, as The Rock put it, to John Cena’s “hot garbage.” Filmed outside of his plush home, The Rock laid out the reasons why he, and his supporters, didn’t like John Cena. He claimed that Cena’s expectation of The Rock be at every event after saying that he’d never leave the WWE were wrong because “he’s already done it.” Gee, that should sure make the fans feel special. Glad you paid your debt to society there, Rocky. He then goes on to explain that all of his Team Bring It members hate John Cena because they can “see through bullshit” and that John Cena is a phony. Ladies and gentlemen, this is classic stuff right here. Dwayne Johnson of all people is calling someone a phony. The man that couldn’t be any more out of touch and manipulative, the man that writes trite inspirational phrases on Twitter, who panders to the crowd unlike any other time in his career, has the temerity to call John Cena phony? Alanis Morrisette couldn’t even handle that much irony.

Things got worse at Survivor Series. The Rock finally makes his long awaited return to the ring, in admittedly good shape, and has a decent showing in a tag team effort along with John Cena. This is clearly a big moment for Dwayne, one that Cena wouldn’t dare to tarnish, and so he gives the floor to The Rock. Of course Mr. Hollywood can’t be gracious and soak up his cheers like the good little Hulk Hogan impersonator he has become. Instead he insists that John Cena return to the ring and engage in a posedown with him, just to showcase how badly the fans in Madison Square Garden hated Cena. Considering that Cena has shown in his many years in the WWE that he is not petty and always one to indulge his adversary, John plays along. Is that all though? Is Dwayne happy? Of course not. Time to add the injury to the insult as he finishes the night by delivering a completely unnecessary Rock Bottom to the man that was his partner just minutes before.

And that was it; the bond had been broken. After fourteen years of supporting The Rock, both in the wrestling ring and outside of it, I was done. I have a framed picture of myself at WWF New York standing in front of a giant poster of The Rock, sporting my own version of the People’s Eyebrow. Of the eighteen movies Dwayne Johnson is credited in I have seen sixteen of them, fifteen of them in the theater. When my wife and I were officially declared husband and wife this past summer our recessional was the guitar riff from The Rock’s latest entrance music. We go way back, The Rock has had an immense impact on my wrestling fandom. And yet, on November 20, at 11:20 PM my mind was made up.

“The Rock is a douche bag. Didn’t think I’d say this, but come April I’m part of the CeNation.”

This declaration of course led to the aforementioned statement about my death. I imagine that many of you reading this probably feel the same way. I get it, and I pity you, just as I pitted those poor fools ten years ago that got wrapped up in Hulk Hogan’s return. It’s funny that in ten years time we have gone full circle, where The Rock is now the old news nostalgia act clinging to the adoration of a desperate fan base instead of being the young standard bearer that is there for the fans of the present. It’s also funny how rumors of their being resentment from the wrestler backstage about The Rock’s return and yet the fans are still eating his act up. If anything those roles should be reversed. The wrestlers should be excited for the extra attention, and therefore money, that Dwayne Johnson will bring them at this year’s WrestleMania. It’s the fans that should be upset that they were abandoned and that Johnson is clearly grasping at straws in a vain attempt to be the guy the people want.

Of course many fans experienced their catharsis nine years ago during Johnson’s Hollywood Rock run. The people got to unleash their displeasure with their abandonment on a man that had not yet abandoned them, but was good at playing the part. Now that he has returned from a long absence they run back to him like a mistreated spouse returning to their lover after an extended time apart. The man you see before you using catchphrases and spewing about trending topics is far more of a Hollywood sellout than the man you all booed in 2003.

I have to be honest though: I almost fell for it. I was almost like the lot of you. This column took me much longer to finish because in recent weeks I’ve seen a little bit of the spark of the old Rock. I saw some of the fun Rock, the less mean spirited, less creatively bankrupt Rock. For the first time since that initial return promo last February Dwayne Johnson looked like he was having fun and I began to second guess myself. But that’s the magic of Hollywood, and truthfully that is the magic of wrestling.

At its roots this is a carny show and we have laid witness to two of the absolute best.

I expect largely negative feedback for this column. Call me a mark, call me a nerd, call me completely off base on my assessment of Dwayne. The stories told here are a rare blend of real and kayfabe, and honestly even I’m not entirely sure where the line blurs. What I do know is that on Sunday we are going to witness history, as The Rock and John Cena will finally wage war; two different men, two different goals, two different ideologies. There should be no apathy on Sunday, no fence sitting. War will be raged in that ring, in the stands, and in the living rooms of wrestling fans around the world.

According to my friend I have already been a casualty of this war. I wouldn’t have it any other way.

Enjoy WrestleMania, everybody.