Arn Anderson On Meeting The Rock For The First Time, His Picks For Mount Rushmore Of Wrestling Promos

In a recent edition of ARN, Arn Anderson discussed meeting The Rock for the first time, his Mount Rushmore of wrestling promos, and much more. You can read his comments below.

Arn Anderson on The Rock’s WWE return in 2011: “Rock, after he left and was pursuing his acting career, he was gone for a very long time. And when he said, ‘Hey, I’m not leaving again,’ he meant that, ‘Guys, I’m gonna be popping back in periodically.’ I would be very surprised if I’m wrong on that deal. But he already had established himself in Hollywood, and it made him a bigger star. He was so good on that mic that it’s like he had never missed a beat. He is one of those guys that can go out there and literally, for 10, 12, 14 minutes, because of his delivery and intelligence and just his personality, he could entertain an audience for that long, and it’s amazing.”

On his Mount Rushmore of wrestling promos: “How can you not put that guy [Rock] in there? I think, if you’re talking about connecting with the audience, you’ve got to put Austin there, right? How can you not put Ric [Flair]? Now, there’s that next place where it gets a little bit grey. Jake ‘The Snake’ Roberts, when he was evil. Evil Jake with the Snake. He just had that low voice when he talked. He pulled you in because it was just the tone of his voice. Sucked you in, totally different. I’m sure there’s a lot of people – how do you not put Dusty Rhodes on that list, you know?”

On meeting Rock for the first time: “I am a hundred percent shooting with this. We meet a lot of people in life, and in your business, Conrad, and in my business and in different places. You meet a lot of people, and we’ve always treated certain people the way they treat us. Just because a guy’s not popular with three fourths of the locker room, if he’s been nice to me and polite to me and receptive to me, I like the guy. That’s what I base it on. Before WCW was bought, The Rock had already flamed up. I mean he was red hot, but it was before the company had been bought. I was walking through the Pittsburgh airport early one morning. We had done a show there the night before, and it was empty.

“I found a place there, and I bellied up to the bar and was placing an order, and there was nobody around. All of a sudden I hear, “Enforcer!” I turn around and it’s Rock. I’d never met Rock. He said, ‘Have you got just a moment?’ I said, ‘Yeah.’ He goes, ‘I just wanna thank you for everything you’ve contributed to the business, all your hard work and dedication and all the things you mean to the industry,’ and just a plethora of nice things. Shook my hand, gave me a hug, and turned and took off. Now, I’d never met this guy. How he recognized me with my back turned – you know a lot of guys have got bald spots – but it’s just one of those things where I could count on one hand how many times I’ve been treated that respectfully. That was one of them, and it just floored me. He didn’t have to do that. He could have just kept walking, and we would have never even made eye contact. But that’s kind of the guy he is. He’s just a classy, respectful, talented guy that I for one am tickled to death for all his success. Couldn’t happen to a nicer guy and a bigger professional.”

If using any of the above quotes, please credit ARN with an h/t to 411mania.com for the transcription.