After last night's Raw X show, we were once again salivating over what now appears to be inevitable. We're all excited about Rocky's heel turn and that sound you hear is the sound of MONEY ROLLING IN! But we also said the same thing about the WCW InVasion before politics killed the angle dead. Can politics also kill Rocky's heel turn? Well, let's take a look.
If he goes to Raw, do you SERIOUSLY believe Triple HGH is going to step back and allow Rocky to take his #1 heel role? If you say "yes", you obviously don't remember what happened with Austin's heel turn.
If he goes to Smackdown, I feel bad for Kurt Angle, because he'll lose the top heel spot he's fought a long time to get. It's the best chance Rock has of being built up as a PROPER heel, but does anyone else think Paul Heyman will try to jump in as Rocky's agent (which would suck, yet make sense at the same time)? But then again, what happens when Rock's put into an inevitable program with Undertaker?
We know Rocky's heel turn can be guaranteed money? But will the usual suspects, Triple HGH and Undertaker, turn it all to hell?
Does THIS look like the face of a man with Testicles?
Both Triple H and The Undertaker are smart enough to know not to play any games with someone as high-ranking as Rocky; given his unselfish track record, Rocky has more leverage with Vince than either of those two. Whatever happens, Rocky'll be protected, even to the detriment of Taker and HHH. Look at his feud with Taker in February last year.
If indeed he does go to RAW I dont really see there being any great problem with both he and HHH being main event level heels. The characters they would be playing could be sufficiently different that neither would lose any real heat.
Rock could play an arrogant movie star who doesnt give a damn about the fans who turned his back on him (kinda like the Y2J turn but without the whining).
Meanwhile HHH continues to play the psychotic heel character whos hell bent on winning at all costs.
Theres plenty of main event level faces on the roster (Booker T, RVD, Kane, Steiner) for them both to feud away merrily for quite some time.
Its more likely however he'll go to Smackdown what with it being his show and all. They could easy then have Angle play a tweener which he's done with some success on occassion leaving Rocky to get pissed off with Brock, Edge, Rey Rey and all the other upstarts hogging his TV time.
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I don't get the "if he goes to" part. He's with SmackDown. Are we gonna get a "which side wil he choose" storyline everytime he goes away and comes back?
Originally posted by oldschoolheroBoth Triple H and The Undertaker are smart enough to know not to play any games with someone as high-ranking as Rocky; given his unselfish track record, Rocky has more leverage with Vince than either of those two. Whatever happens, Rocky'll be protected, even to the detriment of Taker and HHH. Look at his feud with Taker in February last year.
How did that feud end? I just remember Taker tombstoning him on the hood of a car...
"My brother saw the Undertaker walking through an airport." - Rex "Was he no-selling?" - Me
"...release the dogs, or the bees, or the dogs with bees in their mouths, and when they bark, they shoot bees at you?" -- Homer Simpson
The guy can play a great heel. We know that. Austin can play a great heel (WCW Daze). What makes a heel turn work is the writing and the booking, and the WWE currently has none of those currently listed under "Things We Do Marginally Better Than a Chimp."
Triple H is the top heel on Raw. Notice how nobody gives a shit when he wrestles, talks, or walks out? It's not about who comes back to main-event, its about how they book and produce a wrestler to fill a position.
I agree... if Rocky is booked correctly, of course he can be a hugely successful heel. He first became famous as a heel, after all. The problem I can see with a heel turn is that people are still going to want to cheer him, even though they haven't been recently. So he needs to stop trying to be funny. He needs to be a complete over-the-top asshole. No jokes. No telling people to stick things up their candy-asses. Those are going to get him face pops. He needs to milk the Hollywood assaholism for all it's worth, scowl like a heel (similar to what he did at WrestleMania), and just act like an overall bad person.
As to whether or not it'll make money for WWE? It really depends on who they feud him with. It's been proven that heel merchandise doesn't tend to sell as well as face merchandise, so the Rocky T-shirts aren't exactly going to be flying off the shelves. But then, it's always been my belief that the job of a heel is to help get the faces over. If The Rock feuds with someone who's got a lot of charisma and can put on good matches with him, and Rocky just lets his asshole persona take over, this could be great. (I'm thinking Booker T here, but as has been mentioned, they're on different shows.)
Come to think of it... I can't think of someone on SmackDown who's good enough and charismatic enough to feud with The Rock, and can also use the rub. Can anyone else?
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Come to think of it... I can't think of someone on SmackDown who's good enough and charismatic enough to feud with The Rock, and can also use the rub. Can anyone else?
Originally posted by GRLThere ARE options, just not Austin-level main event options just yet. Except Brock. And that I'd pay to see.
Brock could be MONEY, but there's just one issue. Brock completely MAULED Rocky the first time around, so you'd have to set up Brock as the challenger and Rocky as the bastard heel champion who breaks every rule in the book to keep the title in order to get any kind of fan interest. Brock's being set up to get the title at Wrestlemania and if there's a Brock/Rocky feud with Brock as champion, I doubt it'll work because I don't think the casual fan will buy Rocky as a serious challenger based on the Summerslam match.
Does THIS look like the face of a man with Testicles?
Maybe. Casual fans have short-term memories sometimes, though, while those of us here can remember what happened to spark the Mega-Powers on a collision course, plus the Sid Scissors Incident.
I feel like the Rock heel turn needs to be less of a sneaky heel and more of a "This is EASY for me. I just waltzed right back into the WWE and became champion, and I haven't even wrestled here for 'X' months!" Brock could be a mega-face who just punks the Rock out, and he could do that as champion if Rock then figures out his way to cheat to win.
Rock has very natural heel instincts that he can summon even if he starts out a match as a face.
I agree, he needs to stick with the Hollywood schtick, letting the fans know that he's from movie-land now, and doesn't need them anymore. Basically, Andy Kaufmann on a larger scale.
It'll work. Only drawback is if they get itchy on pulling the trigger for fear of hurting his movie career.
"My brother saw the Undertaker walking through an airport." - Rex "Was he no-selling?" - Me
"...release the dogs, or the bees, or the dogs with bees in their mouths, and when they bark, they shoot bees at you?" -- Homer Simpson
I think Brock would be a great fall-guy for a heel Rock, but I don't think there's really any story if Brock wins the feud. I'm just one of those people that can't buy into Brock's face run. He was doing so great with the Dolph Lundgren heel schtick up until Survivor Series that it's really a shame that they dropped that.
It's not so much that he has no mic skills, which he doesn't, it's that he hasn't been given time to develop his own personality. WWE has developed it for him. Think back to when The Rock had the "blue chipper" gimmick and was pushed to the moon and ultimately failed. When The Rock wasn't given the push from upstairs, he lit a fire that pushed him to the top in a hot feud with Austin. Brock hasn't tasted failure yet, and I mean that in a bad way. Brock is never going to find that fire The Rock did if WWE keeps lighting it for him.
He is a talented in-ring performer, though. No denying that.
Brock coming out of WrestleMania a face champ and feuding with The heel Rock is the way to go, though, if Brock absolutely has to get a face run as champ. They can have a big SummerSlam rematch (the second time they've faced... at SummerSlam!) where heel Rock turns the tables and beats Brock (cheating, of course), then goes on a heel title run for the fall assuming there's no movie in store for him. The Rock probably should return as a face, but only to set the stage for his heel turn. Let the fans get comfortable getting to remember the People's Champion, then have him make the shocking turn.
If they keep The Rock as a face, THAT is doomed to bomb.
I dig the heel rock... I'd love to hear him spout out... "UhuhuhuhuhUH! This is NOT 'Sing along with the Rock'!" ...a few more times before I get tired of seeing him on my TV yet again.