Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson is a megastar. There’s no other way to put it. He began his career in WWE and quickly became one of the most popular superstars in the company.
But with television popularity comes the opportunity to pursue other ventures outside of wrestling. The Rock took that opportunity in 2002 when he took a sabbatical from WWE to try his hand in the movie industry, and in a way, he never looked back.
Sure, he returned to WWE following his first stint in Hollywood and continues to make appearances to this day. But the movie business has been extremely lucrative for The Rock, so it’s no surprise that it has taken priority.
He’s been the centrepiece in a multitude of hit movies including the Fast & Furious series, Central Intelligence, Moana, and others.
His mainstream success culminated with him being honoured in 2016 with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, making him only the second person associated with WWE to receive a star, the first being Vince McMahon himself.
So there’s clearly no denying The Rock’s Hollywood success. But what if Rocky had been rejected by Hollywood? What if his first venture into the movie industry resulted in a colossal flop? How would the fate of both The Rock’s career and the landscape of WWE have changed?
Let’s take a look into the alternate universe where Hollywood slammed their diamond-studded door right in The Rock’s face.
The first question that should come to everyone’s mind is this: Would The Rock still be a full-time wrestler in 2017 in the movie industry rejected him?
It isn’t necessarily likely, but it’s not impossible. The Rock is 44 years old. There are only three full-time WWE superstars who are as old or older than The Rock: Goldust (47), Chris Jericho (45), and R-Truth (44).
Of those three, only Jericho experienced a similar level of in-ring success as The Rock. But while Jericho has the championship resume to compete with The Rock, he doesn’t quite carry the “larger than life” aura that The Rock does. It wouldn’t quite feel right to see him in a similar position to what Jericho is in right now.
Here’s a video of Chris Jericho and The Rock interacting during a promo:
Imagine The Rock essentially playing the role of sidekick to a top star. Not easy, is it?
So that rules out the Jericho role. And we can certainly rule out him having a role anything close to what The Golden Truth is doing right now. That leaves two options: Either The Rock would be the oldest full-time top star in WWE, or he would still be a part-timer, but a less sporadic part-timer.
Based on the trend of what superstars have done in the past, we’re going to assume the latter would apply to The Rock.
What does less sporadic mean? It means rather than having a match every couple years, he would work more of a John Cena-type schedule. As of late, Cena tends to stay with WWE for a few months, appearing on TV on a regular basis.
It makes it feel like he’s still a part of the roster as opposed to a situation like Brock Lesnar’s where it feels like more of a celebrity appearance whenever he shows up.
If The Rock worked a Cena schedule, it would allow him to still be involved in meaningful feuds that don’t feel rushed. And having another top star on TV more often than not would do wonders for WWE’s product. The more big stars they have, the better.
Also read: WWE News: The Rock becomes the highest paid actor in Hollywood
But let’s take a step back from the present. If The Rock had been rejected by Hollywood, he likely would have remained a full-time WWE superstar until at least 2011 or so, which would put him at 38 years old.
This calls into question what feuds he could have had and what potential dream matches the fans could have seen out of the People’s Champ. The most notable one is probably Shawn Michaels, as HBK never crossed paths with The Rock once in his illustrious career.
Part of that was due to some problems The Rock supposedly had with Michaels, but The Rock’s departure certainly didn’t help matters.
Had he stuck around full-time, there would have been a much better chance that the two men would have matured and resolved their issues and we could have finally seen a showdown between the two icons. Unfortunately, it wasn’t to be.
And what about the feuds The Rock did have? How would those have changed if The Rock had been in WWE full-time from 2004-2011? In terms of his most notable post-Hollywood feuds, those being with CM Punk and John Cena, they likely would have been changed only slightly.
Here’s a clip from CM Punk’s feud with The Rock:
WWE advertised The Rock vs John Cena as “Once in a Lifetime” event. Of course, it ultimately ended up happening twice, but that’s beside the point. The point is it was advertised as a match between two stars of different generations that many thought would never cross paths.
But if The Rock had been around during Cena’s ascent to stardom, they likely would have squared off much earlier. And it certainly wouldn’t have been based on the idea of it being a dream match. That would have subsequently changed the main events of both WrestleMania 28 and 29.
As for CM Punk, that feud could have potentially stayed the same. They feuded on the basis of The Rock being a part-timer and Punk feeling underappreciated despite carrying WWE on his back.
This feud was in 2013, so although The Rock would have been a less sporadic part-timer, he still would’ve been a part-timer, meaning Punk’s argument would still be valid.
This is really just a taste of how WWE would have been different if The Rock was rejected by Hollywood. In reality, The Rock sticking around likely would have had an enormous domino effect and WWE as a whole would look drastically different.
Certain superstars may not have come to WWE, tonnes of feuds likely would have been changed or may not have happened, it’s really impossible to run through all the things that could have been affected by one of WWE’s top stars sticking around.
Was it a good thing that The Rock left for the movie industry when he did? We may never know. The only thing we know for sure is WWE as a whole would be an entirely different product if The Rock stayed in the company rather than hightailing it to Hollywood.
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