What if The Rock had never left WWE?

The Rock was one of the definitive stars of WWE’s Attitude Era, second only to Stone Cold Steve Austin when it came to connecting with WWE fans of that time. There’s little question it was his tremendous success as a wrestler that paved the way for him to become one of the biggest stars in Hollywood, becoming the general consensus pick for greatest crossover mainstream star the wrestling world has ever produced.

But what if The Rock had never left WWE?

We can debate when The Rock truly became a part-timer, but even at the most generous estimates, he spent less than a decade working full time with WWE. He was a big enough star, who left the company young enough that it’s no exaggeration to suggest he might have single-handedly changed the course of history for the largest wrestling company in the world.

This article speculates about five potential outcomes if The Rock were to have stuck with WWE, and never left to pursue a career in the movie business.

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#5 Randy Orton kills his legend

Randy Orton vs. The Rock would have been an inevitable match-up.

When The Rock started to go Hollywood, WWE fans started to reject him at a level unseen since his rookie year. Some of that’s owed to it being clear The People’s Champion was leaving, and fans growing wary of this abandonment. Some of it, too, had to do with fans growing tired of The Rock and thus readily cheering fresher challengers like Brock Lesnar and Goldberg.

One rivalry that Rock just missed was a proper feud with Randy Orton. As a fellow third generation blue chipper, it would have been a natural story to tell. We got a glimpse of what a program between the two might have looked like when The Rock made a brief return in 2004 to back Mick Foley against Orton and Evolution, but that feud was never about The Legend Killer vs. The Brahma Bull.

Had Rock stuck around, this feud would have been inevitable and given their respective trajectories, Orton likely would have gone over to better cement his place as a rising main eventer.

#4 An Anoa’i Faction

The Rock may have headed up a family stable.

For all of the Anoa’is to make their way through WWE, it’s odd that they never had a formal stable dedicated to them. We can probably chalk some of that up to never having a star to properly fit the role of faction leader.

Yokozuna showed up too early, and Rikishi was never a main event guy. Umaga didn’t have enough peers at the same time as him. Roman Reigns and The Usos each came up at a similar time, and by the time Reigns might have led a faction WWE was positioning him as the face of the company and a seemingly permanent good guy.

The Rock could have been the foundation and mouthpiece for such a group, though, cashing in on his clout to help make any number of his younger brethren from Umaga to The Usos to Reigns to Nia Jax. As such, Rock might have transitioned to a player-coach role akin to what Ric Flair did for Evolution, still a wrestler, but equally managing and legitimately guiding young careers.

#3 “Once in a lifetime” comes much sooner

The Rock vs. John Cena surely would have happened sooner if The Rock had stuck around WWE.

WWE billed the WrestleMania 28 dream match between The Rock and John Cena as “once in a lifetime”. The tagline got undermined when the two were booked for a rematch the very next year but nonetheless felt special for the novelty of two of the top ten biggest stars of all time, who had been featured during different eras, going head to head at the biggest show(s) of the year.

Had The Rock never left WWE, though, we have to assume this match would have happened much sooner.

Maybe The People’s Champion would have taken on young upstart John Cena early in his tenure, or put the Doctor of Thuganomics in his place. Or maybe WWE still would have saved this match for a time, but given it a featured spot sometime around 2005-2007 when Cena was shoring up his spot as the face of the company.

Regardless, while this may well have been a big-time match whenever it was booked, it surely would have happened at least five years sooner had The Rock never left WWE.

#The People’s Authority Figure

The Rock could have been an intriguing authority figure.

For better or for worse, ever since the Attitude Era, WWE has consistently featured authority figures as weekly presences on TV. Gone were the days of President Jack Tunney making announcements in big-time scenarios, or showing up to announce PPV main events. In were the days of shows starting with in-ring monologues, and more often having faces challenge evil heel masterminds who stacked the deck against them.

If The Rock’s WWE career had run straight through and was now going on twenty-plus years, there’s little question he would have found himself as an authority figure at some point. The rule might have suited him, too, as his genuine skill on the mic was one of the defining characteristics of what made him such a big star.

While he grew into the role of one of WWE’s best faces, there’s a real argument to be made The Great One was a better heel at heart and might have worked some magic in the heel authority figure position.

#1 The Rock vs. HBK

The Rock and Shawn Michaels just missed each other more than once.

One of the all-time great dream rivalries that WWE fans narrowly missed out on was The Rock vs. Shawn Michaels. These two had an overlapping year and a half on the main roster upon young Rocky Maivia’s debut. HBK was firmly planted at the main event level at the time, though, and so the two didn’t have a natural time to cross.

Michaels retired for the first time coming out of WrestleMania 14 in 1998; The Rock would win his first world title in November of that year. The two crossed over a bit again in 2002, but Michaels’s comeback match against Triple H came on the same night The Rock lost his world title to Brock Lesnar, in so doing taking another big step toward part-time status.

Interestingly, Michaels resumed his career for most of the next eight and a half years, before he retired again at WrestleMania 26, only for The Rock to make a shocking return to the WWE fold one year later.

These two top-tier stars narrowly missed one another time and again. Had The Rock been with WWE through Michaels’s return to the company, there’s little doubt WWE would have built to this dream match, likely as not for a WrestleMania.