Continuing my series where I go back and watch WWF from the 1990s, I assume most of my readers have heard of The Rock?  Dwayne Johnson?  Most paid actor in Hollywood?  Yeah I just saw the moment he began to be something in WWF.

He started as “Rocky Maivia” a very boring good guy who said he would “try his best” to win.  On August 11th 1997, out of nowhere, he runs into the ring and illegally helps Faarooq (Nation of Domination, the black power guys) win his match against Chainz (Disciples of Apocalypse, the bikers).  I guess this is the point where he joins the nation and transitions from “Rocky” to “The Rock.”  It’s so out of nowhere too, and I’d love to know the background on why it happened.  Ahmed Johnson had just been exiled from the Nation, either because he was injured or maybe they wanted him to be a good guy again, and so I guess they wanted The Rock to join as someone with more prestige/skill.  But yeah this is a moment in history for WWE and The Rock.

For the remainder of 1997, The Rock would go on to more fully morph into the character that became known and loved, but it’s quite something to see it all come together in real time. It started when Steve Austin (in another amazing Austin character moment) had to hand over the Intercontinental Title because he was still injured from the Summerslam piledriver. He gifts it to the Rock to become the new champion, which kind of makes the Rock look like a chump because he only became the champ through a gift and not through his own skill and abilities. But after that the Rock starts parading around like he’s actual a cool guy, and claims that he is the greatest so that people will start hating him. The Rock at this point is a “heel” (aka bad guy) so the audience hating him is exactly what the WWF wants. He calls himself “the People’s Champ” and “the Great One,” elements that would eventually morph into part of his repertoire of one-liners, and would continue to make quips whenever it suited him. When he found a quip that worked well he would keep using it again and again; he got a strong reaction with calling his opponents “jabronie” and eventually it morphed into his “Jabronie Drive” quip. Other times he’d use a land that wouldn’t land and he’d never use it again. In the same way it’s interesting to see the rise of the New Age Outlaws and their sing-along catch phrases, the very first time they introduced themselves they said “your ass better page somebody” (kids, ask your parents what a “pager” was). But this quip worked well enough that it morphed into “Oh you didn’t know? Your ass better call somebody” which the crowd would chant along with them every time they walked out.

These sing-along chants eventually start getting a bit exhausting in 1998, as the wrestlers stop adding new material and just fall back on the same old quips they’ve used for a year, but for 1997 the buildup of what are today well-known catchphrases was cool to watch.

Other than that, I’m noticing a few quirks of 90s wrestling I never had before.  Some people do moves simply because they need to get countered for a “spot” to happen.  The Sleeper Hold was a move in the 80s that was very popular, but by the 90s it was considered lame/old fashioned.  However Steve Austin had a move that he could only do by countering a Sleeper Hold.  Naturally, whenever Austin was wrestling, his opponent had to perform a Sleeper so Austin could do his counter-move, even though Sleepers were all but extinct otherwise. There are also a lot more production hiccups on the television side of things than what I would expect.  The show isn’t as tightly scripted as it is today, a lot of times a wrestler will talk to the audience and say how they’re about to fight in a title match, then Vince McMahon (on commentary) will butt in to say it’s a NON-title match.  Just seems the wrestlers and script writers aren’t on the same page.

Still, 1997 is a good year for WWF, if you have Peacock you should check this stuff out.