The Rock Reveals Wrestling Moment That Broke His Spirits
The Rock has revealed the wrestling moment that almost made him quit the business.
The Great One’s misadventures as Rocky Maivia is a well-known chapter of wrestling history. Despite being pushed as a babyface in his early days, the fans did not connect with The Hollywood star’s first wrestling persona at all. WWE put the IC title on him only a few months after his debut in February 1997, but the fans kept booing him out of the building everywhere he went.
The People’s Champion remembered this time when asked about a moment that broke his spirits during the post-SmackDown press conference. He specifically remembered getting booed out of the building during his WrestleMania 13 match with Rikishi:
“I go into WrestleMania in Chicago at the Horizon at that time. It was sold out and I was the Intercontinental champion. And that entire arena booed me and they were chanting Rocky sucks. And it was very hard. I was just a kid, but also, I was what’s called a babyface, in wrestling binocular you’re a good guy. You’re not supposed to get booed.
That place, they [booed the shit out of me] that night. So much so I remember being on the mat and the guy I was wrestling was called the Sultan. He’s actually a family member of mine. He’s my cousin Rikishi. I remember him holding me in this wrestling move and he goes, ‘Don’t worry about it. Don’t listen to them, it’s okay.’ Meanwhile, there’s 15,000 people chanting ‘Rocky sucks.’ It’s like, man.”
That Was My WrestleMania Moment: The Rock
The Rock revealed he was making $150,000 per year at the time and didn’t have a lot of money left over after paying his taxes and various bills. When Vince McMahon decided to take the title off him after his WrestleMania match, he seriously considered switching careers to MMA:
“So then that was a big turning point for me. That was in March of 1997. And you think a year earlier I was, I just got cut from the CFL, the Canadian Football League. I had no money; I had seven bucks. Now I’m champion and everything is supposed to be amazing and I was getting booed out of the building.
Then that was at WrestleMania. That was my WrestleMania moment. After that night, I had a meeting with Vince. He said ‘Things aren’t working out. I’m going to take the title off you.’ A week later I got hurt. I tore a ligament in my knee. He said you got to go home. I went home for the rest of the summer and I didn’t know what I was going to do.
In that summer, I thought ‘Man I’ve got really no money. I’m getting booed out of the building. I went to WrestleMania. I don’t know what to do.’ At that time I thought maybe I should consider a career in MMA. At that time there was a company called; it was called Pride in Japan. They were making a lot of money and I thought maybe I should do that.”
Thankfully, The Rock did not pull the trigger on this career change. When McMahon decided to bring him back as a heel, the former world champion asked to be given 5 minutes of promo time. Vince only agreed to give him 2 minutes and that became the turning point of his career.