The Undertaker had the same reaction to The Rock’s wrestling debut as everyone else.
The Rock was originally built in WWE as Rocky Maivia. He was pushed by the company from the start due to his lineage and his first match came at Survivor Series 1996 from Madison Square Garden.
The Dead Man recalled his reaction to The Great One’s debut during the latest episode of his Six Feet Under podcast. Taker thought that the Hollywood star was doomed from the start and he was going to get a couple of years in WWE only because of his family’s legacy:
“I’ll never forget, I remember him coming out in the Garden. He had the funny colored thing on and whole deal. I was like “This kid ain’t gonna make it. He ain’t got a chance. He’s dead in the water.’ I thought him being a legacy would give him a couple years that he probably wasn’t going to deserve.”
While the fans rejected Rock’s original gimmick in WWE, he still managed to turn things around. The generational star slowly won over the fans after turning heel and he later became one of the faces of The Attitude Era.
‘He Is The American Dream’: The Undertaker
Speaking about his success, Undertaker put over the People’s Champion for always staying motivated even during bad times. He mentioned how the Rock managed to think outside the box and find a unique persona for himself, something that is lacking in the current generation of wrestlers:
“He is the American dream. He wanted to play football, that fell through. There are a lot of times when something like that happens, people cave. Then they never rebound. Even when I thought he sucked, he was always motivated. He wasn’t like having a pity party.
He was picking people’s brain. He was around the guys that knew what the hell was going on and picking their brain. Trying to figure out what it was that he was going to bring to the table. I wish more people had that. I’m just talking about the wrestling side of it for now.
Because a lot of times guys are very…right now I feel like there’s a lot of guys that are very cookie cutter. They’re looking at the formula that, what they think is going to lead them to success. And they’re bringing nothing new to the table. They’re staying within the box. That was what was so great about Bray Wyatt. He thought outside of the box. Guys like Rock with his promos. It was just always ‘never be content’ and ‘always try and be better.'”
You can check out the latest episode of Undertaker’s podcast below:
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