Brian Damage
It’s Saturday and today we have ’This Week in Wrestling’, the 32nd of 2019. Today Brian discusses the under the radar retirement of the “Most Electrifying Man in Sports Entertainment” Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson and shares all the best wrestling content from this week.
The Rock Says…Retired
Brian
This past week, Dwayne Johnson made the announcement that he is no longer going to compete inside a wrestling ring. There was no big press conference, no ceremony. no big send off….nothing at all. Just a brief mention while doing an interview promoting his new movie ‘Hobbs and Shaw.’ The Rock said, “I miss wrestling, I love wrestling, I quietly retired from wrestling because I was lucky enough to have just a really wonderful career and accomplish what I wanted to accomplish.”
His retirement isn’t shocking in the least, considering he is the highest paid movie star in 2019 and hasn’t had an actual wrestling match in a number of years. It still is a pretty significant statement to make. Loved him or hated him, the Rock, was a cornerstone of one of the most successful eras in the history of professional wrestling. His character was one of the main reasons why the WWF/WWE became as big as it did in the mid to late 1990’s.
While perhaps not as technically gifted in the ring like a Shawn Michaels or Ric Flair, Johnson was no slouch either. He could tell a story inside the squared circle with the best of them. What really made his character legendary, was his gift of gab on the microphone. The Rock was indeed one of the finest talkers in the business for his generation and beyond. Fans immediately gravitated to him and his promos.
As a third generation wrestler, Dwayne Johnson understood how to work a match and make a crowd invest in him with his words and facial expressions. As popular as the Rock became during his WWE career, it didn’t start that way. When he debuted for the WWF as ‘Rocky Maivia’ at the Survivor Series in 1996, he wasn’t exactly welcomed with open arms. He was jeered more than he was cheered with chants like “Rocky Sucks” and “Die Rocky Die.”
Fans rejected him feeling as if he was being shoved down everyone’s throats and didn’t pay his dues. In reality, that wasn’t the case as Johnson had starved and struggled to become a pro wrestler named ‘Flex Kavana’ in the old USWA based in Tennessee. His big break came when he turned heel and joined the Nation of Domination. It was there that Johnson’s character morphed from Rocky Maivia into the Rock. A brash and cocky young wrestler who talked about himself in the third person.
Before you knew it, fans who were chanting ‘Rocky Sucks’ were cheering for him. His catchphrases became a permanent fixture in WWE lore like “The Rock Says,” “Rootie Poo Candy Ass,” “The Smackdown Hotel” and “If You Smell What the Rock is Cooking…” His loud shirts and raised eyebrow aka “The People’s Eyebrow” made him more beloved than ever before. The Rock went on to hold multiple titles including becoming a 10 time world champion.
Of course, his larger than life personality caught the eye of Hollywood and soon the Rock was making appearances of TV shows like Star Trek Voyager, That 70’s Show and Saturday Night Live. His biggest break came in a small role in the movie The Mummy 2 as the villainous ‘Scorpion King.’ It lead to Johnson getting his prequel movie of the same name. Before you knew, the Rock was getting more and more Hollywood roles and his time in WWE began to dwindle to almost nothing.
As we speak, the Rock is a major motion picture star and a producer. He has made more money in his acting career than he could ever make busting up his body as a pro wrestler. So it makes perfect sense for Dwayne Johnson to walk away from a business that many can’t walk away from. So while Dwayne Johnson prefers to just retire quietly from a career that was far from quiet….I feel he deserves so much more.
Picture Gallery
Brian
Chris Jericho with porn star Asa Akira
Bret Hart posing with limited edition Bret Hart Converse sneakers…
The late Luke Perry with his son…the future wrestler known as Jungle Boy in AEW.
Rest in Peace Champ
Nia Jax almost having a wardrobe malfunction
Alexa Bliss with no makeup
A cool looking Blue Demon tattoo
Shut Up and Take My Money!
An ECW cartoon
Madusa
Celeste Bonin aka Kaitlyn
Lacey Evans and Montel Williams
The Kliq now
Maryse looking good
A cool looking Ric Flair hoodie (Yes, this is an actual thing you can purchase.)
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Ring the Damn Bell 
I don’t think Dwayne has retired. Plus, the way he ended his WWE career was lame. A squash match on Erick Rowan and beating the Wyatt Family with John Cena. That’s not a good way to be sent off. Plus, I think he’s becoming so full of shit lately that some of us are starting to realize what he’s really cooking and it smells like horseshit.
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