Undertaker Recalls Thinking Major Star Wouldn’t Make It In WWE

WWE

The Undertaker has shared his honest thoughts on The Rock’s WWE debut, admitting that he originally thought that Dwayne Johnson wouldn’t be able to make it.

With The Rock being one of the biggest stars on the planet, it’s hard to imagine a time when the Hollywood star wasn’t getting the fan reactions that he wanted.

Speaking on his Six Feet Under podcast, The Undertaker recalled The Rock debuting as ‘Rocky Maivia’ in November 1996.

Noting that at this time he thought that The Rock didn’t have any chance at making it, and was only in this position because of his family, Undertaker said:

“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.”

The Deadman went on to praise the People’s Champion for adapting and finding what worked for him, noting:

“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.'”

The Rock has now returned to his heel persona on WWE TV, with the Hollywood star aligned with WWE Undisputed Universal Champion Roman Reigns and the Bloodline faction.

Dwayne Johnson’s next WWE TV appearance has now been confirmed, which you can read more about right here.

Transcription via SEScoops. 

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• dwayne johnson
• The Rock
• undertaker
• wwe

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