Was The Rock Overrated?

I don't see how any of that makes him overrated. The name of this game is drawing money isn't it? If he gets more reaction by raising his eyebrow than other guys get for jumping off a ladder through a burning table, how does that make him overrated? Are the fans wrong??

Unless you own stock in WWE, what impact would it have on your life whether a particular wrestler draws money? Do you decide who your favorite actor is by how much money his movies make or decide who your favorite band is by the revenue they took in on their last tour? If a singer sells 10 million albums can her fans possibly be wrong? Yes.
 
No. He didn't need to mutilate himself.

There's an implication there that if a wrestler bladed a lot or took a lot of bumps then he did it because he lacked the talent to get over without it. So would you say Ric Flair, Terry Funk and Dusty Rhodes all lacked talent?
 
Unless you own stock in WWE, what impact would it have on your life whether a particular wrestler draws money? Do you decide who your favorite actor is by how much money his movies make or decide who your favorite band is by the revenue they took in on their last tour? If a singer sells 10 million albums can her fans possibly be wrong? Yes.

I guess it would have the same impact on my life that the amount of bumps Rock took vis a vis Foley in an attitude era match did? I don't decide my favourite actor on how much money they draw but if someone calls an actor, or a pro wrestler, overrated I want to understand what they mean. Is Arnold "overrated" because he wasn't as technically skilled as an actor as some of the other guys who appeared in the same movies as him, and because he didn't play a wide range of characters? Nobody rates Arnold up with Pacino they just realize that he was an extremely charismatic guy who connected with the audience and was really entertaining, and ended up becoming a huge draw. Exact same thing with Rock, nobody compares him to Shawn Michaels in the ring. Rock is rated just fine how he is.
 
There's an implication there that if a wrestler bladed a lot or took a lot of bumps then he did it because he lacked the talent to get over without it. So would you say Ric Flair, Terry Funk and Dusty Rhodes all lacked talent?
This is true for a lot of wrestlers who do it. After all the crap we've seen since I understand Flair's dislike for Foley as a performer. No, but they all did it more than they had to which cheapens it and them a little in my eyes.
 
Have you ever thought of using your own thoughts, provided you have any, instead of just stringing cliches together to make a post?
I don't think you understand what Sherdog is.
Regarding the question of was The Rock overrated, it wasn't just because he took less bumps than most of his opponents, but the degree to which his opponents usually had to take more punishment than he did to make the match memorable. A wrestler such as The Rock who is squeamish about taking punishment presents a burden to his opponents because he doesn't do his fair share of the truly physically demanding work.
I don't think you understand what Pro Wrestling is.
On a different but somewhat related note, Mick Foley wrote in one of his autobiographies (the first if I recall), how after the match shown in Beyond The Mat where The Rock handcuffed Mick and then proceeded to give him 14 chairshots to Foley's head, all the wrestlers backstage except one went to see Mick and find out if he was alright. The one wrestler who didn't check to see if Mick was alright was the one who injured him - The Rock.
What a great and totally relevant point to your original question. You should have put that in the OP, it would have swayed EVERYBODY!
 
No one rates him as the greatest in-ring worker to have ever lived, so there's no basis for calling him overrated in that area. He still had pretty solid matches with all the people he worked with regardless.

The Rock is praised for his charisma, promo skills, and showmanship abilities. Alongside Hogan, no one can hold an audience in the palm of their hands like The Rock. No one has the comedic timing and execution to make even absurd material sound funny like The Rock. And certainly no one can master all the numerous fundamentals of acting (timing, pacing, delivery, projection, articulation, phrasing, emphasis, pausing, etc.) quite like The Rock can. Like another person said, the objective point of wrestling is to get over and draw money and The Rock drew a ton of it.
 
No one rates him as the greatest in-ring worker to have ever lived, so there's no basis for calling him overrated in that area. He still had pretty solid matches with all the people he worked with regardless.

The Rock is praised for his charisma, promo skills, and showmanship abilities. Alongside Hogan, no one can hold an audience in the palm of their hands like The Rock. No one has the comedic timing and execution to make even absurd material sound funny like The Rock. And certainly no one can master all the numerous fundamentals of acting (timing, pacing, delivery, projection, articulation, phrasing, emphasis, pausing, etc.) quite like The Rock can. Like another person said, the objective point of wrestling is to get over and draw money and The Rock drew a ton of it.
I wanted to agree with you...but the fact that Rock took half as many back bumps as HHH really affects his legacy. I gotta rate the dude the same level as Van Hammer...maybe lower.
 
No one rates him as the greatest in-ring worker to have ever lived, so there's no basis for calling him overrated in that area. He still had pretty solid matches with all the people he worked with regardless.

The Rock is praised for his charisma, promo skills, and showmanship abilities. Alongside Hogan, no one can hold an audience in the palm of their hands like The Rock. No one has the comedic timing and execution to make even absurd material sound funny like The Rock. And certainly no one can master all the numerous fundamentals of acting (timing, pacing, delivery, projection, articulation, phrasing, emphasis, pausing, etc.) quite like The Rock can. Like another person said, the objective point of wrestling is to get over and draw money and The Rock drew a ton of it.

Roddy Piper wrote in his autobiography about the differences between acting and pro wrestling. He described wrestling as "explosion" and acting as "implosion." He was adamant about pro wrestling and acting requiring different, virtually opposite sets of skills. You mentioned Hogan as being the only pro wrestler on par with The Rock at "holding the audience in the palm of his hands." Maybe he was but anyone who has seen a Hulk Hogan movie can attest to the fact that he's no actor.

Unlike the roles which actors typically perform which have little or nothing to do with the personality of the actors performing them, the most successful personas in wrestling are created by amplifying or exaggerating certain traits of a wrestler's own personality. This is a sentiment which has been echoed by very successful wrestlers from a fairly disparate variety of backgrounds including Steve Austin, Tully Blanchard, Shane Douglas, Terry Funk, Jake Roberts and The Rock.
 
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I was never actually impressed with his mic work. It was decent but I thought it was too repetitive and cringy. I can see why it would appeal to kids though.
 
You were using other people's words, taking a bunch of cliches and stringing them together to form what was your entire post. I make a point using my own thoughts and then sometimes use a quote from someone knowledgeable on that particular subject to add to what I've already written. In your case other people's material isn't "in addition to"; it's "instead of" your own thoughts.

You've gotten so upset over what I wrote that you've replied twice to some of my posts. Despite all the replies to me you've made, you still haven't given anyone reading this thread a single reason for holding the opinion you do or even clearly stated what your opinion is. We just know you disagree with mine.
 
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You were using other people's words, taking a bunch of cliches and stringing them together to form what was your entire post. I make a point using my own thoughts and then sometimes use a quote from someone knowledgeable on that particular subject to add to what I've already written. In your case other people's material isn't "in addition to"; it's "instead of" your own thoughts.

You've gotten so upset over what I wrote that you've replied twice to some of my posts. Despite all the replies to me you've made, you still haven't given anyone reading this thread a single reason for holding the opinion you do or even clearly stated what your opinion is. We just know you disagree with mine.
I read in Stevie Ray's autobiography that the guy who says 1+1=2 doesn't have to justify himself to the guy who says 1+1=3.
 
I read in Stevie Ray's autobiography that the guy who says 1+1=2 doesn't have to justify himself to the guy who says 1+1=3.

Not that this should be a surprise to anyone, but with that example you showed you're thinking of this as if it were objective in nature but it's not; it's subjective. How The Rock is rated by fans is opinion and you still haven't said why you hold the opinion you do on that subject. Unless you're going to finally do that, why participate in the thread?
 
Not that this should be a surprise to anyone, but with that example you showed you're thinking of this as if it were objective in nature but it's not; it's subjective. How The Rock is rated by fans is opinion and you still haven't said why you hold the opinion you do on that subject. Unless you're going to finally do that, why participate in the thread?
Alright, my official opinion is that Don Muraco was in no way shape or form overrated. He was good on the mike and passable in the ring. I will admit that I haven't watched wrestling since the early nineties so I missed his ladder match with HHH...but for Christ's sake he must have been in his sixties! Let the young'uns take the bumps, The Rock was the reason asses were in the seats.

Semi-related note, I read in Bushwacker Luke's autobiography that Lanny Poffo could blow himself. Why aren't people talking about that?
 
Why did you say his people elbow was his finisher but chose not to name the Rock Bottom. Which was nice
 
Why did you say his people elbow was his finisher but chose not to name the Rock Bottom. Which was nice

The Rock Bottom was pretty good. It would have been better of he hadn't followed it with The People's Elbow and just pinned opponents after The Rock Bottom. Mick Foley thought it was insulting to have to sell The People's Elbow and I bet he wasn't the only one.
 
The Rock didn't seem too tough in a lot of his matches. When he wrestled HHH in a ladder match HHH took all the big bumps and Rock didn't take much punishment in comparison even though the match was competitive and fairly even. In his matches with Foley, The Rock barely took any bumps at all. Mick did all the hard work. This seems like a trend with The Rock - his opponents usually did all or almost all of the painful bumps and The Rock just took little bumps. Then his finishing move was just a standing elbow drop. Compared to what the other main venters were doing for finishers, it was pretty weak. I think his mic skill was what made people think he was great. He talked a good talk but he didn't back the talk up and for a guy who was always calling other wrestlers "candy-asses", The Rock really seemed squeamish about taking punishment.

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I think The Rock was a legend yet it would depend on your interpretation of what a legend was. Rock had the titles, the legacy matches, the self-promotion/mic skills, and in-ring wrestling ability. My thing with Rock was and it might sound really small, however he never worked his way from the bottom to the top as others had. Austin, Bret and Shawn were not given instant gratification. Rock came in immediately as a godfathered (family name) superstar and was pushed to an immediate intercontinental heavyweight title fight. There was no starting point from the bottom as a tomato can or in an insignificant tag team.
I may be wrong here but I believe that he did start out in an insignificant tag team, he didnt immediately walk into some serious spotlight((tho it did come quickly)) and he wasnt "immediately" pushed into a title match, I havent given a shit about wrestling in nearly 20years so Im not 100% there but thats how I remember it
 
I may be wrong here but I believe that he did start out in an insignificant tag team, he didnt immediately walk into some serious spotlight((tho it did come quickly)) and he wasnt "immediately" pushed into a title match, I havent given a shit about wrestling in nearly 20years so Im not 100% there but thats how I remember it

I thought he was Nation of Domination for a while, but it was so long ago idk.
 
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