Hall Of Famer Admits Thinking The Rock Wouldn’t Survive In WWE

A WWE legend has recalled thinking The Rock was “dead in the water.”

When The Rock walked out in front of a packed crowd at Madison Square Garden for Survivor Series in 1996, nobody could have predicted the success that would follow. Within months of that debut, fans were already fed up with WWE’s first third-generation star and began serenading him with chants of “Die! Rocky Die!”

Despite this, the man himself was determined not to quit, and by 2000 he was arguably the biggest star in the wrestling world.

Speaking on his podcast, Six Feet Under, The Undertaker recalled watching the would-be star make his debut and being convinced he wasn’t going to make it.

“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 describe Rock as the “American dream,” giving him credit for doing everything he could to learn the business and improve.

“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.'”

Cody Rhodes Lays Down Huge Challenge To The Rock

At Elimination Chamber, Cody Rhodes laid down a sensational challenge to The Rock. Although Rhodes is set to meet Roman Reigns at WrestleMania in an effort to “finish the story,” he hasn’t forgotten being slapped by the Great One at a recent media event.

After making the challenge, Seth Rollins again told Rhodes that he wouldn’t be going into battle alone.

H/t to SEScoops