Why 1 Ex-WWE Star Demanded The Rock Smash His Face With A Steel Chair

Ken Shamrock has recalled telling The Rock to hit him “right in the face” with a steel chair.

As The Rock’s rise to superstardom began back in 1998 when he was part of The Nation of Domination, he began a rivalry with Ken Shamrock over the Intercontinental Championship.

The feud featured one of the most vicious chair shots in WWE history as The Great One hit Shamrock full force in the face with the steel object. Surprisingly, the star has now revealed that it was all his idea.

Speaking to Chris Van Vliet, The World’s Most Dangerous Man explained that Rock thought he was joking when he pitched the move, but he persuaded him to do it.

“A lot of people think it’s crazy but I enjoyed the chair shot. Everybody keeps looking at that, and they say it over and, oh, man, that must have hurt. For me, it’s funny, because it would hurt so much more if I didn’t see it coming. Top of the head, back of the head. I wanted it.

“I was like, bro, you were not hitting me in the head, like the top of the head or back of the head. I want you to hit me right in the face. He’s like, shut up. He thought I was kidding. I was like, bro, come on, man. I’m not taking it to the back of the head or top of the head.

“I say, if you’re gonna swing, you swing for my face and I’ll take care of the rest. I mean, I literally said that, swing for my face and I will protect myself. He looked at me with this bewildered [expression] like, where’s the punchline? Where’s the joke here? And I looked and I said, No, I’m serious. And he’s like, I’m not doing that. And I said [then] I’m not taking it. I said swing for my face. I’ll protect myself. And he goes, You sure? And I was like, Yeah. And I remember, look right at him in the eyes, and I go, you better swing it. And he says, Oh, I’ll swing it!”

Shamrock says he protected himself by tucking in his chin and making sure the shot went to his forehead, where the skull is thickest.

“Well, he swung for my face like I asked him to. I told him it’s not his responsibility, it’s mine. You swing it and I’ll do the rest. And so he did, and all I did was just like I would in a fight. I tucked my chin and it hit me right in the forehead. Anybody knows how the skull is put together, the thickest part is your forehead. Just like within football, and now they can’t do it, but you usually hit with the forehead. And if you get punched, most of the time, if you hit somebody in the forehead, you break your hand.

“So I just logically thought if I was going to get hit in the head, hit me in the hardest part [laughs]. That was a great moment, though, because I had no idea what it would look like, or what the impact of that would be. It was just basically a thought in my head, because I saw everybody else doing it, and I was like, Man, that is just a dumb way to take a chair hit in the top of the head, back of the head, and I ain’t doing that. Hit me in the forehead.”

The Rock Wanted Double Steve Austin’s Money For WWE Deal

The Rock has revealed that he told Vince McMahon he wanted double Steve Austin’s money for his second WWE contract. Only three years into his tenure with the company, The People’s Champ asked McMahon who the highest paid on the roster was, when he was told it was Austin on $1 million, he asked for $2 million.

Rather than dismiss him out of hand, McMahon told Rock to go away and learn about the economic side of the business and come back to him.

H/T to Inside The Ropes for the above transcription.