5 Times The Rock Was Hilarious (& 5 Times He Was Corny)
Matthew Perez Nearing the end of 2020, "The People's Champion" The Rock is having rumors swirling regarding his name and WrestleMania 37, potentially to have a match with Roman Reigns. As years go on and new stars and legends emerge in WWE, The Rock is still a figure fondly remembered and honored.
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The Rock built a legacy from his in-ring work, but his mic work and antics are also in a league of their own. Rocky was charismatic, energetic, and comedic; however, sometimes his attempts at comedy did not always connect for home runs. There were times when The Great One was downright hilarious, yet other times he was corny as can be!
10 HILARIOUS: Encountering "The Hamburglar"
The Rock's 2003 "Hollywood" persona shone brightly on Raw in early 2003, especially in his mini-feud with The Hurricane, whom he dubbed "The Hamburglar." The two fist crossed paths in late February. A week later on the March 3, 2003, episode of Raw, comedy gold ensued. The Rock first discovered Hurricane hiding behind a curtain in his dressing room.
Rock hilariously excused himself before slowly re-draping the curtain over Hurricane to re-group. Rock mocked Hurricane's braces, got a "phone call" from "nothing" for Hurricane, and comically broke the fourth wall with the live fans. Hurricane got a good laugh in return claiming, "The Scorpion King got a tiny ding-a-ling."
9 CORNY: "Whatcha Gonna Do???"
"The Great One" popped the crowd at No Way Out 2002 in a backstage segment where he met The nWo. Rock took notice of Scott Hall and Kevin Nash, mocking their former Razon Ramon and "Big Daddy Cool" Diesel personas in ways that are still remembered today. Rock's mocking of Hulk Hogan's past did not come for another year.
The Rock and Hogan confronted each other in the SmackDown ring on February 20, 2003, to further build-up their upcoming match at No Way Out 2003. Near the end, Rock mocked Hogan's "Whatcha gonna do?" slogan by reciting it, blubbering his mouth around childishly. This was definitely one of Rock's weaker insults.
8 HILARIOUS: "Happy Birthday To Steph..."
While conducting a promo centered around his WCW World Heavyweight Championship defense at Unforgiven 2001, The Rock shifted gears to focus on an anniversary. On the September 24, 2001, episode of Raw, Rocky acknowledged that 25 years prior to the day, from the testicles of Vince McMahon (Rock's words) came something horrifying and terrifying.
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That something was the birth of Vince's daughter, Stephanie. Rock then viciously and hilariously roasted Stephanie via song, "Happy birthday to Steph, you're a *** with big breasts. So take the night off from hooking, IF YA SMELL WHAT THE ROCK IS COOKING!!!"
7 CORNY: "I can't see you. Can you see me?"
On February 14, 2011, many fans who had long tuned out of WWE flipped to Raw when news broke that The Rock had just returned to the company that made him famous. Rock's return was to announce himself as the host of WrestleMania 27, which at one point was rumored to be pop singer Justin Bieber.
What started off with Rock telling the fans he was home and never leaving then turned to cheesy mocking of John Cena. Rock claimed Cena was a product of Barney The Dinosaur's derriere and in an incredibly childish voice mocked Cena's "You can't see me" slogan. It was a playground-esque jeer but the crowd was too excited to care about its silliness.
6 HILARIOUS: "To Be The Man, WOO, You Gotta Beat--No, That's Not It..."
One of The Rock's best rivalries of his career was with Triple H, specifically their encounters before both rose to WWE Championship contention. While feuding in the summer of 1998, Triple H and his D-Generation X stablemates parodied The Rock and his stablemates from The Nation (of Domination).
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Months later on the December 14, 1998, episode of Raw Is War, DX presented another Nation parody which prompted a visit from The Rock on the stage. Instead of smack-talking Triple H, Rock recited the slogans of WCW wrestlers that were former WWE stars in a mocking fashion. Rock cycled through Hogan, Ric Flair, Randy Savage, and Bret Hart.
5 CORNY: Calling "The Coach" A "Popcorn Fart"
The Rock made several surprise appearances on Raw in 2004. One was on the May 17 edition where he came to the rescue of Eugene, the on-screen nephew of Eric Bischoff. Eugene was being talked down to and berated in the ring by Jonathon "The Coach" Coachman, telling Eugene he had no friends.
Just before Eugene was leaving the stage, The Rock made his first WWE appearance since WrestleMania XX two months prior. Rock is a maestro of the crowd, he can make fans say anything he wants. This night he had the crowd start chanting "popcorn fart," his latest dud of an insult towards Coach. The chant did not last long, neither did the insult.
4 HILARIOUS: "Serenading" Vickie Guerrero/Eric Clapton Parody
The Rock was hosting concerts in WWE long before fans began to Walk With Elias. Some of Rock's performances were well-received, others not so much. The Rock had a successful concert on the January 14, 2013, episode of Raw, which was the Raw 20th Anniversary show, while in the middle of a feud with CM Punk, Paul Heyman, and Vickie Guerrero.
Rock invited Vickie to the stage for his second song of the night. He began to recite the song "Wonderful Tonight" by Eric Clapton, but it soon morphed into poetic destruction of Guerrero with Rock ripping into Raw's then-Managing Supervisor, making the commentators snort in laughter. Vickie screeched in rage while the audience laughed.
3 CORNY: Cleveland Rocks/Queen Parody
The March 12, 2012, edition of Raw was well on the road to WrestleMania 28. That night, The Rock hosted a concert for the Cleveland audience. Rock was set to face John Cena at WrestleMania and used his stage presence to go after John. Rock claimed Cena had "lady parts" and a "menstrual clock," also making sexual references towards John's mother.
These insults may not float well in the year 2020 and even for the time was just more playground-esque comments from Rock that were cheap. To end the segment, Rock parodied Queen's song "We Will Rock You" while changing the lyrics. Rock was offbeat, off-key, and one of his lines was about Cena eating Kung Pao chicken. Devastating burn...not!
2 HILARIOUS: This Is Your Life
On the September 27, 1999, episode of Raw Is War, Mankind was trying to stop the tension brewing between him and The Rock and decided to honor his tag partner by revisiting and celebrating Rock's past. Mankind brought out Rock's "home economics teacher" Mrs. Griffith, his "former" football coach (Everett), and his "high school sweetheart" Joanne.
The Rock hilariously blasted each guest one-by-one and even took a shot at Mankind for mistaking his birthday for being in September. When in doubt just remember, "The Rock's birthday is May 2nd, you stupid son of a *****!"
1 CORNY: Confronting "John Cena"
John Cena did not bring out the best of The Rock on the microphone. Another one of The Rock's corniest appearances happened on the March 14, 2011, episode of Raw. Weeks before Cena and The Miz's WrestleMania 27 main event, The Rock in a pre-recorded segment introduced himself to The Miz and "John Cena."
Cena was portrayed by a child and Rock had a talk with "Cena." Rock made more childish references to Barney The Dinosaur and Fruity Pebbles cereal in relation to Cena. Rock also yelling at the child as a "good guy" was far from the territory of a face. Rocky was calling himself a "man's man" during this time which did not seem accurate with this corny mocking.
