History YMMV / DwayneJohnson

* PlotTwist: The 1998 ''Wrestling/SurvivorSeries''. Weeks before the event, The Rock was gaining {{face}} momentum with the crowd, as Wrestling/VinceMcMahon began antagonizing him (as a result of Austin begin hired back by his son Wrestling/{{Shane|McMahon}} weeks earlier), stating since he had a "problem with the people, [he] has a problem with the People's Champion". Vince would do all he can to stop The Great One from reaching the top and nabbing the WWE Championship at Survivor Series. However, at the finals of the "Deadly Game" tournament at Survivor Series for the belt, once The Rock locked [[Wrestling/MickFoley Mankind]] in the Sharpshooter, [=McMahon=] forced the bell to ring, calling for a submission win to The Rock, despite Mankind not tapping out. Turns out ''everything'' was planned from the start, with Vince proclaiming he and Shane were always in support of The Rock, molding him into the "Corporate Champion" and crown jewel of Wrestling/TheCorporation. To really cap the twist, Vince would utter the following:
-->'''Vince [=McMahon=]''': [[{{Memes/ProfessionalWrestling}} The people]] [[Wrestling/MontrealScrewjob screwed]] [[CallBack the people]]!
* PopularityPower:
** The Rock is known for this so much so that there's been an {{Epileptic Tree|s}} saying it turned the People's Elbow into The Rock's CombinedEnergyAttack.
** An attempt to invoke this recently backfired... very [[TheScrappy badly]] as an attempt to put over Wrestling/RomanReigns at the 2015 Royal Rumble. To say this didn't work is quite the understatement. To be fair to both men, everyone more-or-less states that they weren't pissed at them so much as they were at the company for doing such a terrible job of booking as of late. Had this happened later down the line (such as Reigns winning the 2016 Royal Rumble after being properly built up and his character more refined), the backlash wouldn't have been so bad.

* WMG/PoisonOakEpilepticTrees: Some fans have theorized that Rock's abdominal and abductor tears at ''[=WrestleMania=] 29'' were actually a cover for his walking out on WWE for any number of reasons (ironically, before his injury, it was widely agreed among fans that the Rock had quite some ring rust, which would have contributed to his injury).

* XPacHeat: He's one of the most famous cases of attaining and then escaping this. At the very beginning of his career his gimmick was "Rocky Maivia", a squeaky-clean third-generation superstar who was [[CreatorsPet so pushed and overexposed as the Next Big Thing]] that fans were sick of him from the moment he set foot in the ring. He was RescuedFromTheScrappyHeap when, in response to the fans' hatred, he undertook a FaceHeelTurn and joined Wrestling/TheNationOfDomination as just "The Rock", which added some much-needed edge to his character and allowed him to cut loose with his formidable mic skills, letting him explode as a true star.

** Even the mere fact of his feud with and wins over Wrestling/CMPunk have caused this, arguably due to Punk's massive popularity. Many fans hated Rock for being the part-timer who dared to end Punk's historic 434-day reign as WWE Champion. Made worse by the fact that this was done just in time for the road to the Wrestling/WrestleMania main event, as many questioned whether Rock deserved the spot over Punk and others still who had no problem with Rock having the spot felt that it was wasted on what was widely considered a ForegoneConclusion with Wrestling/JohnCena getting his win back and being solidified as the top dog over both men. On the other hand, others credited the Punk-Rock feud for restoring Punk's credibility as a badass after months of the WWE Champion, of all people, being booked as an ineffectual chickenshit heel against Wrestling/{{Ryback}} and especially Cena, with Punk going from running away and ducking his challengers at all times to outright calling out and challenging Rock, even getting the better of him once or twice before the Rumble title match, and losing both that match and the next year's rematch under controversial circumstances. Then there was the pattern of Punk losing to [[Wrestling/TheUndertaker major]] [[Wrestling/BrockLesnar part-timers]] that eventually formed from this, which only frustrated fans further in the aftermath. Even Punk himself was not happy about this, though he didn't hold it against Rock, Taker, or Lesnar, all of whom he's cool with, but against the internal logic of the company's booking.

* AndYouThoughtItWouldFail: At the start, many expected his acting career to fizzle out. A wrestler becoming a successful actor was unheard of, and predicted to be a schlock fest like the {{Narm}} films of Wrestling/HulkHogan. More than a decade later, he's still a successful box office draw, and even then it took him several years to achieve this.

** Want to embarrass The Rock in a promo? Bring up ''Film/TheToothFairy''; prior to that, it was ''Film/{{Doom}}''.

** Among animation fans, him [[AnimationAgeGhetto calling the medium a "genre"]].

* BigLippedAlligatorMoment[=/=]WhatHappenedToTheMouse: On the night The Rock was revealed as the host of [[Wrestling/{{Wrestlemania}} Wrestlemania 27]], the last thing we saw before commercial break preceding The Rock's appearance was a limo pulling up outside of the arena. The limo door opens and the camera panning low so that all we could see coming out is what appears to be the feet of a woman wearing high heels, assumed by the commentators to be the host. Of course, it wasn't the host, and she was never seen again. Of course, this is The Rock we're talking about; it's not impossible to assume that he had a very leggy lady friend with him in the limo.

* MagnificentBastard: His rise to power in Wrestling/TheNationOfDomination made him one. On the June 9, 1997 ''Raw'', [[Wrestling/RonSimmons Faarooq]] fired [[Wrestling/BrianAdams Crush]], Savio Vega and the guys in suits from the group following a loss to Wrestling/AhmedJohnson and [[Wrestling/TheRoadWarriors The Legion of Doom]], leaving just himself, Wrestling/DLoBrown and a nervous-looking manager/spokesman Clarence Mason in the ring. D-Lo was standing next to Faarooq with his eyes closed, clearly ready to walk out of the ring as soon as Faarooq gave the word. Instead, Faarooq said [[WhamLine "D-Lo, hold the ropes open for Clarence!"]], with D-Lo looking [[MyGodYouAreSerious absolutely shocked]]. Fast forward to the ''Raw'' after ''[=WrestleMania=] XIV'' on March 30, 1998. Wrestling/KenShamrock and Wrestling/SteveBlackman defeat Faarooq and The Rock. The Rock then gets his [[TheStarscream Starscream]] moment, officially overthrowing Faarooq as the leader. Standing behind the Rock are [[Wrestling/CharlesWright Kama Mustafa]], Wrestling/MarkHenry and...D-Lo Brown. That in less than a year D-Lo went from being willing to do whatever Faarooq told him to do to standing by and doing nothing as The Rock threw Faarooq out of the group shows how effective The Rock was at turning the group into his own vehicle.

* ShockingSwerve: The 1998 ''Wrestling/SurvivorSeries''. Weeks before the event, The Rock was gaining {{face}} momentum with the crowd, as Wrestling/VinceMcMahon began antagonizing him (as a result of Austin begin hired back by his son Wrestling/{{Shane|McMahon}} weeks earlier), stating since he had a "problem with the people, [he] has a problem with the People's Champion". Vince would do all he can to stop The Great One from reaching the top and nabbing the WWE Championship at Survivor Series. However, at the finals of the "Deadly Game" tournament at Survivor Series for the belt, once The Rock locked [[Wrestling/MickFoley Mankind]] in the Sharpshooter, [=McMahon=] forced the bell to ring, calling for a submission win to The Rock, despite Mankind not tapping out. Turns out ''everything'' was planned from the start, with Vince proclaiming he and Shane were always in support of The Rock, molding him into the "Corporate Champion" and crown jewel of Wrestling/TheCorporation. To really cap the swerve, Vince would utter the following:
-->'''Vince [=McMahon=]''': [[{{Memes/ProfessionalWrestling}} The people]] [[Wrestling/MontrealScrewjob screwed]] [[CallBack the people]]!

** In February 2012, The Rock cut a promo for 15 minutes straight about Cena. The Rock topped that one month later with a series of "History Lessons" in and around Boston (Cena's hometown, mind you). This rivalry has gone off and on for a year, and it's safe to say some people got sick of it months ago. To his credit, the "History Lessons" were pretty funny. More interesting is that Cena is not the instigator in most cases. If that's not FoeYay, we're not entirely sure what is.

* FandomRivalry[=/=]FoeYay: With both Wrestling/JohnCena's fans and Wrestling/CMPunk's fans. WWE played this up for all its worth during the three guys' feuds with each other.

* HarsherInHindsight: At the 2015 Royal Rumble, The Rock came out to congratulate Royal Rumble winner [[spoiler:Roman Reigns]], who many say is an inexperienced performer with lots of potential, but was pushed to the main event way before he was ready. They were both booed with a passion (although a large part of it came not actually from what the crowd think [[spoiler:of Reigns]] but what they think of the fact [[spoiler:that ''Daniel Bryan didn't win'']] which was, not coincidentally the same reason the crowd turned on [[spoiler:Batista]] a year earlier). You can tell by the look on The Rock's face that he was having some bad flashbacks.

* HilariousInHindsight: On January 28, 2013, the night after ending CM Punk's 434-day reign as WWE Champion, The Rock called CM Punk a "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=60xtTJun-Zc punk ass bitch]]". While it seemed like a great moniker to use in a promo against Punk, Website/{{YouTube}}rs might get an extra kick out of it if they remember a short video spliced together from May 1, 2009 with a clip of then-long-haired Money in the Bank holder CM Punk saying his name, only to be interrupted by a clip of The Rock saying... well... "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4zTLYOBAIHI punk ass bitch]]".

* SugarWiki/HeReallyCanAct: He's shed the image of pro wrestling acting hack many times over. First in ''Film/BeCool'', and again in 2013 with ''Film/{{Snitch}}'' and ''Film/PainAndGain'', where many reviewers said he was the best part about the movies.

* FanNickname: "The Dwayne", following Johnson's moving away from his wrestling past (including the move to stop having "The Rock" included in his movie credits).
** Or "Dwayne-the-Rock Johnson", said as if it's part of his real name.

* MagnificentBastard: His rise to power in Wrestling/TheNationOfDomination made him one. On the June 9, 1997 ''Raw'', [[Wrestling/RonSimmons Faarooq]] fired [[Wrestling/BrianAdams Crush]], Savio Vega and the guys in suits from the group following a loss to Ahmed Johnson and [[Wrestling/TheRoadWarriors The Legion of Doom]], leaving just himself, Wrestling/DLoBrown and a nervous-looking manager/spokesman Clarence Mason in the ring. D-Lo was standing next to Faarooq with his eyes closed, clearly ready to walk out of the ring as soon as Faarooq gave the word. Instead, Faarooq said [[WhamLine "D-Lo, hold the ropes open for Clarence!"]], with D-Lo looking [[MyGodYouAreSerious absolutely shocked]]. Fast forward to the ''Raw'' after ''[=WrestleMania=] XIV'' on March 30, 1998. Wrestling/KenShamrock and Wrestling/SteveBlackman defeat Faarooq and The Rock. The Rock then gets his [[TheStarscream Starscream]] moment, officially overthrowing Faarooq as the leader. Standing behind the Rock are [[Wrestling/CharlesWright Kama Mustafa]], Wrestling/MarkHenry and...D-Lo Brown. That in less than a year D-Lo went from being willing to do whatever Faarooq told him to do to standing by and doing nothing as The Rock threw Faarooq out of the group shows how effective The Rock was at turning the group into his own vehicle.

** An attempt to invoke this recently backfired... [[InternetBackdraft very]] [[TheScrappy badly]] as an attempt to put over Wrestling/RomanReigns at the 2015 Royal Rumble. To say this didn't work is quite the understatement. To be fair to both men, everyone more-or-less states that they weren't pissed at them so much as they were at the company for doing such a terrible job of booking as of late. Had this happen later down the line (such as Reigns winning the 2016 Royal Rumble after being properly built up and his character more refined), the backlash wouldn't have been so bad.

** The Rock is known for this so much so that there's been an EpilepticTree saying it turned the People's Elbow into The Rock's CombinedEnergyAttack.

* VillainDecay: During his "Corporate Champion" run, The Rock was probably at his most vicious, as he had brutal brawls with Mankind (the 1999 ''Wrestling/RoyalRumble'' match with the repeated chair shots to the head being one of them); at one point, he threw Austin off a bridge. During his "Hollywood" heel run in 2003, however, he was a far more comedic, cowardly villain and was the [[LargeHam hammiest]] he had ever been in his career, which led to him turning face again after a couple of months. [[JustifiedTrope Justified]] as The Rock had been the company's biggest face for years at that point, and the FaceHeelTurn was only in response to fans turning on him for constantly leaving to film movies (despite the internet claiming it was because fans were tired of him ''being'' a face. This was clearly not the case as he only got booed on two or three occasions prior to the turn: once against Wrestling/HulkHogan at ''[=WrestleMania=] 18'' and another against Wrestling/BrockLesnar at ''Wrestling/{{SummerSlam}} 2002'', where the dreaded "ROCKY SUCKS!" chant of years past returned. The crowds went back to cheering for The Rock after the matches were over). The Rock still managed to get victories over Hogan and Austin during his Hollywood heel run, though.

* MemeticMutation: Any and all of his [[CatchPhrase/DwayneJohnson catch-phrases]]. This has reached a point where he can create memes by edict: whatever he says will be a meme will wind up as a meme. Look no further than the word "cookiepuss" in his appearance during the January 7, 2013 ''RAW'' episode.

** An early meme was the "Rockblock" where a naked woman (usually a celebrity) would be covered up by the Rock nicely asking, "Hey guys, what's going on?"

* OlderThanTheyThink: He had a completely different gimmick, but "The Rock" was the ring name of Don Muraco in Hawaii first. He gave his blessing to this newer(and completely different) Rock didn't try to keep it a secret(but WWE seemed to).
* WMG/PoisonOakEpilepticTrees: Some fans have theorized that Rock's abdominal & abductor tears at ''[=WrestleMania=] 29'' were actually a cover for his walking out on WWE for any number of reasons.
* PopularityPower: So much so that there's been an EpilepticTree saying it turned the People's Elbow into The Rock's CombinedEnergyAttack.

* BigLippedAlligatorMoment[=/=]WhatHappenedToTheMouse: On the night The Rock was revealed as the host of [[Wrestling/{{Wrestlemania}} Wrestlemania 27]], the last thing we saw before commercial break preceding The Rock's appearance was a limo pulling up outside of the arena. The limo door opens and the camera panning low so that all we could see coming out is what appears to be the feet of a woman wearing high heels, assumed by the commentators to be the host. Of course, it wasn't the host, and she was never seen again. Err, OK...
** This is The Rock we're talking about; it's not impossible to assume that he had a very leggy lady friend with him in the limo.
* BrokenBase: Fans were divided during The Rock's 2013 reign as WWE Champion. Those in favor tended to point out that The Rock as champion meant great exposure for WWE and increased pay-per-view buy rates, as well as drawing interest from fans who previously watched WWE in the Wrestling/AttitudeEra. Detractors, however, were quick to point out The Rock's obvious ring rust (becoming exhausted 5 minutes into each of his three 25+ minute matches), his failure to actively promote the company while being a champion (in the 2 months he was carrying the belt, he attended a number of movie premieres, talk shows and award presentations, only bringing the championship to one and failed to mention the WWE at any of them) and that he did not wrestle at all on any episode of ''Raw''.

** The base was further broken after ''Wrestling/WrestleMania 32'', which, barring a few select moments/matches, had been seen as being booked to spite the hardcore audience. Having to endure over three hours (five counting the pre-show, which was two hours long) of the event, the fans had to endure a half-hour segment consisting of the Dallas cheerleaders and Rocky screwing around with a flamethrower just so he could announce to the fans that they had broken the WWE attendance record and bury the already incredibly damaged Wrestling/WyattFamily with a returning Wrestling/JohnCena (who was still injured but showed up that weekend to help promote Mania and induct Music/SnoopDogg into the Hall of Fame). This especially pissed the fans off because the highly anticipated Wrestling/BrockLesnar match with Wrestling/DeanAmbrose was given barely ten minutes and made into a thinly veiled SquashMatch, wasting the build and killing Ambrose's momentum. A lot of the time of Rocky's segment could've been given to that match. Not helping things was this was right before the main event, and many fans wanted to get Reigns' win over with so they could leave. This led to many fans complaining that Rocky hadn't really put anyone over since Cena and was only coming back to go into business for himself. Ironically, many considered the one saving grace of that segment was the return of the aforementioned Cena, who the fans began to miss desperately after having to endure months of terrible booking and having the much less charismatic/talented Wrestling/RomanReigns as the focus of the show.

* PoisonOakEpilepticTrees: Some fans have theorized that Rock's abdominal & abductor tears at ''[=WrestleMania=] 29'' were actually a cover for his walking out on WWE for any number of reasons.

----

* DoingItForTheArt: Johnson doesn't need the money to [[CatchPhrase come BACK to WWE]]. His ''[=WrestleMania=] 28'' feud with Cena came at a time with no movie to promote (''Journey 2'' was released prior to ''Elimination Chamber 2012'', too late to generate any real box office bump; ''Film/GIJoeRetaliation'' was still months away from release). He showed his goosebumps to the camera while in the middle of the ring during a ''RAW'' episode. If you were someone who thought The Rock wanted nothing to do with wrestling ever again (a popular sentiment on the IWC once "The Rock" was dropped from his name for a few years), The Rock promptly laid the smackdown on your candy-ass notion.
** From his 2011 return until he put over Wrestling/JohnCena in 2013, there was also the matter of the IWC consistently putting low expectations on his measure of commitment, him exceeding these expectations, them putting another benchmark to test him, and him exceeding those.
*** First he was only gonna show up to host [=WrestleMania=] XXVII but that would be it, and he certainly would never wrestle again. Then the night after he came back and accepted Cena's challenge to a fight and scheduled it a year in advance for [=WrestleMania XXVIII=].
*** Then it was said he'd be done after that--which didn't help the mood with some of his detractors after he beat Cena. Then the night after that one he announced his intent to go after the WWE Championship.
*** He followed up on that on ''[[MilestoneCelebration Raw 1000]]'' and announced that he had a title shot at Royal Rumble 2013. Before long people started saying he'd become an absentee WWE Champion before [=WrestleMania=] XXIX if he didn't lose. Now before he's even returned for 2013, what's been announced of his [=WrestleMania=] season schedule already rivals what a typical second-run Wrestling/ShawnMichaels schedule would look like in the same amount of time, with him set to appear live on the majority of ''Raw'' episodes and '''[[CueTheFlyingPigs at least three]] ''[[Wrestling/WWESmackDown Smackdowns]]'''''. At this rate it was thought the cycle would only stop when either most wrestling fans actually expected him to return full time or when his eventual retirement match and/or Hall of Fame induction was finally announced.
*** Finally stopped after he put over Cena, making only rare appearances since then. That said, he did sustain a number of injuries during the second Cena match yet still finished it, and he would later tentatively cite it in interviews as his final match while still leaving the door opening for future match work if the right timing and occasion were to pop up.
*** Also, those first two years back had consistently seen him appear easily more than Wrestling/TheUndertaker and, were it not for Wrestling/TripleH's involvement in the Punk and Laurinaitis storylines in summer-to-fall 2011, about as much as the Game as well. Sure, it's understood why they're not full time wrestlers anymore, what with HHH being on the new boss path and Undertaker's body being broken down. However, Rock's movie career is just as valid a cause for inactivity--something his HateDumb refuses to accept because to them his movie career is exactly the problem.
** There were also numerous opportunities to trash the business in his time away, most notably during the Wrestling/ChrisBenoit murder-suicide scandal where the media dragged pro wrestling through the mud. However when he was interviewed about it during that time he gave his take on what needed to be done without throwing WWE under the bus and in fact gave them credit for the Wellness initiative. He also incorporated his wrestling style into his fight scenes in at least one of his early movies, he's had wrestling rings to work in near the sets of his latest movies as well as trained with WWE wrestlers [[Wrestling/CurtisAxel Michael McGillicutty]] and Curt Hawkins in his free time so as to make sure he'd be in match shape, and he's even taken the time to watch Wrestling/{{TNA}} enough to be impressed with Wrestling/BobbyRoode to the point of tweeting him some props during his World Championship heel run. His ambitions may not be tied down to wrestling anymore (and it's debatable that they ever truly were), but he does still love the business as much as ever.
** Let's put it in perspective, though. He's getting a considerably heavier paycheck for his series of appearances than the regular talent. That being said, his pay for any one of his movies does utterly dwarf his total pay for any of his return periods, making WWE money basically chump change to him. So he's not doing it for free, but nor is that the name of the quote or even a requirement for it.
** Bonus points now for largely rectifying the issue of Wrestling/CMPunk's BadassDecay before taking the title from him. Although, his victory over Punk has produced a BrokenBase all its own (see above for that one).

* {{Irony}}: His most recent look (BaldOfAwesome with a [[BadassBeard Badass Goatee]]) actually favors Wrestling/StoneColdSteveAustin somewhat.
* MemeticMutation: Any and all of his {{Catch Phrase}}s. This has reached a point where he can create memes by edict: whatever he says will be a meme will wind up as a meme. Look no further than the word "cookiepuss" in his appearance during the January 7, 2013 ''RAW'' episode.

* AwesomeEgo: As The Rock; it's what got him XPacHeat in his first {{heel}} run, until it got him over, and has been one of his defining character traits ever since. Even when Johnson is designated as a heel, the fans love it and cheer him for it, and he's one of (if not the) best examples in all wrestling.

* GrowingTheBeard: He's always been regarded as a "pretty good" at worst when it came to wrestling but his "Flex Kavana" which he admitted to thinking sounded cool when he first came up with it, wasn't one of his best ideas, which he also admitted. Rocky Maivia was even worse, and he knew it the moment it was suggested, repeatedly shooting it down until he got to the WWF main roster and no longer had a choice. All the boos he got proved him correct, but then things got better.

* AndYouThoughtItWouldFail: At the start, many expected his acting career to fizzle out. A wrestler becoming a successful actor was unheard of, and predicted to be a schlock fest like the {{Narm}} films of Wrestling/HulkHogan. More than a decade later, he's still a successful box office draw.