Celebrating The Rock’s 20th Year in WWE with His Top 5 Matches

Twenty years ago today, The Rock, then Rocky Maivia, debuted at the 1996 Survivor Series. Participating as part of Marc Mero’s team and becoming the Sole Survivor of the match, it was clear that he destined for greatness. Within a year he was a multi-time Intercontinental Champion and one of the most over superstars as a member of the Nation of Domination. His feud with Stone Cold Steve Austin for the prestigious IC title made both men look like megastars and helped usher in the Attitude Era.

While his time with the company could be considered part-time in the later years of his career at best, the Rock has always called WWE his home and the Most Electrifying Man of All Entertainment never disappoints his audience when and wherever he appears.

He transcended the world of professional wrestling and has become of the most successful actors of all time and was recently declared as the Sexiest Man Alive by People Magazine.

Within WWE he is a recognized 10-time World Champion and widely considered one of the greatest in-ring performers of all time. Today we look back at 20 years of the Rock’s greatest matches. Some of them are iconic, some are just memorable, but all are simply…electrifying.

The Rock vs Brock Lesnar SummerSlam 2002

In a tale of old generation up against the new generation, the Rock faced off against rising star Brock Lesnar for his WWE Undisputed Championship. Lesnar had only been in the company for four months after having spent some time in their developmental territory OVW. 

The Rock had just won the Undisputed Championship from the Undertaker, Brock Lesnar earned a shot having won King of the Ring that year and went up against the Rock at SummerSlam. At the time, Rock was transitioning more and more into movies after being in the Mummy sequel, which spun off into his own feature film, so WWE was looking towards the future and Brock was their guy. 

For weeks the match was focused on Rock talking up his opponent and both men doing insane training montages that callback to the intensity of Rocky IV. 

While Rock was the odds-on-favorite for winning, halfway through the match the crowd began to turn on the People’s Champ and began cheering for the mighty Lesnar. 

Brock gave Rock an opponent by the likes he has never faced off before and ended the match with a hellacious F5 to pick up his first WWE Championship reign. What’s interesting to note is that Rock was previously the youngest champion at the age of 26. 

Lesnar beat that record at the age of 25. 

The Rock vs Triple H Judgement Day 2000

There had only been one Iron Man before this and it is also considered one of the greatest WrestleMania main events of all time. No pressure, right?

The feud between Triple H and the Rock was the hottest ticket in wrestling back in 2000. With Stone Cold out of the picture covering from neck surgery, the Rock stepped up to the plate and helped carry the company and not only did he surpass Stone Cold’s popularity, he became the Attitude Era’s Hulk Hogan eventually becoming a five-time WWE Champion, a feat that only two men had accomplished at the time. 

Shawn Michaels was the special guest referee and just like the last time HBK was called to take that position, the Rock had his eye on him the entire time. The two men went for an hour and it’s one of their most technically sound matches they ever put on together. 

However, the return of the Undertaker attacking Triple H caused a last second victory for the Game, winning him the title once more. 

The Rock vs Mankind Royal Rumble 1999

Mankind had already established his legacy as a hardcore icon, but it was this match that cemented both men’s career as superstars willing to that extra brutal mile. 

At the 1999 Royal Rumble, Mankind put his newly-won WWE Championship on the line against the Rock who had become the company’s top heel. The competitors took their match all over the arena and beat the holy hell out of one another, giving the Attitude Era one of its most defining moments. 

This match was heavily featured in the wrestling documentary Beyond The Mat where a young Noelle Foley could be seen crying and having to be taken away by her mother as the match became a near massacre with Mankind taking a severe number of chair shots to the head. 

It was Foley that lost as he supposedly said “I quit”, but of course it was all a rouse by the Rock as he used a previously recorded Foley saying those words. 

Aside from the completely not-PG rating that this match went to, it was interesting to see the men become the best of allies by the end of year forming the Rock n’ Sock Connection and even becoming Tag Team Champions. 

The Rock vs Stone Cold WrestleMania XIX

The Final Act. 

The two men that defined the Attitude Era had faced each other before at two previous WrestleManias (XV and X-7), but those altercations were for the WWE Championship. 

This one was more personal. 

For seventeen minutes, gave the WWE Universe an emotional match that could easily be their last. Rock was leaning more of a part-time status and getting featured in more movies and Austin had just returned after leaving the company feeling underutilized and under appreciated. 

Austin was already 2-0 at Mania against the Rock, would this match prove to be any different? Who would come out as simply the best of their generation? After six years of chasing each other’s careers, the Rock finally got a pinfall at WrestleMania over Stone Cold wrapping up their storied rivalry the best way possible. 

The Rock vs Hollywood Hogan WrestleMania X8

This is the epitome of a dream match. 

Hogan had returned to the WWE after nine years, and he came back sporting the black and white colors of the NWO and under his Hollywood Hogan persona. On Monday Night Raw Hogan had told the WWE Universe that he had done it all and enter the Rock. 

Rock called out Hogan for a match at WrestleMania. Icon versus Icon. The crowd responded heavily and the two legends were on a collision course to the Skydome. Along the way, Hogan showed how ruthless he could be by almost killing the Rock in a car crash. It was beyond bananas, but the Great One stood tall against the Babe Ruth of sports-entertainment and met him at WrestleMania X8. 

While it’s not the most technical spectacle in WrestleMania history for almost thirty minutes the Toronto crowd would not stop screaming in excitement and it’s one of the most hyped crowds ever recorded. Rock and Hogan paced the match accordingly as Hogan’s limitations were more obvious against Rock’s energy, but they delivered one of the greatest passing-the-torch moments in wrestling history. 

It was pure magic, really. The sight of Hogan hulking up once more against the Rock’s hits was uncanny. It also proved another thing: Hulkamania never truly dies, it just waits to be reborn.