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WWE News
WWE News: Rock makes cover of Entertainment Weekly, talks of leaving Rock name behind (w/Keller's Reax) Jun 10, 2008 - 12:18:42 PM
Described in the opening sentence as "the artist formerly known as The Rock," Entertainment Weekly has Dwayne Johnson listed as the first of their ten actors considered "The Next A-List" along with Seth Rogan, Robert Downey Jr., ichael Cera, Anne Hathaway, and others. He is the only one of the bunch to get an aticle dedicated to him (five pages, in fact). The article says his Hollywood career has had a series of false starts, but he's making a serious run at the A-list as a family-friendly leading man.
-Article: "That's right, folks, the guy who once cracked vertebrae in the wrestling ring and taunted his opponents with references to 'poon tang pie' is now hell-bent on becoming your kid's favorite film star."
-On dropping the Rock nickname, Johnson says: "I'm aware of everything that comes with that nickname, and I just think there's a lot more you can do without it. But I wanted it to happen naturally, from 'The Rock' to Dwayne 'The Rock' Johnson to Dwayne Johnson."
-He said he's done with the eyebrow raising gimmick.
-Article: "Johnson is so caught up in rebranding himself, he sometimes sounds like he's just stepped out of a Tony Robbins seminar... No matter what he's doing, Johnson works hard to make you like him, offering to fetch you a drink and using a politician's knack for peppering his sentences with your name."
-"I'd love to not only have the ability to greenlight movies but to figure out the strategy on how the movie's going to work."
Keller Analysis: As for the Tony Robbins reference, Johnson has always been approachable and friendly, almost to the point of making one suspicious or uneasy of his motives, and sometimes it backfires as his having a big ego because he seems to be overcompensating for something or trying to get something from you. At the SummerSlam press conference back in 1999, Jason Powell (now of ProWrestling.NET, but then working for Pro Wrestling Torch Newsletter) and I met him backstage, and he was the same way to Jason and me then as the EW writer described him now. It's a good article, and it seals the notion (without explicitly saying it) that Johnson's odds of being a part of WWE at any point in the future is slim and a return to the ring is none. He's moved on, and what better final scene than the moment he and "Stone Cold" Steve Austin, top rival and partner during the boom period for the WWF, had after their final match against each other.
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AND NEW FOR 2009! Monthly "Vintage Audio Torch Talks." We are releasing for the first time ever audio versions of our text Torch Talk updates, the historical first series of insider interviews ever. Wade Keller's newsmaking in-depth interviews with wrestling's biggest names are now being made available exclusively to VIP members. But you must be a member each month, as these are not archived, so they are replaced with a new one each month! This debuted in January 2009 with a 68 minute interview with the late "British Bulldog" Davey Boy Smith. Who's next? Hulk Hogan? Eric Bischoff? The Rock? Goldberg? Jeff Hardy?
