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KELLER'S TAKE
KELLER CLASSIC 4 YRS AGO: Rock on Letterman: Grading and evaluating his most important promo ever (09-25-03) Sep 20, 2007 - 2:42:27 PM
It's not often I get the opportunity to rate a guest's appearance on a major network talk show and have anyone care to read about it on a pro wrestling website. The Rock appeared on "Late Show with David Letterman" on CBS just moments ago, and that has presented me with an opportunity to branch out and critique something besides the timing of highspots or the believability of near falls or a typical wrestling promo. I'll give it a shot.
I'd give Rock's appearance on Letterman ***1/2 on a five star scale in terms of how well he sold himself and his movie.
He did better selling himself, although not flawlessly. It sounds as if movie reviews and word of mouth should do a nice job making up for his lack of selling the actual movie (which is getting great reviews everywhere). The fact that he didn't seem to just be on Letterman to shill for a movie also helps his image with people who may not have been familiar with him before tonight.
Rock was charming on any scale. He was more articulate than most people would expect out of a pro wrestler (since the false perception is pro wrestlers can't talk, which of course is far from the truth). He scored some points with his Jimmy Snuka story, making fun of how Snuka's syntax was so bad on interviews he ended up sounding perhaps a bit profound at times. His imitation of Snuka was dead-on, too.
Rock perhaps may have also scored points with the mainstream public by not knowing a lot of old time wrestlers Letterman mentioned. In other words, Rock didn't seem like a "wrestling dork" who knew all of wrestling's history like a Star Wars buff knows Star Wars. He thus may have seemed more grounded and worldly to the mainstream public.
Letterman was a wrestling fan growing up, but Rock didn't know any of the first half dozen wrestlers Letterman mentioned. Wilbur Snyder? Rock said he didn't know him. The Shires? Rock didn't know them. Letterman mentioned a few more old timers who were wrestlers a decade before Rock was even born and wrestled in territories his father wasn't part of.
Rock seemed genuinely embarrassed he didn't know their names, blushing perhaps. He probably should considering his family's history in the industry. He even acknowledged he was embarrassed for not knowing. He had heard of Dick the Bruiser, Ray Stevens, and Verne Gagne when their names were mentioned. He then went into his Snuka story. The crowd enjoyed it. They also seemed to enjoy him because while he carried himself like a star, by no means did he come across as full of himself. He seemed genuinely nervous with whether his Snuka anecdote would actually be funny.
The clip that aired of his movie (which opens this Friday) was brief, and it included Rock throwing two punches and not actually saying much. However, the scene was pretty funny. But it might not have been the best clip at getting the crowd who weren't already planning to see the movie "because Rock is in it" out to the theaters.
Rock also lost some points when he said he majored in criminal justice and considered becoming a secret service agent. He said when he finally got around to asking about how much they typically got paid, he said, "It wasn't take-a-bullet money, if you know what I mean." Letterman laughed, but added that the fact that secret service agents aren't paid great money is all the more reason to consider them heroes. Rock quickly saw the shallowness of his story, agreed with Letterman's point, and then said secret service agents are true heroes.
Rock also lost some points joking about drinking heavily for 17 hours while getting a tattoo. He seemed a bit "young" in thinking that everyone would get a kick out of hearing how drunk he got while getting his tattoo. The story was harmless, yet on a mainstream talk show, talking so unabashedly about drinking yourself into a stupor isn't great p.r. strategy. His punchline was that the drinking helped numb the pain from his 17 hour tattoo session, but when he woke up the next day he was in great pain. The punchline wasn't good enough to justify the risk of creating a public image of him drinking heavily. In a few years he can get away with type of story, but now the public knows very little about him, so you don't want one of their first impressions to be that you're a big drinker or partier.
Rock overall, though, came across as very likable and of course charismatic, especially when doing his impersonation of Arnold Schwarzenegger. That was the highpoint of the interview. He told an anecdote of Arnold agreeing to be in the movie. Everyone laughed, including Letterman, at not just the story, but Rock's dead-on comical impersonation of Arnold.
Rock may have crushed the hearts of some wrestling fans by making it as clear as he ever has that he considers pro wrestling part of his past. When pressed by Letterman about whether he would avenge his loss to Goldberg last April, his last match, Rock said he's moved on to Hollywood and will probably stay there. It seems Rock has enough confidence in his movie stardom now that he no longer needs to have pro wrestling as an insurance policy in case the movie career fades away. So his vows that he'd never leave pro wrestling, well, those were like many campaign promises and pro wrestling retirement match stipulations - not to be taken at face value.
But he can be forgiven. He didn't demean pro wrestling during his Letterman appearance, and I don't expect that will be a typical part of his gameplan when doing publicity in the future. Wrestling certainly has been great for him and even if he never wrestles again, it doesn't seem as if he'll distance himself from that as if it were "youth indiscretion" and part of a previous life he's now ashamed of.
Rock has made it to A-list celebrity status as the first guest on Letterman last night. And ***1/2 is a worthy effort from someone who's done a lot of media interviews before, but perhaps never one as high-profile or important as this one.
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