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VIP - MITCHELL'S MEMO: The Rock is Gone (PWTorch Newsletter #994) Oct 17, 2007 - 12:19:07 AM
VIP EXCLUSIVE - Early-release article from PWTorch Newsletter #994...
BRUCE MITCHELL FEATURE
Original Headline: "The Rock is Gone"
Original Publish Date: October 17, 2007
Pro Wrestling Torch Newsletter #994
The Rock is Gone
One of the greatest performers in the history of the genre is setting new standards for professional wrestlers everywhere.
No, there’s no sarcastic twist here. Dwayne Johnson has done something no pro wrestler or retired pro wrestler has ever done, not Lenny Montana in "The Godfather" or Roddy Piper in "They Live" or Hulk Hogan in "The Nanny" or Kane in "Not Saw 4."
He opened his latest movie, Disney's "Game Plan," at number one at the box office. Here it is three weeks later the movie is still doing well. No wrestler has been the single star attraction in a mainstream, successful top-ranked movie.
The Rock [artist Grant Gould (c) PWTorch]
Lenny Montana was a memorable character bit, sleeping with the fishes in one of the best movies ever made. Roddy Piper got the main chance, just like Johnson has, in then-hot director John Carpenter's big studio action flick. The fact that "I like to chew bubble gum and kick ass and I'm all out of bubble gum" is more a wrestling trivia question and less a "Say hello to my little friend" tells everything anyone needs to know about the movie-marketability of a toned down Hot Rod. Hogan? He knew he couldn't act, but played his corny '80s celebrity well anyway with two or three C-grade movies and "Thunder In Paradise," his made-on-the-cheap "Baywatch" knock-off. "Game Plan" is exactly the movie Hogan always saw himself in (and Disney never did).
WWE Films is, for a movie production studio, relatively small and cautious - and for good reason. The style of acting that pro wrestling requires - over the top over-acting that travels all the way through the big arena to the cheap seats, doesn't work on the big screen, particularly to a general audience. A toned-down John Cena simply speaking mundane dialog doesn't always work with fanatic fans used to the code of promo/match/angle unique to pro wrestling.
Dwayne Johnson has proven that a pro wrestler can change his style of acting and change the size of his body while not only keeping, but also expanding his appeal. Every wrestler in the business knows now that not only is it possible to attain fame within the boundaries of their business and great financial success, but that the business, for all the sordid truths that surround it, can be the foundation for much greater success in the mainstream entertainment world. The stigma that put a ceiling on what even the best pro wrestler can accomplish is gone, in the aftermath of the most devastating news cycle in the business' history.
It's easy to say only if you have the charisma, looks, and talents of The Rock, but no one saw this in Flex Cabana back in that Memphis Wrestling TV studio at the beginning of Johnson's career. The best anyone hoped for him, and it was a lot, was that......
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