Dwayne Johnson has been doing an excellent job as the newest and the biggest Super Heel of WWE. The Hollywood megastar’s persona and performance have been so convincing that this could’ve easily been another multi-million dollar grossing movie. But, while The Rock is bringing out his originality in his role, he isn’t the only one working on this script idea.
Tony Khan’s AEW has become WWE’s perennial rival. Their current storylines showcase rather similar authoritarian heel figures controlling everything. Despite this, while the cooking of Dwayne Johnson is attracting millions of eyes, the same isn’t the case for AEW. What is the driving factor that is setting them apart in front of pro wrestling fans?
The irreplicable quality of Dwayne Johnson
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The WWE has seen several great superstars in its long run in the industry. However, while many can see lite versions of Stone Cold, Hulk Hogan, and many more, there’s no lite Dwayne Johnson. Talking about the AEW vs WWE factor, renowned pro wrestling podcaster and analyst Jim Cornette revealed why The Rock gets more pop.
According to him, “The AEW angle has been they’re trying to make the Buckaroos art imitate life. Because everybody knows that they’re EVPs in real life. So now they’re presenting them as the EVPs that are on the television, and they’ve been the EVPs to everyone’s everlasting regret for five years since this company’s been around, now, right?” The real-to-reel life transition however hasn’t been what Tony Khan had hoped for.
The reason for this lies in the fact that the Young Bucks are EVPs first and pro wrestlers later. This is the exact reason why dedicated pro wrestlers slay even in managerial roles.
But managers don’t always make good pro wrestlers. Moreover, the comparison becomes even more unfair when your competition is Johnson.
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The Rock is one of the biggest showmen the pro wrestling industry has seen. His mic work and charisma are unrivaled. Even Austin Theory is failing to capture that vibe despite actively trying to mimic The Rock. In fact, Cornette even said that Johnson is winning attention despite adopting his evil authoritative figure persona way later.
Why do The Rock and WWE do it better?
Jim Cornette noted in the same interview, “The Rock just got on the board of directors on January 27, and in six weeks now everybody says, ‘Oh, The Rock is on the board of directors.’ It looks like AEW is doing a minor league junior high school ripoff of the big angle in the WWE when, in actuality, they came up with it first; they’re just doing it with real, actual f*****g Mega Stars.” Moreover, while The Young Bucks look clumsy sometimes, The Great One walks like he owns the WWE.
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The evil authoritative figure act isn’t a new thing for WWE either. 2014 saw a highly successful storyline arc, The Authority. Triple H and Stephanie McMahon stood on top of everybody at the time, with John Cena and his team in opposition to their tyranny as they pushed Seth Rollins on top.
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The stakes always felt high when wrestlers were threatened with being fired. Dwayne Johnson is capturing that emotion even better with his Super Heel turn. What are your thoughts on this? Let them flow in the comments.