Black History Month Day 29

The Rock Vs Goldberg Backlash 2003 part 1
Uploaded by johncena77

Rock v Goldberg 4/27/03

Rocky “the Rock”Maivia is the most successful biggest drawing Black Pro-wrestler of all time. That's kind of understatement. He is amongst the most successful biggest drawing wrestlers of all time period.

One of the things that people who write about wrestling don’t write about enough is the “party” atmosphere of the live shows during WWFs peak period. Fun over midcard acts like the New Age Outlaws or Too Cool/Rikishi were an important part of WWF’s successful formula. For the live audience singing along with Roaddog or clapping for Rikishi and Too Cool as they put on their sunglasses and danced was fun. And you go to the WWF wrestling event to have fun.

In that environment the Rock was the ultimate party host. He was charming. He was always telling jokes. And he always appeared to be enjoying himself in the ring. He was having a good time and his joy was infectious.

I was planning on writing about the racial dynamics of the Booker v Rock feud. Rock was the light skinned articulate non-threatening Black guy who knew how to throw a party and was fun for white folks to be around. While Booker was the dark skin sullen Black guy who struggled with his words…he should be parking cars outside the party and not destroying the energy at the party. Rock knew how to be white peoples favorite party host: make sure there weren't any other blacks there.

But fuck I had forgotten how painful Heyman was on commentary and didn’t want to have to listen to him.

So instead I’m writing about Rock v Goldberg. 2003 and the only things worth watching on Raw were Rock, Goldberg and Mark Henry. This is from Rock’s super entertaining Hollywood heel period. Scorpion King was a huge success and he was just back from filming Helldorado. And Rock was a legit crossover star. It was pretty obvious that his movie stardom was going to be bigger than wrestling. And suddenly he was hosting a more exclusive party. A party that the wrestling fans were no longer part of.

In 2003 Raw had been anchored by heel HHH for a while already. He isn’t very smart or skillful at working heel. Which meant that whenever you got to watch Rock come in and work heel it was just a complete refreshing change.

As a face Rock was both stronger and cleverer than his opponents. As a heel he’s a clever guy who basks in his own ingenuity. He’s still having fun in the ring.. He beams after luring Goldberg into spearing the turnbuckle, after luring the ref away so he can punch Goldberg in the nuts, etc. And his joy at outsmarting his opponent is still infectious. But his joy is personal…he’s doing this for his own fun and not for yours. And the match is built on the Rock’s quick changes in expression from the moments where Rock is having fun in the ring basking in his own ingenuity to the moments where he is selling pain during “comeuppance spots”.