I told you this week's Raw wasn't all good, and the first crack appeared when the Rock, despite actually being in the arena, showed up via a pretape. The pretape was more frustrating than if they hadn't had the Rock show up until the end of the show, as it was just a tease, and was also pretty terrible. If they were going for a full-on Hollywood heel thing here, I'd be OK with Rock's first (that's right, there was more) pretape promo. Rock is supposed to be a face though, and there's nothing heroic or admirable about catchphrase heavy rants that veer ickily close to homophobia, and shouting at some poor guy off-camera.
It's a
fair point to make that Rock calling Cena a transvestite and "Rooty Tooty Fresh
and Fruity," and picking on camera operators is just what Rock does, and you'd
be right, it is what Rock does...back in the early 2000s. Fact is, that stuff
just doesn't go over as well for a face in 2012, especially when WWE is
ballsdeep in a big anti-bullying campaign. Rock just comes off as mean, hateful
and homophobic, which would be fine if that was WWE's intent, but I'd be
willing to bet that it's not.
