Christian Recalls WWE Idea To Have His Character Based On The Rock, Vince McMahon's Reaction
Recently on E&C's Pod Of Awesomeness, sports entertainment legends Edge and Christian got in-depth on the subject of pro wrestling gimmicks. During the podcast, Christian recalled almost becoming a copycat character based on The Rock.
According to Christian, back in 2003 as The Rock's star in Hollywood began to rise, 'Captain Charisma' found himself in the role of The Rock's stand-in while he was away from WWE.
"I remember I had almost in WWE, this is pretty funny actually, so The Rock had been going off doing movies and stuff like that. Yeah, I think he's doing alright for himself, from what I understand. So he was starting to go off and do movies, so he was taking extended periods of time off. So he was doing a little thing with Goldberg and I can't remember exactly how it came about, but they kind of slotted me in to be Rock's spokesman, I had a little one-on-one backstage meeting with The Rock and he kind of anointed me, like, his favorite wrestler, trying to pump me up, but unbeknownst to me, he was trying to get me to take a bullet for him with Goldberg, was the backstory. Right? So when he wasn't there I was kind of doing his talking as 'The Rock's Favorite Wrestler' and I took upon myself to do The Rock's work for him."
Apparently, WWE creative wanted Christian to go by the moniker of The Lock, alter his look in homage to 'The Great One', and start adopting The Rock's classic catchphrases.
"One day, I get home and I get this call [from WWE creative]. They're like, 'hey, they kind of want you to do this thing where you think you become The Rock.' And I was like, 'what?' 'Yeah, so basically, we want you to kind of do the eyebrow thing, maybe cut your hair real short,' and, I had long hair at this point. Did I? Yes, I did. 'What if you cut your hair real short? And, you know, The Rock wears black, so you'll wear white and you're going to use all of his catchphrases and you're gonna act like The Rock and pretend you're The Rock and you're going to be The Rock, but we're not going to call you The Rock.' I was like, 'okay?' No, [they were not going to call him The Boulder as Edge asked]. They were going to call me, are you ready or this? Wait for it, wait for it, they were going to call me The Lock. The L-O-C-K, Lock because anytime I went to the ring, it was a lock I was going to win."
Christian admitted that he was stressed out about the storyline and tried to explain to WWE creative that such a character does not have proverbial legs.
"I was so stressed out that whole week and I was trying to explain it to them." Christian continued, "'you can't imitate the original and expect it to work or people to care about it.' I said, 'it's going to come off as that.'"
Christian claimed to have talked to friend and then-WWE creative team member Brian Gewirtz about the situation.
"I guess what happened was somebody had pitched it on one of the plane rides and Vince [McMahon] was like, 'that's great! Haha!' and he laughed at it. So I was talking to Brian [Gewirtz] about it, and it wasn't his idea, but he was like, '[Vince] likes it. This is what's going to happen, blah, blah, blah.' And I kind of plead my case to him."
Obviously, The Lock never saw the light of day and the reason is that WWE Chairman Vince McMahon thought the idea was stupid.
"[Gewirtz] called me Friday afternoon and I see his number and I'm like, 'oh, man.' So I answer and he's like, 'hey, just wanted to give you a quick call. Good news.' I was like, 'what's that?' He goes, 'I guess Vince kind of heard it in the room instead of somebody pitching it to him on the plane. And he's like, 'what? That's the stupidest thing I've ever heard. We're not doing that.'"
Join the Five Second Posse here. If you use any of the quotes from this article, please credit E&C's Pod Of Awesomeness with an H/T to WrestlingINC for the transcription.
Source: E&C Pod Of Awesomeness