Shane McMahon On The Rock Being Decimated With Early Crowd Response, Possible Hulk Hogan WWE Return
Shane McMahon made a rare radio appearance when he joined Opie Radio to discuss two of WWE's biggest stars ever. The first was The Rock and Shane was asked if WWE ever envisioned him becoming as big a star as he became.
"No, but he had it," said Shane. "When he first started, we gave him a big push due to his lineage? When we presented him as Rocky Maivia, people just sh-t all over it. They're like 'Die Rocky Die.' People just puked all over it."
Shane then says that Rock was "decimated" over the crowd response because he felt he let his family down as he was supposed to carry on the family name. Shane says that Vince McMahon then said they will embrace this hate and change The Rock into a bad guy with the Nation of Domination.
"There, [Rock] started getting his voice. He cut his hair, got a little more cleaned up. Then that's when the gift of gab started happening. He got to speak a little bit more and we could see the star just rising from there," Shane stated.
WWE then used the Nation of Domination, and specifically its leader Ron Simmons, to put The Rock in his place. That suppression then made the fans want even more of The Rock and his character took off from there.
"Big credit to Dwyane specifically because everything that happens in WWE is a collaboration. You have to have the "it" factor, but you also have to put in your own thought and time to what that character is," said Shane.
The other big name discussed on the show was Hulk Hogan who recently was reinstated by WWE. One of the hosts asked Shane what he thought about Hogan coming back which drew a hilarious response.
"What else you got?" asked Shane which drew laughter from the hosts.
One of the hosts then talked about going to Orlando and visiting a Hulk Hogan store that has all of his belts and memorabilia.
"He's an icon, that's for sure," Shane responded about Hogan. "He'll be back, I mean I grew up with Hulk, he's iconic.
"I'm not going to press stuff but I would assume he'll come back one more time. We could talk about Trump, something less controversial."
Shane then pivoted to talking about SmackDown's 1000th episode to which a host replied, "And that's when they bring back some of the old guys, and maybe Hulk Hogan?"
"Anything can happen in WWE," replied Shane.
Hogan didn't appear at SmackDown 1000 but he's all but certain to come back to TV at some point. The reaction he'll receive will be a little less certain.
If you use any of the quotes in this article, please credit Opie Radio with a h/t to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription.
Source: Opie Radio