The Rock will be featured on the cover of WWE 2K14, the first edition of the series to be published by 2K Sports.
The game releases in November.
Image: WWE
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The Rock will be featured on the cover of WWE 2K14, the first edition of the series to be published by 2K Sports.
The game releases in November.
Image: WWE
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Putting a part timer on the cover (let alone giving them the belt, another topic though) certainly says a lot about what they think of their current roster.
I think it says more about the staying power of the Rock, he might not be in line for any Oscars at the moment, but the guy is a bonafide movie star. As much as wrestling fans hate to admit it a movie star will always be more prolific than a professional wrestler. Despite this the Rock still chose to come back to give a little more to the company that gave him his chance, and in the end will most likely put over the company’s top star in their biggest event. The Rock might be a part timer, but as I guarantee you more people would know his name (Dwayne Johnson or The Rock) over say. . . Daniel Bryan.
I would not be surprised if CM Punk disagreed, he’s damn good wrestler (and is so beloved for his skill he cannot seem to get over as a heel, hell I expect him to soon have to start killing puppies in the ring to try to get heat) and his reign over the last year was great. But his brand is nowhere near the level The Rock’s is. As the actual source article says ‘there is no one that could offer near the exposure and awareness levels that he provides’ and that’s true because the Rock is not just a professional wrestler, the Rock is a Movie Star, maybe not an A-lister but he’s damn sure close. The exposure the WWE is getting from having their major championship around this man’s waist in a lot more than any of the full time Wrestlers, including John Cena could even begin to imagine.
I don’t disagree I agree with what you are saying and I completely understand why they are doing it, it’s just as a fan of wrestling, as opposed to “entertainment”, I see it as a bad move and a slap in the face to the work horses and people who show up every week and give it their all, I’ve seen Punk and Ziggler notably mention this – hopefully outside of kayfabe, it can be hard to tell with some interviews.
Other than Punk vs Taker this Wrestlemania doesn’t have me interested at all, clearly I’m not their target demographic though.
Oh yeah, from a business perspective it made sense to give Rock the belt, but it does seem like a slap in the face to those who are on the road every day giving their all for the company for a guy to come in after a 8-10 year absence and take the top title. But given the fact that the ‘road to Wrestlemania’ is arguably the period of time where the WWE has the most outside publicity, to put the belt on a man who can generate the most outside publicity makes sense.
If the Rock holds the title post Wrestlemania, then I’d start to wonder what they’re doing. . .
You’re correct, but then so is Shadwell. Yes The Rock has THAT kind of influence regardless, but the use of guys like The Rock and Lesnar isn’t JUST simply “a wise business move” – it’s a NECESSARY one.
WWE has done a horrendous job in using their current talent. An argument like “The Rock having more name recognition than Daniel Bryan is partly flawed. While I doubt Bryan would be “HUGE” like The Rock became, it’s not like many of their stars are utilized properly or given a proper CONSISTENT chance to actually get over to where they potentially could be, and even if the start of something promising begins, those pushes are quickly destroyed or taken away last minute (Kofi back in his feud with Orton stands as being the best example of that).
When WWE keeps shooting down or neglecting their own stars they’re more or less FORCED into a position where they have to use these already established part time stars. I’d say that does indeed reflect what WWE “thinks of its stars” or at least how they view them.
EDIT – That’s @Ruen btw, for some reason the “reply” didn’t work right.
No you responded to me, that’s fine.
I understand that the reason WWE have to utilise established mega stars is because they have severely botched establishing new ones over the past couple of years, mostly because Vince likes to feel like he has absolute control over his product and doesn’t want to let the opinion of the so call (know-it-all fans) to sway his decision, but it has backfired on his spectacularly over the past few years.
In the god awful December to Dismember Heyman originally wanted CM Punk to have a much bigger role in the main event because he could see how the fans were reacting to Punk and saw him as a star in the making. Vince however wanted the big but hopelessly bland Bobby Lashley to win. That’s what occurred yet despite this Lashley left the company within that year I believe and despite the temporary setback, Punk has went on to be one of the companies biggest stars.
Another more contemporary disaster was the 18 second debacle at last years WM, Vince didn’t like how Bryan was getting over and decided to kill all his momentum by having him job in 18 seconds in a world title match. . . it backfired spectacularly as the crowd wasn’t going to let Bryan fall into obscurity so they chanted his catchphrase all throughout the rest of the show and the Raw that followed it.
Vince has made some horribly stupid decisions in regards to the company over the past few years and he’s paying for it now, but for all intents and purposes it does appear that they are on the right track.
Spoiler for Today’s Wrestlemania
The Shield was able to beat another group of 3 established stars, despite everyone worrying that they were going to bury the group at WM. On top of this they are probably the most over heels in the company right now
Wrestling is a victim of the modern age more than anything. The Attitude Era worked so well because it was one of the craziest things you could watch each week on TV during a time when their was little alternative. Few had broadband, no Youtube, MMA was still only watched by a select few etc..
I still like pro wrestling as an art form, but the product being pushed by the WWE and others today is very generic. All the intro music sounds the same, more people using their real names when performing, hell a buddy of mine told me the announcers rarely even call out the names of moves and holds anymore. I stopped watching around 05.
You need to remember that The Attitude Era only ever existed because WWE (then WWF) was losing ratings to WCW (and its nWo storyline)…Vince McMahon never liked the Attitude Era but had to do whatever it takes to defeat WCW and win the Monday Night Wars.
The “Ruthless Aggression” era was good but the WWE of now has gone PG which has made it very boring. Also Vince McMahon sees no other promotion as a competitior (even though they are coping some storyines from TNA) and he LOVES the current direction of WWE (More “entertainment” than wrestling)..I still watch WWE but I watch TNA more now
Now on the game front…I wonder if the game is still being produced by Yukes (who has developed every THQ WWE Game)
I haven’t played a WWE game since the Gamecube. Might pick this one up to see what 2K brings to the series.
2K is only the publisher….Most likely it will be developed by Yukes…the only thing I would like to see is an improvement of their online multiplayer and features…
WWE ’12 and WWE ’13 suffered from poor multiplayer and high dropouts when going through the community creations pages.
That’s pretty much the impression i’m getting based on some of the earlier reports also. They mentioned they grabbed the same team for this so unless 2K tried to somehow influence them to change some of their direction I doubt it’ll be anything too different to WWE ’13. Especially given the amount of time (not enough to make substantial changes).
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