The Rock's ruthless attack on legendary WWE Champion, according to veteran, will never happen again: "No way in hell"
The Rock once ruthlessly attacked a former WWE Champion in one of the most iconic matches in WWE history. A Hall of Famer believes that kind of attack will never happen again on television.
At the 1999 Royal Rumble, The Rock won the WWE Championship after beating Mankind in an "I Quit" match. It was one of the most infamous matches in WWE history because it involved Rock hitting Mankind with 11 unprotected chair shots to the head.
On the latest episode of the Grilling JR podcast, Jim Ross looked back at the brutal match and explained why something like this would never happen again in WWE. Ross thought that the chair shots were unnecessary, and the current state of wrestling doesn't allow something this dangerous anymore.
"The one that stands out more than anything is the one that I would never do again and that's all those chair shots. The Rumble one was a little drastic to me because you can't, it's just hard to can't not protect somebody with those chair shots to the head. You know guys started getting their hands up and started trying to turn their head a little bit, whatever it may be. But boy it was hard to watch, it's hard to fathom and knowing what we do know and knowing what we know now. Concussion protocol and things of that nature, just no way in hell it could happen like that ever again," Ross said. [From 32:47 to 33:30]
Check out the video below:
The Rock and Mick Foley later became a tag team
Despite the animosity between The Rock and Mick Foley to start off 1999, they became a tag team later that year called the Rock 'n' Sock Connection. They won the WWE Tag Team Championships three times during their short-lived partnership.
It also led to the highest rating of any WWE program in history. The "This Is Your Life" segment drew an 8.4 rating, which was the pinnacle of wrestling's popularity in the late 1990s.
The two would team up again years later, in 2004, when they took on Randy Orton, Batista, and Ric Flair of Evolution at WrestleMania XX in a 3-on-2 handicap match.