Vince Russo reveals he was afraid to tell The Rock that his ring name was previously used by 74-year-old legend (Exclusive)
The Rock is a moniker that Dwayne Johnson is more known for than his actual legal name. It's been so strongly associated with him that hundreds of millions, if not billions of people in the world, recognize him by his ring name. However, ex-WWE writer Vince Russo said he was hesitant to tell him that a 74-year-old legend previously used the now-iconic ring moniker.
On this week's episode of Writing with Russo, Dr. Chris Featherstone and ex-WWE writer Vince Russo discussed the latter's days working with The Brahma Bull in the mid-to-late 1990s. The 10-time World Champion, as you may know, returned on RAW recently and teased a match against Roman Reigns.
Russo told Chris Featherstone that he originally thought of changing Rocky's ring name to what it would become and that it wasn't rocket science. However, he also revealed that he was hesitant to tell The Great One that 74-year-old legend Don Muraco previously used the moniker:
"I can tell you, we're at Monday Night RAW. It's not rocket science. He was Rocky Maivia and all this. And as I worked with him, all I kept thinking was 'The Rock, The Rock.' But all I kept thinking about was the great Don Muraco. I can't tell him about that moniker because I was such a huge fan of Muraco," Russo said.
Russo further discussed how The Rock started talking in third person on WWE TV:
"Then I remember, man, backstage, the night before the show, I went up to Rock, and it was just him and I, and I said, 'Bro, what if you went out there and referred to yourself as another person?' and he goes 'What do you mean?' and I said 'Rock this, Rock that' and he looked at me and was like 'really?'. And I told him that he should go out there and try it. And that night, he went out there and talked about himself as The Rock. That's one of those moments when I was backstage watching, and I went, 'That's it, bro. That's it,'" he added. (2:31 - 3:44)
You can watch the full video below:
Vince Russo on the conflicting story that Jim Ross gave The Rock his ring name
Vince Russo said he was called a liar for coming up with that name but argued that he fully believed Jim Ross if he said that he also approached Dwayne Johnson about the name change.
Ultimately, for Russo, it came down to the fact that the moniker change wasn't rocket science:
"Then, it's like, of course, years later, I'm called a liar, that all that was made up. Because evidently, Jim Ross had the same idea that I had. And bro, listen, one thing I know: Jim Ross is not a liar. Jim Ross is a straight-up guy. And bro, I've said this a million times: the guy's name was Rocky. So, referring to him as The Rock was not rocket science. So, I'm sure JR and myself had the same idea."
The former WWE writer added that he believed Jim Ross might have had the same idea as him about The Great One's name change:
"I've never heard JR tell that story. Bruce Prichard said that. But if JR said that he went up to him [Rock] and had a conversation with him, I would believe him 1000%. You're going from Rocky to The Rock. Whatever the timing was of that, I was on board when he really started embracing that character." (3:45 - 4:53)
It will be interesting to see if the former World Champion will compete inside the squared circle this year.
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