Three weeks before his WrestleMania 27 main event match for the WWE Championship, John Cena took on Alberto Del Rio on “WWE Raw,” with interference from Brodus Clay resulting in a disqualification. When Del Rio and Clay then unleashed a post-match beatdown, the sound of Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson’s theme song blared throughout the arena, suggesting that “The People’s Champ” would join in on the action as well. Instead, fans were stunned by the reveal of The Miz, who arrived in a bald cap and The Rock’s signature “I Bring It” muscle tee.
During an appearance on “Games With Names,” The Miz looked back on his infamous impersonation, which initially came with some doubts. “I remember going to Vince [McMahon], ‘This isn’t going to work. No one’s going to believe I’m The Rock.’ I don’t look like The Rock. I just don’t. I have blue eyes. I’m not bald. I’m not a six-foot-seven Samoan. I’m not The Rock,” Miz recalled. “He’s like, ‘They’ll believe.'”
“…The Rock’s music hits, and the crowd goes nuts. This is when Rock wasn’t there all the time. In my head, I’m backstage going, ‘This is going to be horrible.’ Then I remember as I’m about to walk out, Vince goes, ‘Wait!’ I hear the crowd at the peak and they start coming down. He’s like ‘Now!’ Then I walk out and I did the best Rock impression I possibly could. As I’m walking out, there’s another eruption bigger than the one before. I’m like, ‘How is this working? Do they not know I’m not The Rock?’
With the St. Louis audience bamboozled by his ruse, The Miz eventually provided them with clarity by taking off his sunglasses and walking down the entrance ramp. It was then that their cheers transformed into boos, a sign that “The A-Lister” had done his duty as a heel, and impersonator, well.
The Miz Recalls Voicemail He Received From The Rock Afterward
The chorus of boos continued as The Miz headed down to the ring to further the beatdown on Cena alongside Del Rio and Clay. In the style of The Rock, The Miz notably planted Cena with a Rock Bottom and posed atop the turnbuckle with his arm raised. With his bald cap removed, The Miz then launched Cena into the steel ring post. Combined with his subsequent promo about Cena, The Rock, and the WWE Universe, The Miz revealed that he later received a message of praise from The Rock himself.
“I flew back to LA. I got a voicemail from The Rock being like, ‘That’s how you do it. That’s how you step up to the plate and hit a home run,'” Miz recalled. “It was one of those motivational [things]. By the way, does not have to do this. He’s The Rock. But man, I remember when I was on The Real World and people were like ‘What made you want to do it?’ I remember my castmates got me an action figure of The Rock and it was on my shelf. When I was looking myself in the mirror saying ‘What do you want to do with the rest of your life?’, there was an action figure of The Rock. I said I’m going to be a WWE Superstar. Then here I am getting a voicemail from The Rock being like ‘this is what you needed to do.'”
Miz went on to defeat Cena at WrestleMania 27 with the help of The Rock, who ordered their WWE Championship match to be restarted after it originally ended in a double countout. Under the new rules, there were no disqualifications, no count-outs, and no time limits, which allowed The Rock to nail Cena with a Rock Bottom with no repercussions. As Cena lay on the mat, The Miz then capitalized by covering Cena for the match-winning and title-retaining pinfall.
If you use any of the quotes in this article, please credit “Games With Names” with a h/t to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription.
Read the full article here
