25 biggest pro wrestling ‘what ifs’ of the past 25 years

15. What if The Rock doesn’t join The Nation of Domination?

There could always be a ton of “what if” scenarios with Dwayne Johnson. What if he had gone on to a successful football career like he originally wanted to? What if he had shunned the wrestling business altogether? Luckily for the WWE Universe (and Dwayne’s bank account now as well), he decided to go into the family business.

His first gimmick was insanely cheesy. Given his father’s first name and his grandfather’s last name, Rocky Maivia, dubbed “The Blue Chipper” by Jim Ross, debuted at Survivor Series in 1996 and quickly made a name for himself, winning his first Intercontinental Championship just a few months later by defeating Triple H. However, with the business changing, the fans just weren’t into his cheesy character and the “Die, Rocky, Die” chants started coming at a regular pace. After losing the title and suffering a knee injury, he returned to WWE in late summer of 1997 as a full-fledged heel and joined the Faarooq-led Nation of Domination, turning his back on the fans and refusing to ever use the Rocky Maivia name again, instead going with a character called “The Rock” and the business would never be the same again.

But what if Dwayne Johnson had never gotten away from the Rocky Maivia character? What if the WWE Universe had embraced his family lineage and the character had never gone away? Would we have ever gotten The Rock and everything that goes along with it? Does he ever get past the midcard? Do we ever get the Austin-Rock WrestleMania trilogy? Does he ever become the biggest movie star in the world? I’d like to think that his natural charisma and ability to connect with an audience would have taken him somewhere but if he hadn’t joined The Nation and eventually replaced Ron Simmons as the leader of the group, would he have become one of the biggest draws in professional wrestling history?