The Great One's bio ain't so great
By JOE HAGAN -- For SLAM! Wrestling
First off, let me start by telling the "millions...and
millions", of the Rock's fans that I am also a fan. So
please, hold off on the hate mail!
Although the book starts
out promisingly enough, detailing young Duane's early
memories of his father and grandfather, it dwindles
into nothing more than a description of The Rock's
last few years in the WWF. I suppose if he'd waited
a while longer and had more interesting stories to
tell, the book may have lived up to its expectations.
But, quite frankly, after the stories of his youth
ended, I lost interest quickly.
Don't get me wrong. I found the first to thirds of the
book to be entertaining and somewhat educational.
There are several stories he relates to the reader
which I found interesting. But once he enters the
world of professional wrestling and his alter-ego,
(The Rock persona) does the writing, I started asking myself...Is
it almost over?
Some of the stories, as I said, are interesting. Like
the time his grandfather - High Chief Peter
Maivia - was on his deathbed and his mother, Atta,
visited. She was mistaken for a distraught fan and
escorted out of the room.
Another story tells of how The Rock's grandfather had a great sense of humor. The Rock tells of a time when his grandfather was on
the road eating dinner with several other wrestlers.
One of the other guys started making fun of Maivia's
eating with his hands, a Samoan custom. After
finishing, Maivia took the offending wrestler outside and threw him through a plate-glass window. He bent
over and asked "Are you okay?". The fellow replied he'd
live and Maivia helped him up saying...Don't make fun of me
anymore, alright?.
Something I didn't know before reading the book was
that The Rock almost played for the Calgary Stampeders
before deciding to follow his father into the world of
wrestling. He tells of how, after finishing college,
his dream was to play in the NFL. However, no team was
interested so he accepted an offer to play in
Calgary. Upon arriving for training camp, he was told
that the CFL had a rule limiting the number of
non-Canadian players. A spot on the team was already
promised to an American so he was bumped to the
bottom of the list. He lived in poverty for several
months and even had to scrounge for a mattress
in a motel's dumpster. Not quite the behavior one
would expect of one of the WWF's most successful
performers, is it?
There is a great difference between Mankind and The Rock's bio. The first major
variation is the amount of material. The Rock's book
is a mere 283 pages. Foley's a whopping 503! This,
naturally is attributed to the fact that Foley simply
has more stories to tell to the fans. But, it's more
than that. Personally, I get more of a charge
out of Foley's book because I feel it was written
more to the reader than AT the reader, as the Rock's
book seems to have been.
