S03:E08 Going Heavy

[AgentRXS]

Quote

Miami, 1998: Dwayne hits new heights as The Rock, but encounters some challenges on the road to SummerSlam. In 2033, Dwayne finds the prime minister has a political crisis of her own.

Original Air Date: January 13, 2023

[Raja]

Typed Ch into Google and the autofill turned up Who is Chad Frost?

The actress wasn't as big but she sure had that Chyna look.

[thuganomics85]

According to my glance around the internet, it sounds like most "in the know" believe that "Chad Frost" was actually Shawn Michaels, which I guess tracks since it was known that HBK was a major jerk back in those days and definitely meddled.  Speaking of which, I kind of found it funny that they had Hunter/Triple H be the one who got upset with Dwayne making it about himself and having a big head, because even someone who is more casual like me heard that Triple H had a reputation of burying his opponents and controlling the narrative when he was the one large and in charge.  Definitely remember feeling that certain wrestlers (ex: Booker T, RVD) got shafted because Triple H had to be dominate.

First Chyna sighting!  Agree that the actress wasn't as big as the real one, but like with Andre, she really nailed down every other aspect of her.

Did like seeing the glimpses of the Intercontinental Ladder match, which was definitely one The Rock's best matches earlier in his career.  I wonder if 

Spoiler

we'll get to his Wrestlemania match with Austin this season?  Or see him win his first Heavyweight title?

 

[StewieGriffin]

I thought Chad Frost was supposed to be Ahmed Johnson at first then realized it was Shawn Michaels. Wonder what's so different with him that they couldn't use his name.

[reggiejax]

6 hours ago, StewieGriffin said:

I thought Chad Frost was supposed to be Ahmed Johnson at first then realized it was Shawn Michaels. Wonder what's so different with him that they couldn't use his name.

Likeliest explanation is Shawn Michaels didn't give permission to be portrayed. And the likeliest explanation for permission not being given is that, even Shawn Michaels knows there is little chance he'll be portrayed as anything but the jerk he is well known for being. 

So they go with a fictionalized character, one they can plausibly claim is an amalgam, despite the fact that no one in the world believes he is anyone but Shawn Michaels. 

[StewieGriffin]

5 hours ago, reggiejax said:

Likeliest explanation is Shawn Michaels didn't give permission to be portrayed. And the likeliest explanation for permission not being given is that, even Shawn Michaels knows there is little chance he'll be portrayed as anything but the jerk he is well known for being. 

So they go with a fictionalized character, one they can plausibly claim is an amalgam, despite the fact that no one in the world believes he is anyone but Shawn Michaels. 

Vince and Triple H kinda come off as A-Holes on this show too.  They must've just signed off on it without looking at the script and Shawn already knew how he'd be portrayed.

Edited January 15, 2023 by StewieGriffin

[reggiejax]

8 hours ago, StewieGriffin said:

Vince and Triple H kinda come off as A-Holes on this show too.  They must've just signed off on it without looking at the script and Shawn already knew how he'd be portrayed.

Vince and HHH get off easy with their portrayals. Both are known to be far bigger pieces of crap than what Young Rock portrays. Vince especially.

Difference is, they can control what gets portrayed on Young Rock beyond their characters, in terms of wrestling content, due to their positions of power in WWE. 

They could turn the lights off on Young Rock if they felt like it. 

So they get mild "heel" portrayals, something they both can easily live with. 

Shawn Michaels, on the other hand, has no such power. All he can do is say no to being portrayed. Which he did knowing full well he wouldn't be spared anything if he were to sign off.

But again, not that it mattered. His being a huge asshole was so well known that no one was fooled by "Chad Frost", once we knew what the character was all about.

[Traveller519]

Yup. Frost was definitely Shawn Michaels. "Vince's biggest superstar along with Stone Cold" who had to take time off in 1998 due to injury, and had a relationship with Vince that he used to look out for himself. The injury's different, obviously Frost is black and Shawn is white, so there's enough plausible deniability, but there we are.

It wouldn't surprise me if Shawn didn't sign off on being portrayed in the show. But it also wouldn't surprise me if Dwayne had the foresight to not drag Shawn's name through the mud in his own show. Shawn knows who he was at that time, and has done a lot to reclaim his image with wrestling fans since then. Wrestling fans will know that he was frost but also know what has come since. No need for the show to drag a guy for 25 year old behavior to people who don't have full context.

Fun episode though! They did a great job of portraying the match!

[Kel Varnsen]

I really liked the part about how the Rock had like 5 different catch phrases, since I remember at the time how a lot of what the WWF paid wrestlers was based on how much merch you sold. So if you had 5 shirts with 5 catch phrases you made more money. 

The match was pretty cool too. I assume that was the real commentary from the King and JR. The stuff about trusting Dwayne and letting him run long was interesting since I can remember some of those super long promos he used to do on Monday Night Raw especially "The Rock this is your life" with Mick Foley that got crazy ratings.

On 1/15/2023 at 2:25 PM, Traveller519 said:

wouldn't surprise me if Shawn didn't sign off on being portrayed in the show.

I wonder how much they could get away with, even without him signing off. Like sure Shawn Michaels owns his name, but it wouldn't surprise me to know that WWE owns the look and the Heartbreak kid nickname. The same way they owned the name Razor Ramon and had a fake Razor when the original left. Or how the Ultimate Warrior legally changed his name to Warrior to try to get away with using the name for other companies.