In the 20th episode of Something To Wrestle With a guest who used to be a former WWE producer – Bruce Prichard talked about a few things, and he also discovered some interesting facts as well. Did you know who was behind the idea to make The Rock talk in the third person on WWE? Well according to Prichard that bright “The Rock says” line came from none other than Jim Ross.
Prichard said that the upcoming wrestling star began talking about himself in the third person after he returned to the ring in Nation Of Domination following an injury. “Well, everybody had high hopes for him in the early days by taking his dad’s name and his grandfather’s name, Rocky Johnson and Peter Maivia, making him Rocky Maivia, and I’ll never forget (Jim) Cornette, ‘give him a goddamn f*****g name! Rocky Maivia,” Prichard stated and continued with “And it was when he came back from injury and went into the Nation of Domination and that’s where he emerged as a heel. And it started with The Rock stuff, which, by the way, the whole Rock speak, “The Rock says,” talking about himself in third person, that was something that Jim Ross came up with.”
Prichard also discussed the Nation Of Domination and the idea behind it, which was entirely on the WWE Hall of Famer Ernie Ladd. Prichard said “Originally, I believe (The Nation Of Domination) was Ernie Ladd’s idea. Yeah, Ernie consulted with us. Ernie, from time to time, would come up with some good ideas, good perspective.”
He also talked about one unpleasant thing, and that is the fact why nobody wanted to work with Ahmed Johnson. He said that “I don’t think that Ahmed was Ron’s (Simmons) favorite opponent. Ron really wanted to help Ahmed; however, Ahmed could be difficult at times. He felt he knew better and was fairly stiff at times. And he wasn’t stiff to Ron Simmons, I can tell you that. He had a reputation for being stiff. I don’t know how many people he hurt, but he stiffed people and people didn’t like working with him because he was stiff.”
