The Rock and Chris Benoit's career and legacy, both in and outside WWE, are drastically different. Both men crossed paths in the company several times, but there have been a few times when aspects of their careers have been connected.
In the past, Chris Benoit and The Rock were considered some of the top WWE stars, but now it's a major contrast. While Dwayne Johnson is celebrated for his career in wrestling and Hollywood, Benoit's legacy is mainly avoided and erased for what he did to his family. Still, Dwayne and Chris shared a lot of time in the Stamford-based promotion, which is why some parts of their career intersect in an interesting way.
For this list, we will look at three interconnected facts about Chris Benoit and The Rock in WWE.
#3. Chris Benoit was The Rock's last singles opponent on SmackDown
Benoit and Dwayne's connection mainly occurred on Friday Night SmackDown. In 2004, Dwayne departed the wrestling company as a full-time wrestler to pursue a career in acting and one of his final rivals in the ring was the late wrestler.
Dwayne's last SmackDown match was on the August 22, 2002, episode but his last televised singles match was on August 15, wherein he defeated Benoit in just over 11 minutes. The Brahma Bull had other singles matches in the following years, but they mainly took place during premium live events.
#2. Chris Benoit is one of only two people The Final Boss has tapped out to
As mentioned above, Benoit and Dwayne shared the ring on several occasions. They competed in various matches, including tag team bouts. Interestingly, it was in one of those tag team matches that Johnson suffered a defeat by submission.
On the August 1, 2002, episode of SmackDown, Chris and Eddie Guerrero teamed up to defeat Edge (AKA Adam Copeland) and Rock. Dwayne's team was close to winning until Brock Lesnar showed up, which was enough to distract Johnson and for Chris to lock in the crossface. Benoit had the hold locked in for a while until his opponent was forced to submit.
The only other time The Rock lost a match by submission was in the 1998 King of the Ring event to Ken Shamrock.
#1. Chris Benoit was part of The Rock's last SmackDown match
As it turns out, the men involved in the aforementioned tag team match also played a huge part in The Rock's record on SmackDown. However, a different result was seen the second time around.
Rock's last SmackDown match took place on August 22, 2002, where he teamed with Edge again while Benoit and Guerrero paired once more. In their second meeting, Dwayne hit Chris with a Rock Bottom and got his team the victory despite Guerrero attempting to interfere.