The different faces of The Rock

#5 Hollywood Megastar (2003)

He turned arrogant and started looking down at the wrestling business

The Rock had left WWE to kick start his Hollywood career in 2002, so when he finally returned to the ring in 2003, there was a sense of enthusiasm among the fans. People were expecting the old People's Champion to return and reclaim his throne. But what they got was completely different from his old gimmick.

The Rock was no longer the People's Champion. Due to his success in Hollywood, he had turned arrogant and started looking down at the wrestling business, an industry that made him famous in the first place.

Even though this run as the arrogant heel was short, it produced some of the best heel work of all time and Rock went on to overshadow his corporate guy heel run. He started disparaging the crowd and his opponents on a weekly basis and debuted the “Rock Concert” segments, where he’d mock the show’s host city.

During this time, we saw Rock getting prominent victories over wrestlers like Hulk Hogan and Steve Austin before falling to Goldberg at Backlash. After this, he again went to Hollywood to resume his movie career, but this was truly Rock's best run in a very brief period of time.