The Three Count By Jake T. Icon

"An interview with the Rock"

I was just an extra on the set of Rock's latest movie Helldorado and
within those five days I was there, I got news that will "Rock" the
wrestling world.

Day one, I got to have lunch with The Rock and Arnold Schwarzenegger

Day two, had two guys with guns walk on set and got arrested.

Day three, I find out Rock bought the name the Rock and now can use
it without Vince McMahon.

Day Four, Goldberg walks on set.

Day Five, I get my interview and find out that the Rock is returning
to wrestling as a heel, wrestling Hogan at No Way Out, wrestling
Goldberg at WrestleMania and after that he is QUITTING WRESTLING FOR
GOOD to pursue a movie career. That's the news, want the story, read
on.

Two months ago, I wrote an article about Rock's behavior on set,
saying that he went Hollywood.

I would like to go on record as saying, maybe he did, but the guy I
met this month was one of the most humble men I have ever met. It
was day one and the shoot took place at Club Ivar in Hollywood. This
scene was to be the beginning of the movie where Rock comes into the
club as a character named Beck, a bounty hunter, to collect a one
hundred thousand dollar debt from a quarterback that is celebrating
his Super Bowl win with six other big football players. Rock ends up
taking the Super Bowl ring off the quarterback as collateral and
ends up kicking ass.

On his way through the club he bumps in to Arnold who ends up doing
a small cameo, because Rock does a small cameo in T-3.

It's kind of like a passing of the torch, very similar to John
Travolta bumping into Stallone in the movie Staying Alive. Anyway,
when these guys had lunch, Rock ate a Caesar's salad out of a bowl
you usually serve it out of and a steak. He always ate healthy and
that is hard on these sets when craft services serve steak on one
end and Snicker bars on the other.

The guy in the picture, whom we will call Showstopper, was just an
extra and approached Rock about a script his buddy wrote based on
the video game, Spy Hunter. Now usually when extras do this they get
kicked off set. Instead Rock heard him out and insisted on seeing
the script. Security there was so loose, that the guy who wrote the
Spy Hunter script was able to get on set, hand it to Showstopper who
in turn handed it to Rock. Rock read it that night and the next day
returned the script to Showstopper requesting that he send it to
Rock's agent for legal purposes. Rock made that kid's day and
luckily I was able to snap a shot with the two together.

Day two, was the same club scene. However two guys who looked like
hoods walked right on set and started harassing one of the extras.
Mind you, there are about two hundred extras on set. It seemed the
extra that was being threatened owed some money to these guys. There
were cops on set already and they ended up escorting these guys out.
As they did this, the cops found that each guy had a gun on them and
they were arrested immediately. Since that moment, anybody that
looked suspicious or that had a camera on them had it taken away and
security became tighter. Peter Berg, the director, was fuming.

Day three, everybody couldn't stop talking about the Rock. This guy
was a star. The way he handled himself on set was all professional.
Everybody on that set had a story about him. One that intrigued me
was the fact that Rock went out of his way to buy out Vince McMahon
for the use of the name The Rock. So expect Vince McMahon not to get
an executive producer credit next Rock flick.

Day Four, Goldberg walked right on set, bald head, sunglasses and a
big biker outfit. He went right up to the Rock, who was reading his
script. Rock was looking down and Goldberg, who towered over
everybody in the room, tapped him in the chest and said, "I'm here"!
The way he said it, it sounded better then his old quotes, "I'm
back" or "Who's next?!" Rock laughed, and said I'll be right there.
Rock walked out a minute later had a five minute meeting with
Goldberg in the back room. After five, Goldberg left. This made me
think, "Why the hell is he there" and "I know something the
wrestling world doesn't".

It was day five and everybody was used to one another. There's a lot
of sitting around on these sets because the director and crew have
to set up the next shot. I noticed that the Rock would only talk to
people who used wrestling terminology, not people who said, "I loved
you in Scorpion King" or "I smell what you're cooking!" When our boy
in the picture, ShowStopper, went up to Rock and said, "when are you
turning heel" and Rock responded, "As soon as I get back", I knew
that was the in to get my story. So a group of people asked him
questions, and I was one of them. Rock said he doesn't mind jobbing
to people to get them over. He said there are current people in the
business that won't do that, and that is a problem. Rock went on to
say he's back for two pay-per-views.

At No Way Out he's going to fight Hogan again, but this time as a
heel. This will lead to a Hogan/Vince match at Wrestlemania when
Vince sides with his new star, The Rock. I actually pitched the idea
to Rock to call himself Holly Rock, but we will see how that turns
out.

Hogan will bring in Goldberg and there is your WrestleMania dream
match. Rock said after that he is doing the Hollywood thing and
leaving wrestling until Hollywood doesn't want the Rock. From there,
Hogan and Goldberg will have their much deserved rematch.. Rock
finished by saying he misses the ring, "But I feel that Hollywood is
my next challenge".