WWE Chairman Vince Mcmahon once considered the idea of Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson wrestling a Grizzly Bear for a Wall Street show.
WWE chairman Vincent Kennedy Mcmahon is well known for edgy storylines and wild segments. His out-of-the-box thinking once went next level when Vince wanted to put The Rock against a bear in a wrestling match for the Wall Street Show.
Mr. Mcmahon recently made his shocking return to the ring at WrestleMania 38. The 76-year-old owner once came up with the most bizarre idea in pro wrestling. He wanted to book The Rock VS Bear in the squared circle.
The year 2000 marked the beginning of a whole new era with guys like Stone Cold Steve Austin, Kurt Angle, The Rock, and Triple H. During this time, the company joined the New York Stock Exchange and set up a wrestling ring.
On the ‘Something to Wrestle’ podcast‘, WWE executive, Bruce Prichard said that Vince wanted to set up a ring in the middle of Wall Street and have matches at noon that would be streamed live on WWF.com
While the idea of watching The Rock dropping a ‘People’s Elbow’ on a grizzly is tempting, it was also inconceivable and dangerous.
“I want The Rock to wrestle a bear”
Bruce said:
“Vince wanted to put a ring in the middle of Wall Street. Shut Wall Street down and put a ring there, and have matches at noon. Huge spectacle, we’re gonna go live on WWF.com.
So it’s like, okay, cool. I thought he was just kind of telling me this. So I knew that “Okay, we need to put on a show, we need to come up with something”,
‘But what he was telling me was, “Hey, I want to do this, get it done”.
As he trails off, he goes, “And I want a bear. I want The Rock to wrestle a bear”. The Bramha Bull versus the bear’.
The idea was indeed impractical as it could cause insurgency from the animal rights activists and invite trouble to the company and the media would have had a field day. Moreover, no man is a match for a bear.
“So anyway, as we’re getting closer to this, the idea becomes, “Well, do you really want a bear hanging around the New York Stock Exchange the day your stock goes public?”
“Well, the bear was out today on the New York Stock Exchange”.
‘No, you don’t want that. You want the Brahma Bull.’” He added.
Fortunately, no animals were harmed that night and the show was a huge success.