How The Rock Killed Billy Gunn's Singles Push In WWE With A Single Promo, Explained
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Billy Gunn is one of those names in professional wrestling that is a relatively big deal, but never got past a certain level in the WWE or anywhere else. It's not for a lack of trying either as the company gave him many singles runs, but none of them seemed to work out. He's a legendary figure in the industry, but more for character work, longevity, the ability to stay relevant, and of course, tag team wrestling. However, that singles opportunity always just seemed so slightly out of reach. In 1999, he got the closest he would ever get to being a successful singles star, but would be cut off at the knees due to one promo of The Great One himself, The Rock.
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Billy Gunn's Push Kicked Off When He Won The 1999 King Of The Ring
In 1999, DX officially disbanded. Triple H and Billy Gunn had turned heel, and with Triple H already an established singles star, the higher ups thought that Billy Gunn deserved a push with his impressive physique and dazzling charisma.
With that, Billy Gunn won that year's King of the Ring, and at this point, winning the King of the Ring actually did mean something, so it seemed like the WWE was all in on Gunn at the point.
The Rock Destroys Billy Gunn In One Promo
It was a July episode of Sunday Night Heat of all places. Heat was the late 90s, early 2000s version of Main Event. The show where the bottom of the card guys, potential call-ups, or tryouts go to compete. However, at this point, Heat was only on for less than a year, and the company was still trying to treat the show as a big deal, therefore they had people like The Rock come out. The Rock wouldn't be blamed for not giving it his all on an episode of Heat, but nobody had any idea what was about to come.
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The promo is essential viewing for any and all wrestling fans, and like many of The Rock's promos, it was all in the delivery. He starts the promo by hyping his match with Triple H at that year's Fully Loaded, makes fun of The Game's large nose as he did in those days, and then moves onto Billy Gunn. It was an absolute mauling from The Rock. He talks about how Gunn prayed to God, then got insulted by God, wondered why everyone thought he sucked, started crying, peed his pants, and so on. If that's not enough, this promo was actually the debut of the, "It doesn't matter..." catchphrase, and could still very well have been the best use of it.
Billy Gunn's Feud With The Rock Showed He Wasn't Ready
It's easy to blame that promo for ending the push before it even got started, but there's an argument to make that it was never going to work out. It was all a case of too much too soon. In 1999, The Rock was firmly planted alongside Stone Cold as one of the two top stars in the company, so to throw Gunn into the lions den that quickly wasn't the best idea. Sure enough, Billy Gunn couldn't keep up with The Rock.
It wasn't completely Billy's fault as his booking didn't exactly help him either. His nickname got changed from "Badass" to "Mr. Ass", he was never the greatest on the mic, and the entire feud with The Rock was all about, well, asses. Their blow-off match at SummerSlam was a "Kiss My Ass" match where Gunn brought out an overweight woman so The Rock can kiss her ass, but he's the one who ended up doing that deed. However, even all before the ass stuff getting very uncomfortable, it was very difficult for Billy Gunn to be taken seriously when he was the victim of one of the The Rock's most devastating promos.
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Billy Gunn might have had more luck had he gradually risen up the card instead of going against one of the biggest performers and major stars. Even so, there were still many issues, and according to Bruce Prichard, The Rock didn't want to work with Gunn. He didn't like it, and it wasn't a case of The Rock thinking he's a big shot, but more so like, he didn't think Gunn was ready, and he didn't like how he was tasked with getting Gunn over as a singles star.
In the end, The Rock was proven correct as the feud between the two and the match at SummerSlam was an abject failure, and not just because of the promo. The Rock destroyed many top stars in promos, and never their opportunities. No one was taking Gunn that seriously anyway even as King of the Ring, and he obviously could've clawed his way into relevancy, but it would've been quite difficult. It's hard to imagine Billy Gunn as a top star, especially at the time, but it's not like it ruined his career as he is now in a very over act with The Acclaimed in AEW.
