Jonathan Coachman says you’d be hard-pressed to find a better hour of pro wrestling than the amazing spectacle we got from The Rock and Hulk Hogan at WrestleMania X8.
Coachman spoke with The Wrestling Chatter podcast and talked about what it was like getting to work with The Rock as well as his thoughts on the epic Wrestlemania X8 match. Coach was part of many great WWE moments but he called that a remarkable moment and it’s one of the few times he came out to the arena floor to watch for himself. Coach says The Rock’s perceived trash talk was actually him calling things on the fly and watching him perform at that level was an incredible thing to watch unfold.
“I will say to this day is the single greatest hour of pro wrestling and sports entertainment in the history of sports entertainment. And I know there has been a lot of great ones, but it’s one of two or three times that I can remember, and the other one is Triple H’s return in Madison Square Garden, that I actually walked out onto the floor to watch it with my own two eyes. And to know the greatness of The Rock and Hogan had nothing to do with this—I don’t mind Hogan, he’s just not my favorite person, I mean we get along but we’ve never been friends—but to watch them work for a week and put this match together, these two mega powers in the sport of wrestling, from two different generations, and then to watch the crowd turn and not do what we expected them to do. And then for having The Rock be smart enough to change it while they were standing in the ring, and people thought they were talking trash to each other.
“In reality, The Rock was changing it, because there are certain things you can do as a babyface and you can’t do as a heel and there are certain things you can do as a heel, that you can’t do as a babyface. To watch the brilliance in that moment, that was not too big for him because a lot of people don’t understand when you’re on national worldwide television, you know the red light’s on, you know there’s 80,000 people there and you know there’s millions watching at home, that can be overwhelming from an anxiety perspective, nerves, and only a few people can really handle it. For The Rock to be in the moment, and to hear and to understand, and to feel, and to be able to change it, was nothing short of remarkable and the show should have ended right there.”
Coachman pointed out that some people forget there was another match on after that and Rock vs. Hogan should have gone on last. Chris Jericho versus Triple H was the final match that night and even Jericho himself has said he was disappointed in the match placement. Jericho told Inside The Ropes in 2019 that he knew Rock vs. Hogan should have closed and he’s never watched his match back because it was a bit disappointing for him, knowing they couldn’t follow what Rock and Hogan had just done.
Check out Coachman’s full interview below:
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