So… the Rock was the most electrifying man in sports entertainment. And after the success of Mick Foley’s first autobiography Have A Nice Day, it only made sense that the Rock should also pen a book of his exploits. This came out in 2000… and it’s only fitting that I’d do a review on this thing roughly ten years later and see how well it holds up.
Spoiler: it doesn’t.
Whereas Foley wrote his book entirely by his own hand – literally, as he had written the words longhand since he didn’t have a computer – The Rock Says is definitely a product of ghost-written stodge. I wouldn’t call it an outright terrible book. I did enjoy reading about Dwayne Johnson’s early struggles with football and the early days of his then-short wrestling career, but at times, the book comes off as dry reading. I might’ve enjoyed this back then, but reading it again today, it does feel a bit like someone wrote a quick bio and filled it with more words to turn it into a book.
The book also has a weird gimmick going for it towards the latter half. For the most part, it’s something of a straight-laced autobio from the humble Dwayne Johnson. But once we get to the part where the Rock was on the rise, we go from the humble bits to THE ROCK TAKING OVER. This is denoted by a different font and the narrative being written as though the Rock was cutting a promo on WWF television. I’ll say this much; the idea of THE ROCK writing a book in this fashion is kinda funny and I’ll admit to getting a couple chuckles at the concept. Eventually, the gimmick wore out its welcome and pretty much ruined what could’ve been an interesting look into the fastest rising star in sports entertainment.
For what it’s worth, I thought it was an entertaining light read for the first half of the book and then the rest of the book where it goes into Rock mode… yeah, I like the Rock. He has a gift for gab that will never be matched… but it doesn’t make for a good read.
dtm666 