The Rock’s most famous move exists because a locker room could not make one man laugh.
Asked on Insight with Chris Van Vliet whether the People’s Elbow was built to break him, The Undertaker said it was, and put the first attempt somewhere off television.
Yes, I think there was another conspiracy at the time to do something, so the guys did something really hokey. I think it actually started in a dark match somewhere.
He was the target for years.
For a while there, it really became the thing to do to try to get me to break character. But what else would that be for? That’s the hokiest looking thing in the business.
Triple H has told the story from the other side more than once. He said on TMZ Sports that six-man tags involving himself, Rock, Steve Austin, Mick Foley and Kane would turn into extended attempts to crack Calaway, and that Johnson tried the elbow during one of them. On High Performance, he added that somebody dared Rock to do it on television, the crowd bit, he did it again, and the reaction got bigger.
Undertaker’s dark match detail sits slightly differently. Triple H has variously placed it at house shows and live events. Records point to a house show in Montreal on March 6, 1998.
Nobody managed it. Undertaker’s refusal to break character was a locker room fixture, to the point that Booker T could not get a spinaroonie out of him after Raw went off the air.
Johnson has said he took the idea from Dusty Rhodes and the Bionic Elbow. What started as a failed prank became the move he is still asked to perform.
