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The Rock at Survivor Series: A career defined in three moments
Survivor Series stretches so far back into WWE history that it sits behind only WrestleMania in the pantheon of pay-per-view events. Over the course of three decades, Survivor Series has featured an abundance of iconic moments -- the starts of careers, the ends of eras and some of the most shocking matches the WWE has ever had. But the career that changed the most at Survivor Series, and in turn helped shape the history of the event as much as anyone ever has, is that of The Rock. There were moments throughout his WWE tenure that continue to resonate, but three major phases of the Great One's career were largely defined by moments that took place at Survivor Series. Let's start at the very beginning.
Survivors Series 1996: The dawn of a brilliant career at MSG
He teamed up with Jake "The Snake" Roberts, Marc Mero and The Stalker (one of Barry Windham's alternate personas) to take on Triple H, Goldust, Crush and Jerry "The King" Lawler. Despite the talent featured in the match, this was The Rock's showcase. After eliminating Crush and Goldust, The Rock was the sole survivor for his team in his debut match -- a hell of a way to begin the Hall of Fame-worthy career that ensued.
Survivor Series 1998: A Coporate champ is born
The Rock became a cool bad guy as part of The Nation, but in the lead-up to Survivor Series 1998, he was seemingly positioned as an anti-establishment good guy trying to make the McMahons' lives a living hell. That all changed in the closing moments of the 1998 Survivor Series, in a moment that took him to an entirely different level.
Survivor Series 2011: The comeback begins
The charisma that The Rock had on display throughout his WWE career reached such unprecedented levels that Hollywood called, and The Rock answered in a big way. He'd eventually become the highest-paid actor in the world, but the earliest stages of that transition began as far back as 2002. As 2003 arrived, The Rock slowly began cutting back on his regular WWE schedule and ultimately began to appear more sporadically until WrestleMania 20 on March 14, 2004 -- his final in-ring action for more than seven years.
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