The Rock has finally, officially announced his retirement from the squared circle and so it is now safe to look back on his career as a whole. A man who experienced the highest of highs and lowest of lows in perhaps the quickest time of anyone, and he had plenty of both. This can also be said of his Wrestlemania matches, achieving moments of unsurpassed immortality and turning in a couple of stinkers as well.

As with his movie career, The Rock is usually fun to watch but sometimes even he can't save things. So let's see which Wrestlemania matches of his were Fast 5 and which ones were The Toothfairy.

RELATED:CM Punk: 10 WrestleMania Main Event Match-Ups Fans Would Love To See

The classic nobody saw com.... oh, it's over? Well, nevermind. The Rock tearing off his pants to reveal his ring gear was cool. There were a few minutes of quality banter, 6 seconds of unblemished action, and a hot crowd.

This one has not aged well. Michael Cole 3 minutes in declares it the greatest main event in Wrestlemania history and it's that type of overblown hype that sums this entire thing up. Watching all these matches close together you see The Rock's badly degraded ring prowess and John Cena's inability to make up the difference. Age comes for everyone and despite his immaculate physique, Rock is either not in 'ring-shape' or has severe 'ring-rust'. Lengthy, boring headlocks, bearhugs (a lying down bearhug at that), and slow plodding action sucks the crowd right down almost from the bell.

RELATED: 5 Classic Wrestling Weapons (& 5 Terrible Ones)

Only Cena's perpetual divisive relationship with the fans keeps them involved when things mildly pick up in the latter stages. Cena's mockery of an STF takes up most of the endgame until a quick flurry of action and finisher spams closes things out. Cole was also in career-low form with the over-praising here. Only crowd volume and bells and whistles can bamboozle this effort into seeming more than what it sadly was. 4/10

The Rock's, or Rocky Maivia's in this case, first Wrestlemania match isn't much to write home about. Hints of the soon-to-be ubiquitous 'Rocky Sucks' chants can be heard every few minutes. Weirdly, a 4-man commentary booth of Vince, JR, The King, and Honky Tonk Man flooded the audio side of things with mostly distracting bickering. Rocky has one of the most hilariously bad punch wind-ups in wrestling history that does his father's version no justice.

RELATED:WWE: Ranking Every 2019 PPVs Main Event From Worst To Best

Vince praises Rocky's heritage ironically while his cousin Rikishi is portraying The Sultan right next to him. Finally, it ended on a terrible roll-up that made everyone involved look bad. The biggest cheer this got was the post-match beatdown of The Sheik by Rocky and his dad..... Rocky. 5/10

Once In A Lifetime 2: Electrifying Rapadoo! Well, it holds up better than the first. Rock is clearly in better ring shape for this one and now that they've got the first one out of the way there's some good callbacks and more advanced grappling here. The best parts come when Cena realizes the crowd isn't on his side and he plays it up.

You also can't tell that The Rock detached his abdominal muscles from his hip bones and that's got to count for something. An improved effort and thankfully so for The Rock. His last proper match and not a bad one. 6/10

A hot match with a fast start had Rock and Shamrock brawling up and down the entryway. Once back in the ring Shamrock took out a ref, took a sickening chairshot to the skull, then proceeded to wreck shop. The match ended abruptly with Shamrock tapping The Rock out to his Ankle Lock, but that was far from the end.

For the second year in a row, the post-match outclassed the bell-to-bell action, as Shamrock rampaged through The Nation members, referees, and The Rock a second time leaving him bloody and battered. Unfortunately, it got the match overturned so Rock could keep the Intercontinental championship, but it net-improved the overall rating. 6.5/10

The 'McMahon in every corner' situation that ultimately worked against this match's quality. Big Show is rushed out of the match as if he wasn't needed at all, Mick Foley gets a good moment to shine but is similarly ousted. It was all quite good up to there, but it overloads badly in the endgame.

RELATED: 5 WWE Stars That Will Become Main Eventers in the 2020s (& 5 That Will Fall Off)

Rock and Triple H, amid the looming McMahon shenanigans (hereafter named the all too common 'McManigans'), can't bring it all together. Noteworthy, but because of the complete mess of an ending and big expectations, ultimately disappointing. 6.5/10

Rock teamed with Mick Foley to take on 3/4 of Evolution and it was a lot of fun. A flurry of action from beginning to end, punctuated with hilarious moments from Flair and Rock having something of a 'charisma fight' in between everything else makes it well worth a re-watch.

The ending comes rather abruptly and would lead to the equally good match between Foley and Orton at Backlash, but this fills it's spot on the card well. 7.5/10

The Rock and Austin complete their trilogy with The Rock finally getting to defeat Austin at Wrestlemania. His Hollywood Rock persona now fully realized, he preened his way to the victory while also slyly giving Austin a great match to end his career on. It wasn't quite as good as the others but those are incredibly high bars to hit. The best parts involved Rock indulging in his Hollywood bravado mid-match, stealing Austin's vest and mocking the crowd throughout.

A finisher-fest closed it out and if you look closely you can see it in both Rock and Austin's demeanors that they knew this was their last go-round, Rock as a full-timer and Austin to this day. 7.5/10

The first match of his Wrestlemania trilogy with Stone Cold Steve Austin and it's great stuff. Nobody matched these guys when it came to living their parts and every second they're in the ring together, it's magic. Rock wouldn't even let Austin perform his pre-match ritual without getting in his face, and that heightened everything before the bell even rang.

The match's best element is its constant uptempo pace. It never lets you relax, only taking a short chinlock in the middle almost like a strangely classy intermission. Besides that, it's a wild brawling first half followed by a hardcore feast with just the right amount of McManigans on top to bring it home. 9/10

Still hailed as the 'best' Wrestlemania of all time and a main event that ensures it will always be in that discussion. The Rock and Stone Cold went at it for the second time and used that for all it was worth.

RELATED: The 5 Best Wrestling News Stories In 2019 (& The 5 Worst)

Callbacks to their first match, to other Wrestlemania matches like Austin's classic with Bret Hart, to the sudden No Disqualification wrinkle all played major parts in this brilliant contest. The McMahon-centric ending may not have been to everyone's liking but it made sense in the grand scheme of things. A momentous sophomore effort from these two. 9/10

For years the talk was all about Hollywood Hogan and Stone Cold coming together, or Goldberg and Stone Cold, but we should've known better. The Rock's now-cemented world-class charisma against Hogan's magnetic presence came together and blew the roof off the Toronto Skydome. Sticklers who cite the lack of technical wrestling hold little sway against the magnitude of Rock and Hogan merely trading stares as the stadium rumbles around them.

Peak JR on commentary provided near-perfect accompaniment to a match that ended exactly when it should've. Hogan's return to Wrestlemania provoked a proper 'Once In A Lifetime' reaction and their reversal of the heel/face dynamic on the fly proved masterful. 9.5/10

NEXT:5 Superstars Who Should Face The Fiend (& 5 Who Shouldn't)

Tags:wrestlemania,The Rock

Go here to see the original:

Every WrestleMania Match Of The Rock, Ranked From Worst To Best - TheSportster