WWE's Bruce Prichard reveals who came up with the idea of 'The Rock speak' and Nation Of Domination

Do you know whose idea it was to make The Rock talk in third person on WWE? The famous "The Rock says" line, according to Bruce Prichard was Jim Ross's idea.

Speaking on the 20<sup>th episode of Something To Wrestle With Bruce Prichard, the former WWE producer said that the then upcoming wrestler began talking about himself in the third person after he returned to the ring in Nation Of Domination following an injury.

"Well, everybody had high hopes for him in the early days by taking his dad's name and his grandfather's name, Rocky Johnson and Peter Maivia, making him Rocky Maivia, and I'll never forget [Jim] Cornette, 'give him a goddamn f*****g name! Rocky Maivia'," Prichard said. (Via WrestlingInc)

"And it was when he came back from injury and went into the Nation of Domination and that's where he emerged as a heel. And it started with The Rock stuff, which, by the way, the whole Rock speak, 'The Rock says', talking about himself in third person, that was something that Jim Ross came up with."

Prichard also revealed that it was WWE Hall of Famer Ernie Ladd who came up with the idea for Nation Of Domination.

"Originally, I believe [The Nation Of Domination] was Ernie Ladd's idea. Yeah, Ernie consulted with us. Ernie, from time to time, would come up with some good ideas, good perspective," Prichard said.

Speaking about why nobody wanted to work with Ahmed Johnson, he noted, "I don't think that Ahmed was Ron's [Simmons] favorite opponent. Ron really wanted to help Ahmed; however, Ahmed could be difficult at times. He felt he knew better and was fairly stiff at times. And he wasn't stiff to Ron Simmons, I can tell you that. He had a reputation for being stiff. I don't know how many people he hurt, but he stiffed people and people didn't like working with him because he was stiff."