Before Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson was a blockbuster movie star, he was one of WWE's most beloved wrestlers. Recently, a new GIF surfaced from a Twitter fan account that featured one of The Rock's most infamous "The People's Elbows," and Johnson explained just how that particular move became so iconic.The Twitter account @90sWWE posted the GIF of Johnson performing his signature move with the caption, "This will forever be mesmerizing." The image showed Johnson in street clothes giving the People's Elbow to British Bulldog Davey Boy Smith, and you can see why he calls this one "the people's glide."
You can see Johnson slide a little before he goes in for the drop, and he explained it wasn't necessarily intentional. The combination of residue on the mat and the lack of traction on his dress shoes caused the effect that, although accidental, turned out to be one of the coolest moments in wrestling history.
The match in question took place September 20th, 1999, a popular time for the televised wrestling show. It originally featured a WWF Championship match between Triple H and the British Bulldog, and Johnson was meant to be the guest referee. However, he barely fulfilled that role and wound up intervening in the match.
Even though Johnson officially retired from wrestling in 2013 after his match with John Cena, he remains sporadically active in the sport, and has appeared on Smackdown as recently as October 2019.
WWE Smackdown on Fox airs live every Friday night at 8:00 pm ET.