Profile #66: Don Muraco

Forget about that other guy; the original Rock is none other than Don “The Rock” Muraco. A native of Sunset Beach, Hawaii, Muraco's first moniker was simply the Magnificent Muraco. Nicknames aside, perhaps the most important thing to note about Muraco was a protruding, wormlike vein that pulsed in his upper left shoulder area. In retrospect, some 20+ years later, I'm still not sure what [if any] significance that vein has for me, only that it haunts me in my dreams.

Don Morrow was an amateur state wrestling champion in his youth, who chose to become a professional wrestler rather than follow his dreams of becoming a professional football player. After moving from Sunset Beach to the continental United States, Muraco entered Verne Gagne's AWA territory in Minnesota, teaming with "Superfly" Jimmy Snuka [See Profile #201]. After several years of bouncing around, Muraco would eventually land in the WWF, where he would stay for the better part of a decade and make an indelible mark on the industry, showcasing his sometimes-impressive-sometimes-doughy physique and understated humor to an industry laden with the trappings of the small-town and the obtuse.

It's clear that Muraco experimented with a regimen of anabolic steroids, recreational drugs (read: a lot of marijuana), and probably psychedelics (Muraco owned a variety of tie-dyed shirts and sunglasses, which clearly equals psychedelic). Anyway, he gave one of the all-time funniest interviews ever while shoveling down near a dozen donuts. If this doesn't convince you Muraco was blazed out of his mind, I don't know what will:




Couple of important things about The Rock, which most lay fans don't know: (1) he was the first King of the Ring champion ever, and (2) his finisher was an inverted piledriver that most now attribute to the Undertaker's Tombstone Piledriver finisher (Undertaker blatantly aped Muraco's innovative finisher, of course).

Rock always seemed to have a strange dichotomy: part beach bum/surfer, part musclehead. He was a legimitately funny, good-natured guy, but also a real-life tough guy. One of the old breed who never transitioned (due to age) over to the "new" style and persona of today's wrestlers. Which, in my humble opinion, is a good thing.

He feuded with all the great names, from Snuka to Tito Santana [See Profile #1,021] to Ricky "The Dragon" Steamboat [See Profile #441]. In his myriad bouts against Steamboat, Muraco enlisted the help of Mr. Fuji, and they actually had a parody video together, "Fuji Vice," which underscored the WWF's hyperbolic bent on wrestling at that time. Again, I'm convinced Muraco was absolutely stoned out of his gourd during this entire bit:







Where is he now? After returning to his native Hawaii, Muraco was an on-screen commentator for a small wrestling organization until 2006. He also worked for a time as a longshoreman.