In the year 2000, few people ruled entertainment quite like Conan O’Brien and The Rock. (In fact, if you’re a Conan fan, you can only hear “in the year 2000” in one way). Conan O’Brien was one of the kings of late night with Late Night with Conan O’Brien, and The Rock was the biggest star in WWE. At the 2000 Royal Rumble, their paths would cross in a way, not in a match, but with The Rock using one of Conan’s lines to create a new catchphrase. So just how was Conan O’Brien able to reach the Great One?
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The Rock’s Career Has Been Filled With Iconic Catchphrases
SmackDown Is Named After One Of His Lines
- The Rock got over with fans by insulting everyone in his path.
- One promo destroyed Billy Gunn’s rise as a singles star.
- No wrestler has as many famous promo lines as The Rock.
“Stone Cold” Steve Austin and The Rock carried WWE’s Attitude Era. While the Texas Rattlesnake was the ass-kicking, beer-drinking badass, the Brahma Bull was cool because he could cut down anyone with just a simple sentence. If you don’t believe that, ask Billy Gunn about how a single Rock promo destroyed his singles career.
The Rock created many iconic catchphrases during his WWE run. “Layeth the smack down” was used so often that it became the name for WWE’s second show in 1999. But there was also lines such as “One on one with the great one”, “know your role and shut your mouth”, and, of course, “If you smell what The Rock is cooking.” There’s also another one that didn’t get repeated but which was quite effective when it was said. And The Rock stole it straight from Conan O’Brien.
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One Of Conan O’Brien’s Writers Left To Work For WWE
Tommy Blacha Told Conan To Watch The 2000 Royal Rumble
- The Rock has been a guest on Conan O’Brien’s talk shows.
- One of Conan’s writers, Tommy Blacha, left to go to WWE after Vince Russo went to WCW.
- Blacha gave The Rock one of Conan’s jokes to use.
The Rock has been a guest on Conan O’Brien’s talk shows many times, especially during his acting career, but he didn’t get one of his catchphrases that way. Instead, it was from one of Conan’s writers. O’Brien told the story on The Howard Stern Show in 2022. He spoke about the different writers he hired, with one being named Tommy Blacha. Conan recalled how Tommy went straight to the military out of high school before praising his work as a comedy writer. O’Brien continued:
“He left our show to go work for the World Wrestling Federation, and this is one of my proudest moments in comedy is, I used to screw around with the writers a lot, and I would put on the attitude of kind of like this larger than life, I’d come into the room, and I’d be like ‘Quiet down you idiots.’ You know, and I would go on these long rants, and one of my put-downs that I came up with that was so stupid, but I liked it was, I told, if a writer was going on, or said something I didn’t like, I’d say, ‘Why don’t you go have a nice tall glass of shut up juice.”
Conan knew it was a dumb line but both he and Tommy Blacha liked it. Blacha left Conan’s show to join WWE and work with Brian Gewirtz as a Creative Director when Vince Russo and Ed Ferrara left to go ruin WCW in 1999. Now, it was the year 2000, and Tommy called up Conan to tell him to watch the Royal Rumble.
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The Rock’s “Shut Up Juice” Line Came From Conan
The Rock Insulted Michael Cole Backstage At The Royal Rumble
- Fans held “Shut up juice” posters in the crowd the next week.
- Conan loved that his joke was used by The Rock on WWE TV.
- The Rock went on to win the Royal Rumble match.
O’Brien did as he was told and watched the Royal Rumble. During a backstage segment, The Rock had an encounter with the interviewer, Michael Cole. Cole might be a legendary and respected commentator now, but in 2000, when he wasn’t filling in for Jim Ross on commentary, he was the dorky backstage guy who constantly got made fun of, especially by The Rock. Cole had a microphone in The Rock’s face when suddenly, as he often did, the Great One interrupted Cole, took his microphone, and, staring right at him, said:
“Well, The Rock says this. You should be concerned with fixing yourself a nice tall glass of shut up juice!”
The crowd in the arena roared, loving the line. The next week on Raw, Tommy told Conan to watch again, so he did, only to see fans holding signs that repeating the “shut up juice” line. Conan continued:
“Tommy was, apologizing, ‘You know, I know I borrowed–.’ What are you talking about? Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson said it, Vince McMahon gave you a high five. I was in heaven.”
Later in the night, The Rock won the main event royal rumble match (even if he botched it), securing a championship match at WrestleMania. I’m not saying that The Rock won because he found a renewed energy due to using Conan O’Brien’s line, but I’m not saying he didn’t either.
