History of WWE
The two top stars of the Attitude Era, Stone Cold Steve Austin and The Rock, eventually left the company in 2003 and 2004 respectively, while newcomers such as Brock Lesnar, who would become the youngest WWE Champion and Randy Orton, who became the youngest World Heavyweight Champion, saw huge success. Triple H would also be featured prominently during this time, winning several of his fourteen world championships, as would The Undertaker whose WrestleMania win streak started gaining fame. Eddie Guerrero, Rey Mysterio, Kurt Angle, Chris Benoit, Edge, Brock Lesnar, Randy Orton, John Cena, Batista, John "Bradshaw" Layfield, and Rob Van Dam were also given main event opportunities and all ended up becoming multiple-time world champions. From mid 2002 to 2003, WWE brought several prominent WCW stars to the company, including Eric Bischoff, Scott Steiner, Goldberg, Kevin Nash and Ric Flair. The Great American Bash, originally a WCW pay-per-view event, made its debut in WWE.
Dwayne Johnson
When he returned, The Rock won the WWE Undisputed Championship at Vengeance on July 21, defeating Kurt Angle and The Undertaker in a triple threat match. The Rock successfully defended the title at Global Warning in Australia against Triple H and Brock Lesnar by pinning Triple H, who saved The Rock when Lesnar attacked him after the match. At SummerSlam on August 25, after interference from Lesnar's manager Paul Heyman and the use of a steel chair, The Rock lost the WWE Championship to Lesnar along with the record for the youngest WWE Champion, which he had set in 1998. In 2018, writing for "ESPN.com", Sean Coyle noted in a retrospective review of the event, that following his victory over Hogan at WrestleMania X8, "The Rock started to see a dip in fan support" and "that dip turned into a plunge in fan support by the time SummerSlam rolled around", because the fans knew his career was headed to Hollywood, as he was met with a negative crowd response during his match against Lesnar. After the event ended, The Rock was visibly angry at the crowd reaction. When he tried to do a post-show speech for the crowd, the fans attending the Nassau Coliseum would still boo him. He eventually cut a promo, declaring that he will still be "The People's Champion", whether the audience likes it or not, and that "sing-along with The Rock is over", before taking a sabbatical from wrestling in order to focus on his film career.