The Rock became a legendary figure for WWE when showing his charisma and athleticism to the world. WWE viewed Rock as a major prospect from his start as the third-generation talent growing up in the business. Rock struggled at the start before turning heel to find his identity. Once he got over, the fans loved him enough to force a face turn.
A big difference between Rock and his all-time great peers like Steve Austin and Hulk Hogan was that he lost cleanly more than one would expect. Rock loved to put his all into making another talent look strong if he was going to lose. Quite a few names benefited from the wins while others made WWE regret it. The following wrestlers all defeated Rock cleanly in WWE.
10 Mick Foley
The Rock and Mick Foley had one of the best rivalries in WWE history. Both wrestlers found success in dangerous match stipulations like the I Quit match, Last Man Standing match, Empty Arena match and many other hardcore matches.
Foley was the perfect face to feud with Rock during Rock’s time as the leader of The Corporation. The clean wins for Foley helped him get over at the highest level. Foley reached the tier with Rock and Steve Austin when scoring clean victories over Rock.
9 Owen Hart
The start of The Rock’s career featured the fans not connecting with him. Rock’s face act was too generic for the time and WWE realized they needed to make a change. Owen Hart was the one to defeat Rocky to end his first Intercontinental Championship.
The finish saw Owen scoring a clean roll-up to score the victory and win the title. Owen brought the Intercontinental Championship to the Hart Foundation with the victory. Rock transitioned into the heel character shortly after which saved his career.
8 Randy Orton
Evolution vs The Rock and Sock Connection was one of the top attraction matches for WrestleMania 20. The trio of Randy Orton, Batista and Ric Flair faced off with the two legends when Rock had his final WWE match before taking a seven-year break.
Orton and Mick Foley had a great rivalry that set up this match on the biggest stage. The pin fall of Orton on Foley won the match cleanly for Evolution. Many wrestlers at Rock’s level would have refused to lose cleanly even without being pinned, but he was fine with it.
7 Steve Austin
The legendary rivalry between The Rock and Steve Austin saw them both playing just about every character role. Austin failing to cleanly beat Rock caused his heel turn in 2001 in the infamous WrestleMania 17 main event.
WrestleMania 15 was the first major attraction match between the two at a high level. Austin won cleanly as the face to continue his run as the face of the company. Rock ultimately replaced him in that role by the end of the year.
6 The Dudley Boyz
Triple H and Stephanie McMahon gaining power in WWE saw them making life difficult for The Rock as their biggest rival. One brutal booking saw Rock forced to face the Dudley Boyz in a handicap tables match.
The situation was unfair for Rock, but he didn’t try to politic out of taking the clean defeat like many others would have. Bubba Ray and D-Von using the advantage to hit the 3D finisher through the table scored them the win over Rock.
5 Triple H
WWE found great success from The Rock and Triple H feuding in 1998 with the D-Generation X vs Nation of Domination storyline. Triple H played a face for the first time in WWE getting fan support during his rise to the top.
Rock found his first great success in WWE during this time as a heel. The program saw Triple H having a few clean victories over Rock with the biggest win coming at Summerslam 1998 in a ladder match to win the Intercontinental Championship.
4 Davey Boy Smith
The mid-card picture for WWE in 1997 featured a few fun matchups that flew under the radar. Davey Boy Smith and The Rock had an underrated match on Raw during their time in the Hart Foundation and Nation of Domination factions.
Rock was gaining momentum around this time, but he was still able to lose matches cleanly as a heel without being hurt. Smith hit the running powerbomb out of a reverse to score the clean victory over a future legend.
3 John Cena
WWE made huge profits off The Rock vs John Cena rivalry at WrestleMania 28 and WrestleMania 29 when Rock returned as a Hollywood star. Rock winning the first match at WM 28 surprised fans since the younger star often goes over the legend.
The plan was always to have a rematch the following year for the WWE Championship. Rock defeated CM Punk to win the title, but he dropped it to Cena cleanly to put him over. Cena scored a career-defining victory over Rock without any controversy.
2 Goldberg
Goldberg received a huge program when entering WWE setting up a dream match with The Rock. WWE signed Goldberg about two years after WCW ended and many fans were ecstatic about him facing off with new stars.
Rock was playing his Hollywood heel character and was coming off his WrestleMania 19 win over Steve Austin. Goldberg started his WWE career with a clean victory over Rock. Despite playing a heel, fans preferred Rock and cheered for him. Goldberg didn’t benefit much from the win even with Rock doing everything to help him out.
1 Brock Lesnar
The biggest moment of The Rock cleanly losing a match came in the main event of Summerslam 2002. WWE was all in on the rookie Brock Lesnar and placed him into a huge match for the WWE Championship just over four months into his debut.
Rock did his best to pit over Brock and make him look like the new top star. Lesnar scoring the clean victory over a legend to win the top prize on a major show that early into his career was huge. WWE made Brock a superstar thanks to Rock being unselfish.