The Rock Says Harvey Wippleman Is Responsible For Iconic Wrestling Word

By Eric Mutter

There's a certain pro wrestling figure that The Rock thinks about when he sees the throwback WWE Smackdown logo, and it's 100% not who you'd expect.

Responding to a WWE on Fox tweet asking who first came to mind when seeing the original Smackdown logo, The Rock revealed that it was none other than former WWE manager Harvey Wippleman. Furthermore, The Rock revealed Wippleman was the one who coined the word Smackdown.

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"Easy answer. C'mon WWE," The Rock tweeted. "The superstar who this show was named after. The superstar responsible for 'Smackdown' officially becoming a word in the Merriam Webster dictionary. And that superstar is...Harvey Wippleman aka Downtown Bruno!"

Debuting in 1979 as a teenager, Harvey Wippleman originally rose to fame as the manager Downtown Bruno in Memphis and other southern territories in the 1980s. Joining WWE in 1991, he would work in the company as a manager and road agent for years, even winning the WWE Women's Championship in 2000 under disguise as Hervina.

In the past The Rock has been very complimentary of Wippleman, praising the former manager for helping him early in his career and even giving him a place to live. Rock also gifted Wippleman with a brand new car back in 2020. Wippleman himself has kept busy, being elected alderman in his hometown of Walls, Mississippi.

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Wippleman has also been a character represented on the popular NBC show Young Rock.

You can see The Rock's tweet below.

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