Rock was never an underdog, though. Just because he'd lose more often than any other top guy didn't mean he was an underdog. It was still always a surprise when he did drop a fall to anyone, and I don't think he ever lost entirely clean as face top guy. There was always some kind of fukkery involved even if it was something as simple as a low blow or a manager tripping his foot.
Rock got knocked around quite a bit as a face. And while he usually won at the PPV, he jobbed a lot on TV. Was he ever really an underdog? No, he was the face of the company.
But was he presented to us like an underdog? Absolutely. It was really booked like that all the way until he faced Brock at SS02.
I think fukkery sort of strengthens my argument, it made it sort of seem like him vs the world.
He was also arguably the best seller of that era, so everything looked like it fukked him up.