The Public Enemy (professional wrestling)

The Public Enemy
The Public Enemy, Rocco Rock (left) & Johnny Grunge (right)
Tag team
Members	Johnny Grunge Rocco Rock
Name(s)	The Public Enemy The South Philly Posse
Heights	6 ft 3 in (1.91 m) – Grunge 6 ft 2 in (1.88 m) – Rock
Combined weight	514 lb (233 kg)
Debut	1993
Disbanded	2002
Years active	1993–2002
Promotions	ECW NWA UWF WCW WWF XWF

The Public Enemy was a professional wrestling tag team consisting of Rocco Rock and Johnny Grunge. The duo competed in many promotions, including Extreme Championship Wrestling (ECW), World Championship Wrestling (WCW), National Wrestling Alliance (NWA), and the World Wrestling Federation (WWF). They won the World Tag Team Championships in each company except WWF.

Their name was taken from a black and white gangster film, and prior to becoming a team, Rocco Rock and Johnny Grunge had a long-standing feud on the independent circuit. In addition, the two wrestled each other under their former ring names the Cheetah Kid and Johnny Rotten in a dark match at the first TV tapings for WWF Monday Night Raw on January 11, 1993, eight months before they would debut as a tag team in ECW. In September 2002, Rocco Rock died after a heart attack. Johnny Grunge died almost four years later, in February 2006, from sleep apnea complications.

The Public Enemy made their ECW debut in September 1993 at UltraClash, as booker Paul Heyman gave them the gimmick of white guys who embraced and loved the growing hip hop culture of America. Heyman has stated that he got the inspiration to create The Public Enemy from a Newsweek article about the cultural changes occurring in America and the difficulty for young men living in places like Los Angeles during the early 1990s, with a quote that stated "The generation of today is more afraid of living than dying".