If he wrestles good matches elsewhere, that has no baring on his awful, awful work in the WWE. And his mic work is terrible as well. The fans seem to pop for absolute shit. They pop for Hornswoggle too. And to finish this off, he finishing maneuver is putting a snake puppet on his hand and poking people. Enough said.
He was good when he wasn't a comedy character in WWE in 2007. Plus, if he can get better on sheer character alone and have the fans cheering for him, that's just a good thing. Just look at the Attitude Era midcarders if you don't believe me. And I'm not going argue against The Cobra. I find it just as ridiculous as you do, but I can't help that. SURELY, if they plan on giving him a lengthy reign, they'll give him some other finisher.
Anyways, Rock promo was pretty good. It was a little 'eh' but it does it's job. I liked the cologne comment personally and the part about ding, ding, ding, time to get your ass kicked.